France 2014: Seven Week Trip to the South of France

Our long awaited 7 week trip to the south of France is finally approaching after having to postpone for a year due to health issues.  We will be there from mid May until end of June, which should provide us with some lovely, not too hot weather, and will be before the summer crowds arrive.  We have arranged a home swap with a couple who live in a little village called Bargemon, which is about 1.5 hours north-west of Nice. We will fly into Paris, rent a car, and take a week to make the trip south, staying at a few towns and villages along the way.
 

After a long red-eye flight, we will be jetlagged and don't want to travel too far.  So on our first night, we will stay about 30 minutes outside of Paris in a village called Barbizon, which is known for its art galleries and scenic forest hikes.  Also in the area is Fontainebleau with its Versaille-like palace, Melun which offers Seine cruises and guided historic walking tours, and Provins, which features architecture from the Middle Ages, such as ramparts, towers, dungeons, and tunnels, as well as Medieval entertainment shows.  These other places sound so interesting that we have decided to return for a few more nights on the way back to Paris. This will also make it an easier drive to the Charles De Gaulle airport for our flight home.

The next day will be spent in Bourges where we will meet up for lunch with some friends that we got to know on a previous home swap in Paris.  We will stay overnight in Bourges so that we can see the light and music show that illuminates the Medieval buildings throughout the village each nightfall throughout the summer.

This will be followed by 4 days in Lyon where we hope to have some good meals, since Lyon is known as the gastronomic food capital of France, if not the world.  I'm looking forward to having the fish quennelle, which is a mixture of creamed fish combined with breadcrumbs and a light egg binding.

After the stop in Lyon, we will finally head to our home swap location in Bargemon, which is situated in the upper Var region.  Bargemon is a tiny Medieval village with population just under 1500, which still retains the remnants of its 9th Century fortified walls.  In fact, our temporary home is actually built into one of these walls.  It is the perfect location from which to take day trips since it is relatively close to coastal towns and cities like Saint-Tropez, Frejus, Cannes, Biot, Nice and Eze, perched villages in the interior such as Gourdon, Saint-Paul de-Vence, Tourettes, and the villages around the Gorge du Verdun (also known as the Grand Canyon of Verdun), which will provide great hiking opportunities.  Even the country of Monaco is less than a two hour drive away.

This will set a new record for our longest vacation. Having 7 weeks in France gives us a chance to finally set a slower pace as opposed to the 1-2 week vacations that we took while still working, where we needed to take advantage of every precious minute that we were away.  In addition to touring the South of France, we look forward to strolling around our home base, having a coffee and croissant in a cafe, practising and hopefully improving our currently insufficient French at the local shops, and sitting on the terrace of our home swap while admiring the gorgeous landscapes of the hillside.  This will hopefully give me the opportunity to blog about our trip along the way, so stay tuned for more updates.