France, here we come!!!
We would like to see as much as we can when we spend our three weeks in the Colmar area. We are hoping to get into Germany and perhaps Switzerland. Paris would be fantastic!
We will have a car but train travel is possible, as well. We would love to see as much of Europe as we can.
We are from Canada and have French and English as our languages. We will be in the area from Sept. 18 until Oct. 9th at a chalet actually in Gerardmer but I think Colmar is about twenty minutes away.
Suggestions of towns to visit? Looking forward to an fabulous holiday. (Considering flying into Zurich.)
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Might I suggest you invest in a few guidebooks? The Michelin guides to Alsace %26amp; Lorraine and possibly Jura and Champagne would be a good start. The same publisher has excellent guides to Switzerland and Germany also but there are plenty of others.
You%26#39;ll also need %26quot;real%26quot; paper maps to assist your planning. Again Michelin makes excellent maps of France at 1:200,000 scale and to the other countries you mention but you may again want to look at other options for Germany and Switzerland.
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Colmar is about 45 minutes, it%26#39;s not a big distance but it%26#39;s all on a windy road up and down the mountain.
Strasbourg is 90 minutes and from there the train to Paris is 2 1/4 hrs. I think this would be a better option than driving to Paris as you can park easily at the station and avoid the Paris traffic. It%26#39;s a long day trip, but possible.
Champagne country around Reims, Epernay is just over 3 hours, again a long day. For me the best trips will be places along the Rhine (Strasbourg, Basel, Freiburg) and into the Black Forest and Vosges mountains. Nancy is also worth a visit to see the Place Stanislaus
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Good advice!
We do have our Michelin maps of France and the guide books of Alsace area, but I was hoping to get an idea of how much a person could do in a day.
It is easy to see that a town is an %26quot;inch%26quot; away on a map and start converting, but is it through mountains etc.? Canada is a vast country with many miles between towns and most Canadians tend to calculate distances in hours rather than miles. So things are three hours away or six hours away. It works for us!
I will continue to read about the area and figure out possible the day trips. I was hoping to organize now and be ready when we got to France, to set out on our daily adventures. Should be fun!
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Perfect! Thanks for taking the time to write. This is exactly what I wanted to know. i.e. what is possible. I had read somewhere that it was one hour ten minutes to Paris from Colmar. Could this be possible? ... A super train? Maybe just wrong information.
Did you mean that Colmar is just 45 minutes from Geneva or Gerardmer? I hope you mean Geneva!
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Perfect! Thanks for taking the time to write. This is exactly what I wanted to know. i.e. what is possible. I had read somewhere that it was one hour ten minutes to Paris from Colmar. Could this be possible? ... A super train? Maybe just wrong information.
Did you mean that Colmar is just 45 minutes from Geneva or Gerardmer? I hope you mean Geneva!
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viamichelin.com will give you (somewhat optimistic) driving times and distances, along with estimated fuel and toll costs.
voyages-sncf.com will hep you with train timetables but you might find tgv-europe.com or bahn.de easier to use.
It%26#39;s probably about 3.5 hours from Colmar to Geneva by the fastest route, more if you are going to use the more scenic roads off the Autoroute and do any sightseeing along the way, as I hope you intend to. As a rule of thumb I generally guesstimate about 100 kilometers in an hour when using mostly Autoroutes, 75 km on major roads in flattish country and as little as 50 km or less in the mountains. Your map should give you a general idea of distances between towns.
Note that if you are going to drive in Switzerland you will need to pay the one time Swiss highway tax. I think it is still 40 CHF.
Colmar to Paris is about 3.5 hours by train and there are no direct trains IIRC. You would have to change in Strasbourg.
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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;We do have our Michelin maps of France%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;
Do you have the 1:200,000 scale regional maps or the Michelin road atlas at the same scale? Relying on anything less, say a 1:1,000,000 scale map, is an exercise in frustration. Such maps are only useful, if at all, for planning very long cross-country trips. In fact, when you get to Gérardmer you might want to get your hands on 1:50,000 scale maps of the surrounding area, even 1:25,000 if you are going to do any exploring on foot.
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Our France maps says FRANCE EURO ATLAS 1:3000 000 GEOCENTRE. We used this map last spring in Provence. I guess I had better order something for Germany etc.
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With all due respect a 1:3,000,000 scale map is useless as a route planning or motoring map. You trip planning will be easier and your trip vastly more rewarding with the Michelin road atlas to France OR the relevant regional maps at 1:200,000 scale.
But if you won%26#39;t, you won%26#39;t....
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I will go on-line today and order the right book. (We live three hours from major centre!) How good it is to have some direction. It is so good of you to guide me. I must say, we did find the book frustrating but it was good for the local areas just bad for the big picture.
So good of you to take the time to advise! I really appreciate your efforts. Yo
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