Doin' it Up Right - Quick trips to Europe

What do we think of Eurorail? Any estimates on how long it would take to get from Paris to, say, Northern Italy by train?

To figure how long it would take from Paris to Northern Italy, go to http://www.raileurope.com and click on the schedules link in the left navbar. Then you select Paris and some northern Italian city and it'll give you the options.

London 2hrs40
Bruxelles 1hr45
AMsterdam 3hrs30?
Marseille 4hrs

Provence would make a good trip from Paris, Marseille, Aix, Sisteron would be favourite bases. Sisteron especially. Call in at Avignon or Lyon on the way down.

Picardie is lovely in the autumn but you'd really need a car. Beutiful countryside, great wine and food.

To the North Lille is European captial of Culture and there's a hell of a lot going on all year. See http://www.lille2004.com/

I really like brussels, you could see it all in a day. EU, art noveau, atomium, beer, chips. the Flanders coast has a Tramway running the length of it and is menat to be a gastronic adventure. Plus there are some rally posh resort/casino towns along the way.

YOu could go to Normandy. Caen, Bayeux round up to the Pas de Calais Towns of Boulogne and Le Touquet.

Tours, Poitiers, Orleans would make a good circuit of Chateaux and cathedrals.

You could do the Bordeaux to Montpellier, Agen, Toulouse then either down to Villefranche and the Catalan coast and on to Barcelona (night train from barcelona back to paris) or to Carcassone, Mntpellier and Nimes. (Nimes of the Arena and the Pont du gard.

Actually this would make a good Itinery

Paris, Bordeaux, Agen, Toulouse, Tour de Carol, Villefranche le Conflet, Perpignan, Coullioure (side trip to Ceret poss), Girona, Barcelona, Paris.

In that you'd get enough catherdals, wine, food, art, mountains, sea, variety to suit anyone. Dooable in two weeks, all on the train including the very senic Petit Train jaune through the Pyrenees. No supplements apart from the TGV paris-Bordeaux and the Barcelona Paris Sleeper.

Paris-Rome on the sleeper. Then after a few days in Rome:

then Cinque Terre, Genoa, Milano, Bergamo, Lake Como, St Moritz (via Tirano), Chur, Zurich, Bern, Dijon, Paris. (Alps, craggy seaside, avoid milan, lakes mountains ultra modern cities, cities with bears, french gastronomy)

or

then Naples, Perugia, Ravenna, Venice, Verona, Como, Milano, Torino, Lyon paris.

Highly cultral itinery, shakesperean plays and mosaics etc.

Paris, Bruxelles, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Flanders Coast/Bruges, Lille, London, Paris.

In That you get art, art noveau, medieaval mercantile architecture, docks, beer, sausages, seafood, two famous red light districts and a FAP.

or

Paris Bruxelles Berlin Hamburg Amsterdam Hoek van Holland Harwich London Lille Paris.

Similar but with a Boat trip and a swing by the trendiest city in yurp.

Tell us what you like - gothic architecture, good food, modern art, exploring the cafe/bar culture in different cities, etc. then we can think about which cities you'll love, but more importantly maybe, which cities you'd probably hate.

I like the look of Ed's Rome-Paris train journey. You could avoid changing trains in Milan if you went to Brescia, but you really wouldn't want to go to Brescia :)

i like that one. especially if it has a boat.

I really want to avoid renting a car abroad. It sounds really scary to me, but I know I can be a big wuss.

Any hotels to recommend at any of these stops? It would need to be not so pricey and hopefully not too standard. I don't really want to stay somewhere like the Hampton Inn abroad. Somewhere small is fine, but interesting...

I would like to visit a couple of different places with a different feel to them, but I don't necessarily need to be out in the middle of nowhere with no chance of finding anything vegetarian. We all know a little bit of french, but I'm a little concerned about how we'll get on in Italy. I'll probably need to buy a cd and learn a few words.

Thanks for all the help again!