2-Week France Itinerary: Paris, Loire, Provence, Riviera

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The standard 2-week France itinerary covers four regions by train, north to south: 5 nights in Paris, 2 in the Loire Valley, 3 in Provence, and 4 on the French Riviera. The long jumps are all high-speed rail: Paris to Tours takes a little over an hour, and Paris to Avignon about 2 hours 30 minutes. Pick up a rental car locally only for the Loire châteaux and Provence villages, and drop it before each train leg. From a Nice base, coastal trains reach Monaco in about 20 to 25 minutes, Antibes in 15 to 20, and Cannes in 30 to 40. Four regions in 14 days is doable but leaves little slack; fewer than three nights in a region rarely repays its travel day, and the Loire is the easiest region to cut for a slower trip.

• The standard 2-week route: Paris, the Loire Valley, Provence, and the French Riviera, north to south.
• A workable night split is 5 in Paris, 2 in the Loire, 3 in Provence, 4 on the Riviera.
• Train for the long jumps between regions, a rental car picked up locally for the Loire and Provence countryside.
• Four regions in 14 days is doable but leaves little slack: cut one if you want a slower trip.
• Prefer coast and history over the south? A western route through Normandy and Brittany swaps in cleanly.

Two weeks sounds like a lot of time until you try to fit France into it. Fourteen days is enough to see four regions properly, but only if you resist the urge to add a fifth stop because it looked good on a map. Below is a day-by-day shape for the trip, not a rigid script: swap a village for a museum, or a rest morning for a market, but keep the overall pacing.

Before locking hotels, rough out what two weeks costs at your travel style. The calculator uses the same rates as the France travel budget guide:

Days 1-5: Paris

Paris gets five nights because it is both the arrival city and the anchor for the rest of the trip: jet lag, time zone adjustment, and the biggest single concentration of things to see all land here. Do not try to compress Paris just because three more regions are waiting; a rushed Paris opening sets a bad tone for everything after it.

• Days 1-2 cover arrival, recovery, and the core icons: Eiffel Tower or Trocadéro early, the Seine, Notre-Dame's exterior, a first Marais or Saint-Germain evening. Keep day 1 genuinely light: check-in, a walk, an easy dinner, nothing timed.
• Day 3 is Louvre-and-Marais territory: a timed Louvre slot in the morning (closed Tuesdays), then the Marais for the afternoon and evening, without booking a second heavy museum on top of it.
• Day 4 is Versailles-or-slower-Paris, depending on your appetite for a full-day RER trip versus Montmartre, the covered passages, or a market-and-bakery day.
• Day 5 is a wind-down day and travel-day prep: pack the night before, book a mid-morning rather than dawn train, and treat the last Paris morning as a bonus rather than a scramble.

For the neighborhood-by-neighborhood detail (which order to do the icons in, when the Louvre is quietest, how to structure a Versailles day), the 5-day Paris itinerary walks through exactly this stretch hour by hour. If five days in Paris still feels long, the tighter 3-day itinerary shows how to compress the same icons into a shorter opening before the Loire leg. Read either one alongside this section rather than treating this as a separate plan; they're meant to line up.

Days 6-7: Loire Valley

Take the TGV from Paris to Tours, a trip of a little over an hour on the fastest direct services. Base yourself in Tours or Amboise: both work without a car, since trains connect Paris to all three main Loire towns (Tours, Amboise, Blois) easily, and you are only there for two nights.

With two nights, two or three châteaux is the realistic ceiling, not five. Chenonceau is the priority: it is arguably the most visually striking château in the region, and if you base in Amboise, it is a straightforward roughly 12-kilometer bike ride along the riverside on the Loire à Vélo cycling network, or a short train plus a walk if you'd rather not cycle. Check current opening days and hours on the official Château de Chenonceau site before you plan the day around it, since they vary by season. Pair it with Amboise itself (the château and Clos Lucé, where Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years) since both sit inside the town and need no transport at all.

If you've arranged a rental car for these two days (worth it only if you're continuing the theme into Provence, since you'll drop it before Provence's town centers), Chambord is the third option: it's the grandest of the Loire châteaux but sits away from the rail network, so it only makes sense with wheels.

Days 8-10: Provence

TGV from Tours back through Paris, or a direct regional connection depending on availability, gets you to Avignon or Aix-en-Provence. The Paris–Avignon TGV leg alone runs about 2 hours 30 minutes at the fastest, so budget most of a travel day for this transition if you're routing through the capital again. Check exact timings and fares on SNCF Connect before you lock the date, since schedules shift seasonally.

• Day 8 is arrival and settling in: check in, walk the old town without an agenda, see the Palais des Papes from outside if based in Avignon, and have a proper first Provence dinner. Treat this as deliberately slower than anything in Paris.
• Day 9 is your one village or day-trip day. With a car, the Luberon villages (Gordes, Roussillon, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence) are the Provence people picture before they arrive: ochre stone, hilltop views, markets. Without a car, Arles by train from Avignon gives you Roman ruins and Van Gogh history in a compact old center; Nîmes is the alternative if you want Roman monuments with less logistical effort. Both are easier than trying to stitch together small villages on public transport.
• Day 10 is a slower day: market morning, a second look at whichever town you're based in, or a half-day trip only if day 9 didn't fully scratch the itch. This is also your travel-day-prep day before the Riviera leg.

