I'm suffering from France withdrawal so Scott and I are planning another trip in about a year. Initially it was going to be three weeks spread out over Barcelona, various places in France and a smidge into Italy. Once I started researching I realized that all I really want to do is rent a car and drive all over France for three weeks. At this stage of trip planning we've decided on our dates and are narrowing down the towns/cities we want to visit. Below is the list. Towns/cities in bold type are definites.

Strasbourg

Étretat

Annecy

Antibes

Marseille

Aix-en-Provence

Loire Valley area

Dordogne area

Lyon

Carcassonne

Valensole - Lavender Festival

Beynac-et-Cazenac

We want to strictly rent apartments on this trip for a variety of reasons, the foremost being that we pack extremely light for trips and access to a washer and dryer is very appealing. Plus being able to hit up markets and prepare our own food sounds nice as well. We're trying to get by with just two backpacks and my crossbody full of camera equipment and ye olde Macbook Pro.

Since we will be in very small towns we may not be able to rely on our limited French so Scott and I are taking French classes together until we leave. I hate the idea of being in France and not visiting Paris. It's my most favorite place in the world but it will still be there when we go back. I wish we could leave now. I miss our dog and, as much as I love being a therapist, it can take an emotional toll that I haven't quite learned to deal with yet.

I also realize that I have a ton of journal entries to upload from our trip to Europe last year. Wifi was too spotty for uploading in most places we stayed.

So that's the plan. We'll narrow down places to stay as we get closer to leaving.