26 day road trip through France. I have spare days, even with

>>1261366
I see you go through the Massif Central, good call it's à beautiful place unknown to most foreigners
I'm on my phone right now but will make a proper post later

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>>1261366
If you want to check out some interesting nature there is the Chaine des Puys and its regional park, a mountain range made up of ancient volcanoes a bit south-west of Clermont-Ferrand
And while you go to Nîmes from Le Puy you should definitely check out the Gorges du Tarn, a river canyon located in the Cévennes national park in the Lozère departement.
I recommend the whole Lozère departement by the way, it's just a bit south of your road and it's a pretty interesting and unknown place to foreigners. It's very mountainous, least densily populated place of the country, many river gorges and scenic places, as well as pretty small towns/villages such as Mende (biggest one), Saint-Chély-du-Tarn, La Garde-Guérin, Nasbinals.
The Aubrac plateau is pretty nice too, I think it looks a lot like some places in northern England.

Then on your way up to Lyon go see Avignon and its Palace of the Popes, and Orange with its Roman amphitheatre. Also the fortified town of Les-Beaux-de-Provence is real close to Arles. It's right on your way so maybe it was already in your mind
The way up from Arles to Lyon isn't very interesting in my opinion, it's the "furrow of the Rhône" as its called, a line of flat land squeezed between the Alps in the east and the Cévennes/Ardèche mountains in the west so it's pretty crowded and industrialized in some places. My point being that by just taking the highway won't make you see much since it just follows the easiest way and not the most interesting, so straying east or west you might find interesting places along the highway, there are also a fuck ton of medieval towns in Ardèche if you are interested.

I didn't comment about the road from Normandie to Clermont because I'm much more familiar with the southern half

And out of curiosity, where are you from ?

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>>1261701
Dumping a few pics of the places I mentionned

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>>1261702

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>>1261703

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>>1261704

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>>1261705

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>>1261706

You have a solid route there.
The Loire Valley is nice, you can look up Fontevraud that has a nice Abbay and Saumur is quite a nice town. Blois isn't bad either.
I used to love Tours (I have studied there for 2 years) but last time I went (3 years ago) I really didn't like the atmosphere. Place is filled with hobos, punks with dogs and it has lost most of its appeal to me.

>>1261701
This is all really great...I have Avignon on my list already. I'm thinking about dropping off the car in Avignon and taking the train from there to Lyon. I'm really only visting Lyon because I have a friend there and I'm interested in the food. I originally had 3 nights there, I may cut that down to two with some of those suggestions in Lozère. Really all of this has been added to my list and I'm probably going to condense other parts of my trip (I was gonna spend a night in St-Malo after Mt Saint Michel, I may just go straight for Dinan) to accomodate it. The natural parks are really the central purpose of the trip, your input on natural sights is greatly appreciated.

I'm from Chicago, this is my first time leaving the country other than going to Canada.

>>1261716
One day of Tours will actually be in Saumur, I'm just condensing the stay in Tours to ease lodging.

>>1261366
How hard is it to visit France if you don't speak french? I want to focus on the countryside, the vineyards and the little villages, not the bigger cities.

>>1261960
It's easy. You will always find someone who can at least understand you. Most of accomodations and sites to visit have either english speaking staff or written guides.

You can learn to read (and write a little) French in about 2 months as an English speaker. The two languages share a ton of vocabulary.

Speaking is another thing entirely and I don't think you can get good at it in less than a year immersing yourself.

>>1261366

I love Corrèze. Such a beautiful area.
A friend of my family used to live there and we'd visit. I'd love to live there someday but as an American I don't see ever being able to immigrate to France.

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>>1262342
True
I would have recommended Corrèze and especially Dordogne to OP if it wasn't such a detour from his route

>>1261366
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcf01OjX3Ag

Can heartily recommend Normandy, and the Bayeux tapestry is right next to it too - all of it is fantastic

>>1261366
French-Flanders (Frans-Vloandern, e gebied in 't noordn van Vrankryk da dêel uut makt van 't Noorderdepartement). I'm Fransch-Vlams and I adivse you to go the French-Flanders. It's like the Netherlands, but then within French borders and you could go to Rijssel and Dowaai after that. Another really good place I like myself is Elsass. There are beautiful cities and nature there. It doesn't matter where you go, just enjoy of the many variations of the landscape.