The Avignon-versus-Aix decision itself, which shapes where these three days are based, is covered in the Provence base comparison linked below. If you're coming from Paris directly rather than via the Loire, Aix has a logistics edge: its TGV station sits about 15 minutes from the town center by shuttle, and its position makes it easier to continue toward Nice afterward.

Days 11-14: French Riviera

Nice is the default base for this leg, mainly because the regional trains along the coast are frequent enough that you don't need to overplan. Concrete numbers: Nice–Monaco is often about 20-25 minutes by TER, Nice–Antibes about 15-20 minutes, and Nice–Cannes about 30-40 minutes. Buy tickets from station machines or the SNCF Connect app, and check the last train home before a Monaco dinner; coastal TER service thins out late in the evening.

• Day 11 is arrival plus a first coastal walk: the Promenade des Anglais, the old town, Castle Hill for the view. Keep it light after the Provence-to-Riviera travel day.
• Day 12 is Monaco or Antibes, your call. Monaco is the bigger draw for most first-timers (the Casino district, the harbor, Monte-Carlo), while Antibes is quieter and pairs well with a Cap d'Antibes walk. Either is a short enough train ride that you can also fold in the other town's train station area on the way back if you're curious.
• Day 13 is Cannes or an inland detour: Èze is the classic hilltop-village half-day from Nice, reachable by bus or a short taxi, and gives you the Provence-village feel without leaving the Riviera base. Cannes itself is more about the Croisette and a look at festival-era glamour than must-see sights, so treat it as optional if you'd rather do Èze and a beach afternoon instead.
• Day 14 is a genuine wind-down day: a slow Nice morning, a last walk through the old town or the flower market on Cours Saleya, and a buffer before your departure. Do not schedule a day trip on your last full day: trains run late sometimes, and a missed connection here costs you your flight, not just an afternoon.

Weighing Nice against an inland Provence base for this stretch of the trip is covered in the Riviera base guide linked below.

Getting between regions: train vs. rental car

The logistics pattern that makes this route work is simple: train for the long jumps, car for the local exploring.

Take the TGV between Paris, Tours (Loire), Avignon or Aix (Provence), and Nice (Riviera). These are all direct or near-direct high-speed connections, and they save you from driving through or around Paris, which is a hassle nobody needs on day one.

Pick up a rental car once you arrive in the Loire Valley, not before. You do not need one in Paris, and you do not need one for city time in Provence or Nice either. Use it for the châteaux circuit in the Loire and for Provence's hill villages, then drop it before your next TGV leg. This keeps you from paying for a car that sits parked outside a Paris hotel for five days.

Is 2 weeks enough, or should you cut a region?

Four regions in fourteen days is workable, but it does not leave much slack for a slow morning or a delayed train. As a rule of thumb, fewer than three nights in a region rarely feels worth the travel day it costs to get there and back.

If the schedule feels tight, the Loire Valley is the easiest region to cut. It is the closest to Paris of the four, which makes it the simplest one to save for a future short trip or a long weekend on its own. Cutting it frees up two to three extra nights to spread across Provence and the Riviera, which tends to make the second half of the trip feel less rushed.

A western alternative: Normandy, Mont-Saint-Michel, and Brittany

If the south does not appeal, or you have done it before, a western route swaps in cleanly for the Provence and Riviera legs. This version covers Paris, the Loire Valley, Normandy, and Brittany, trading beaches and lavender for D-Day history, Mont-Saint-Michel, and the Brittany coast.

This route leans more on driving once you leave Paris, since Normandy and Brittany are less connected by high-speed rail than the south. Budget more car time and fewer fixed-schedule train legs if you go this way.

Where to base in each region

Paris: stay central and walkable. See best areas to stay in Paris for the breakdown by budget and style.

Loire Valley: Tours or Amboise both work as a base for the main châteaux circuit without a car until you arrive.

Provence: the choice between Avignon and Aix shapes the rest of your Provence days. The direct comparison is linked below.

French Riviera: Nice is the default base for train connections to Monaco, Antibes, and Cannes. See the Riviera base guide linked below if you are weighing Nice against staying inland instead.

Final thoughts

Fourteen days across four regions works when each region gets a genuine slow day, not just a packed one. Paris earns its five nights because it's doing double duty as both the highlight and the jet-lag buffer. The Loire's two nights are enough for two châteaux done properly rather than three done in a rush. Provence's three nights split cleanly into arrival, one real day trip, and a rest day. The Riviera's four nights can absorb two day trips and still leave room to breathe before you fly home.

What breaks this itinerary is treating all four regions like a checklist to clear rather than four different paces to enjoy. If you're reading this and thinking it still sounds like a lot, it is: that's what the "cut a region" section above is for.

Same trip planning

• Start with the step-by-step trip planning guide if you have not locked in dates or a budget yet.
• If 2 weeks is too long, see the 7-day version for a single-region-plus-Paris trip instead.
• Choosing your Provence base before you book Provence hotels.
• Picking a Riviera base for the last leg once Provence is settled.

Frequently asked questions