How many days do you need in France?
Eight days. That is the length of the itinerary we built for France, across Paris, Avignon and Roman Provence, and Nice and the Côte d’Azur.
Here is what each day holds. Every stop below carries its time, and every gap says how to get to the next stop, with the walk or drive time wherever both stops are mapped.
France · 8 days Paris → Avignon and Roman Provence → Nice and the Côte d’Azur
Best time: May, June, and September, terrace weather everywhere and the south is warm without the August crush.
Paris: Eiffel TowerDay 1
🏛️9:00 AMEiffel Tower
Gustave Eiffel’s 1889 "temporary" exhibit. Skip the summit queue: the second floor has the better view, and the tower sparkles for five minutes every hour after dark.
🚶 ~53 min · 🚗 ~7 min · 2.0 mi
🖼️1:30 PMThe Louvre
The world’s most visited museum in a former royal palace. Pick one wing per visit; the Denon wing holds the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory, and the crowds.
🚶 ~30 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.1 mi
🌆6:00 PMLe Marais
Medieval lanes that escaped Haussmann’s boulevards: Place des Vosges arcades, falafel on Rue des Rosiers, and half the city’s best small galleries.
Paris: Notre-Dame CathedralDay 2
🏛️9:00 AMNotre-Dame Cathedral
Reopened in December 2024 after the fire restoration. The medieval nave is brighter than it has been in centuries. Free entry; reserve a time slot online to skip the line.
🚶 ~20 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.7 mi
🥾1:30 PMLuxembourg Gardens
The Left Bank’s living room: chess players, pony rides, and the green chairs nobody is allowed to take home.
🚗 ~8 min · 2.2 mi
🎟️6:00 PMSeine evening cruise
An hour on the river as the bridges light up and the Eiffel Tower does its hourly sparkle, the classic first-night orientation. Boats leave from the quays near the Eiffel Tower and Pont Neuf.
Paris: Arc de TriompheDay 3
🏛️9:00 AMArc de Triomphe
Napoleon’s arch with the best rooftop view in Paris. You look down the twelve avenues, including the Champs-Élysées, radiating like a star.
🚶 ~47 min · 🚗 ~6 min · 1.7 mi
🖼️1:30 PMMusée d’Orsay
The impressionists, Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, hung inside a Beaux-Arts train station across the river from the Louvre.
🚶 ~14 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.5 mi
🌆6:00 PMSaint-Germain-des-Prés
The Left Bank of Sartre and de Beauvoir, literary cafés, the oldest church in Paris, and streets built for aimless walking.
Paris: Sainte-ChapelleDay 4
🏛️9:00 AMSainte-Chapelle
A 13th-century royal chapel that is essentially walls of stained glass, 1,113 scenes, best in full sun.
🚶 ~5 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.2 mi
🥾1:30 PMSeine riverbanks
The UNESCO-listed banks are pedestrian for long stretches, the walk from Notre-Dame to the Eiffel Tower is the whole city in ninety minutes.
🚗 ~7 min · 2.1 mi
🌆6:00 PMMontmartre
The hilltop village of painters. Climb via the quiet back streets, not the funicular side, and the postcard crowds vanish.
Arrive in Avignon and Roman ProvenceDay 5
🚄8:30 AMTGV to Avignon and Roman Provence
Paris Gare de Lyon to Avignon TGV in about 2h40 at up to 320 km/h. The Avignon TGV station is a short shuttle train from the walled old town.
🚄 ~2h40 · 359 mi
🏛️2:00 PMPalais des Papes
The largest Gothic palace ever built, seven popes ruled Christendom from here in the 1300s while Rome seethed.
🚶 ~4 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.1 mi
🌆6:00 PMAvignon old town
A complete medieval walled city on the Rhône, small enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes.
Avignon and Roman Provence: Pont du GardDay 6
🏛️9:00 AMPont du Gard
A three-tier Roman aqueduct bridge, 49 meters high and 2,000 years old, spanning a river you can swim in below it.
🚗 ~47 min · 13 mi
🖼️1:30 PMMusée Calvet
Avignon’s fine-arts museum in an 18th-century mansion, a quiet, excellent hour when the afternoon heat peaks.
🚗 ~70 min · 20 mi
🎟️6:00 PMProvence villages and lavender tour
The hill villages (Gordes, Roussillon’s ochre cliffs) spread beyond rail reach, guided minibuses cover what a car renter sees, without the driving. In bloom season (late June to early August) the sunset departures catch the lavender in its best light.
Arrive in Nice and the Côte d’AzurDay 7
🚄8:30 AMTrain to Nice and the Côte d’Azur
Avignon to Nice in about 3 hours along the Rhône delta and then the coast, the last 40 minutes run beside the sea. No reservation needed on TER regional trains.
🚄 ~3h · 124 mi
🏛️2:00 PMPromenade des Anglais
The seven-kilometer seafront walk the English built in the 1820s, rent a blue chair, face the impossibly blue bay, and do nothing.
🚶 ~27 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 1.0 mi
🌆6:00 PMVieux Nice
The old town’s ochre lanes: socca (chickpea pancake) stands, baroque churches around every corner, and Cours Saleya, flower market by day, café tables by night.
Nice and the Côte d’Azur: Castle Hill (Colline du Château)Day 8
🏛️9:00 AMCastle Hill (Colline du Château)
The viewpoint over Nice’s orange roofs and the sweep of the Baie des Anges. Take the free elevator up, walk down through the gardens.
🚶 ~46 min · 🚗 ~6 min · 1.7 mi
🖼️1:30 PMMusée Matisse
The painter’s own collection in a red Genoese villa in Cimiez, where he lived his last decades painting the Riviera light.
🚗 ~15 min · 4.3 mi
🎟️6:00 PMMonaco and Èze evening trip
The corniche coast east: the medieval eagle’s-nest village of Èze at golden hour, then Monaco as the harbor and casino square light up. Trains run late, but the corniche roads are the show.
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