>>1263732
Ik dacht dat jullie verdwenen waren.

>>1263763
'T Vlams èt gin wettelikke stoatus in Vrankryk, moa nu zyn der verenigiengn die trachtn die toale te doen erleevn. Wel èt de Fransche Regerienge en experiment van drie joar ounderwys van de Vlamsche toale, moa die Vlamsche regerienge èt tegen da experiment geprotesteerd omda zy vindt dat er beter Nederlands zou gegeevn zyn. De jounge Frans-Vloamiegn spreekn Nederlands. D'inweuners van Vloandern zyn Nederlands!

>>1263899
Oui I guess

Where should I stay in Lozére? Merde seems to be the largest city, but that's not saying much.

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>>1265114
>Merde

Kek

Mende is indeed the largest city, if you can call it that with only 11 500 people
To be frank I don't really know, I used to stay at an excellent hotel in Nasbinals that offered traditionnal food, breakfast made of local cheeses, meats, breads etc that was out of this world, I'll ask my dad tomorrow what's the name of the place, I don't recall
Florac might be a good bet as well. It's a "big" town for Lozère, around 2000 people, lovely place, and used to tourists. It's near the Cévennes (the headquarters of the national park are located in Florac castle), and many hikes/kayak/climbing activities start here so it doesn't lack accomodations

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>>1265114
>>1265201

Also there are "burons" all over Lozère, a buron is a traditionnal stone house used for cheesemaking and housing farmers/sheperds, pic related.
Many of those old houses are now also used as restaurants and inns, it's a great choice as they are often in the heart of the countryside and the food is as local as it comes.
However I wouldn't know precisely which one to choose, or how much it costs

By the way while you're in Lozère and surroundings make sure to try the dish called "aligot" if you like cheese

>>1261366
How do people get this type of time off of work?

>>1265294
Depends what you do and in which country
My mother's a teacher in France so she gets 2 months of summer vacations + various weeks along the year

>>1262770
Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIsWH9u_SpU

>>1261366
Normandy funnily enough is quite pretty, the beaches in summer would be great pleasure beaches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIsWH9u_SpU
Plus you have the history surrounding you if you're so inclined

why has noone said annecy??

>>1265294
I take extended leaves of absence twice a year. If my employer gets bitchy about it I just leave. I've got a clean CDL and a ton of maritime certifications, I can find a $50k/year job in like 10 minutes.

Of course my earning potential is capped at maybe $80k/year and automation will probably end the gravy train at some point, but for now it works.

>>1265899
pretty far off route

Fontainebleau just to see the palace and nice little town

I have never been to france. I want to go to France very badly. I speak some French. Here are all the places I've found that I want to go in France:
Paris
Lyon
Caracassonne
Aguille Du midi
Mont St. Michel
Versailles
Chateau du Chambord
loire valley
aix-en provence
strasbourg
Dordogne
Road of the wine (loire river road)
Bordeaux
Albi
Nice
Cannes
Calanques park
Toulouse
Chateau Chenonceau
Chateaudun
Annecy
Saint Malo
Rouen
Rennes
Chartres
Reimes
Nancy
Avignon
bourges
Amiens
tours
correze
Bayeux

Some of them overlap and some are just general regions. My favorite things are old towns and grand cathedrals. I like nature too. Is there anywhere I should add that has an old town or cathedral worth seeing? Anything I should remove that isn't worth going to?

>>1265975
I forgot to add that I like castles and palaces of all types. I have a list like this for almost every country but none are as long as France.

I'll get around to all this one day when I'm rich and famous

>>1265975
I'll make a post for you when I have some time Anon check thé thread later

>>1265990
I'll be waitin

>>1265975
If you're going to St-Malo you must go to Dinan as well.