France Itinerary: 8 Days in Paris, Avignon and Roman Provence, Nice and the Côte d’Azur
The world’s most visited country in eight days: four in Paris, then the TGV south to Roman Provence and the Mediterranean light of the Côte d’Azur that pulled every painter you have heard of.
France ranked #1 worldwide with 102 million international arrivals (2024, UN Tourism). Last reviewed 2026-07-29.
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
🚶 Walk + TER trains
🏛️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
🚋 Tram or walk
🏛️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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Best time to goMay, June, and September — terrace weather everywhere and the south is warm without the August crush. Many Paris restaurants close for part of August.
Recommended splitParis 4d · Avignon and Roman Provence 2d · Nice and the Côte d’Azur 2d
Local tip: Book TGV tickets 2–4 weeks ahead; prices rise like airfares. In Paris, timed museum tickets (Louvre, Orsay) are the difference between walking in and an hour in line.
Paris — 4 days
Paris invented the modern city as a stage — boulevards for strolling, cafés for watching, museums built from palaces. Its riverbanks are a UNESCO site from end to end, and it rewards walking more than any city on Earth.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inLe 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.Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The Left Bank of Sartre and de Beauvoir — literary cafés, the oldest church in Paris, and streets built for aimless walking.Montmartre. The hilltop village of painters. Climb via the quiet back streets, not the funicular side, and the postcard crowds vanish.
LandmarksEiffel 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.Notre-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.Arc 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.Sainte-Chapelle. A 13th-century royal chapel that is essentially walls of stained glass — 1,113 scenes, best in full sun.Palace of Versailles. The Sun King’s palace, 40 minutes out by RER train — the Hall of Mirrors, the gardens by Le Nôtre, and Marie Antoinette’s make-believe village. A full day; book the earliest slot.
Nature and outdoorsLuxembourg Gardens. The Left Bank’s living room: chess players, pony rides, and the green chairs nobody is allowed to take home.Seine 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.
MuseumsThe 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.Musée d’Orsay. The impressionists — Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir — hung inside a Beaux-Arts train station across the river from the Louvre.Musée de l’Orangerie. Monet’s water lilies wrapped around two oval rooms he designed himself. Twenty minutes of quiet that outdoes whole museums.
Worth a guided tourSeine 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.
Getting around ParisThe Métro reaches everything every few minutes; grab a Navigo Easy card or load tickets on your phone (the turnstiles don’t take bank cards). Most days you will also walk 15,000 steps without noticing.
Avignon and Roman Provence — 2 days
Getting here: TGV — 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.
Provence is where Rome left its best ruins outside Italy and where the popes decamped for seventy years. Lavender fields, hill villages, and 2,000-year-old arenas still in use — this is France at Mediterranean pace.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inAvignon old town. A complete medieval walled city on the Rhône, small enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes.Arles. Twenty minutes by train: the town where Van Gogh painted 300 works in fifteen months, with a Roman arena that still hosts events.
LandmarksPalais des Papes. The largest Gothic palace ever built — seven popes ruled Christendom from here in the 1300s while Rome seethed.Pont 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.Pont d’Avignon. The half-bridge of the nursery rhyme, reaching partway across the Rhône since floods took the rest in the 1600s.
Nature and outdoorsLes Alpilles. A miniature limestone range of olive groves and white crags between Avignon and Arles — the Provence of the postcards, walkable from Saint-Rémy.
MuseumsMusée Calvet. Avignon’s fine-arts museum in an 18th-century mansion — a quiet, excellent hour when the afternoon heat peaks.
Worth a guided tourProvence 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.
Getting around Avignon and Roman ProvenceThe old town is entirely walkable. Regional TER trains link Avignon, Arles, and Nîmes every hour or so; the Pont du Gard needs a short bus or taxi hop.
Nice and the Côte d’Azur — 2 days
Getting here: Train — 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.
The Riviera invented the beach holiday — Russian aristocrats and English lords wintered here, then Matisse and Chagall stayed for the light. It is still the easiest place in France to be outrageously happy on a budget of one ice cream.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inVieux 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.Villefranche-sur-Mer. One bay east by a 10-minute train: a fishing village of painted facades on one of the Mediterranean’s deepest natural harbors.
LandmarksPromenade 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.Castle 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.
Nature and outdoorsCap Ferrat coastal path. A shoreline loop around the billionaires’ peninsula — pines, coves, and the sea ten feet away the whole time. Allow two to three hours for the full circuit. Free, and better than any villa tour.
MuseumsMusée Matisse. The painter’s own collection in a red Genoese villa in Cimiez, where he lived his last decades painting the Riviera light.Musée Marc Chagall. The largest public collection of Chagall’s work, built around his biblical cycle — luminous even if you think you don’t like Chagall.
Worth a guided tourMonaco 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.
Getting around Nice and the Côte d’AzurTrams and walking cover Nice; the coastal TER train strings the whole Riviera — Villefranche, Monaco, Antibes, Cannes — like beads, every 15–30 minutes.
The full plan as text
The same day-by-day plan, expandable day by day. Times are starting points, not homework.
Day 1: Paris: Eiffel Tower
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.
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.
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.
Day 2: Paris: Notre-Dame Cathedral
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.
1:30 PMLuxembourg Gardens
The Left Bank’s living room: chess players, pony rides, and the green chairs nobody is allowed to take home.
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.
Day 3: Paris: Arc de Triomphe
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.
1:30 PMMusée d’Orsay
The impressionists — Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir — hung inside a Beaux-Arts train station across the river from the Louvre.
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.
Day 4: Paris: Sainte-Chapelle
9:00 AMSainte-Chapelle
A 13th-century royal chapel that is essentially walls of stained glass — 1,113 scenes, best in full sun.
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.
6:00 PMMontmartre
The hilltop village of painters. Climb via the quiet back streets, not the funicular side, and the postcard crowds vanish.
Day 5: Arrive in Avignon and Roman Provence
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.
2:00 PMPalais des Papes
The largest Gothic palace ever built — seven popes ruled Christendom from here in the 1300s while Rome seethed.
6:00 PMAvignon old town
A complete medieval walled city on the Rhône, small enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes.
Day 6: Avignon and Roman Provence: Pont du Gard
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.
1:30 PMMusée Calvet
Avignon’s fine-arts museum in an 18th-century mansion — a quiet, excellent hour when the afternoon heat peaks.
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.
Day 7: Arrive in Nice and the Côte d’Azur
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.
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.
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.
Day 8: Nice and the Côte d’Azur: Castle Hill (Colline du Château)
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.
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.
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.
Make this France trip yours
Forward your real booking confirmations to Petrel and it builds this exact day-by-day view for you: flights, hotels, reservations, live flight status, and the travel time between stops. Under a minute.
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