Living in France from December 2023 until May 2024. Help me plan!

[SplashJacket]

Hey!

I will be living in Metz, France from December 2023 until May 2024. I'm going to start off my time in Europe before the New Year, enjoying the last couple of days at Disneyland Paris, while welcoming 24' in actual Paris, unless a reasonable suggestion says otherwise.

Then, until May, I'll be in Metz, France, which is roughly halfway between Paris and Frankfurt (perhaps a little closer to Frankfurt) as it's right on the border with Germany and Luxembourg.

Moral of the story: I'll be free to travel every Thursday evening until Sunday night, so I need suggestions on what to do.

I'll also have a week off at some point to travel anywhere for an extended period.

So a couple of things:

I need a place/places to visit for the week, and a need a lot of relatively close places for the weekend.

And should I buy an annual pass for Disneyland Paris or leave the front-end DLP visit as the sole DLP visit?

Cities I've already been

• Paris
• London
• Dover
• Monaco
• Barcelona
• Madrid
• Zurich
• Venice
• Florence
• Rome
• Sorento
• Pompei
• Naples
• Frankfurt (all over)
• Amsterdam
• Blankenberge (Belgium port city)
• Denmark
• Munchen
• Prague
• Denmark (all over)
• Oslo

Absolutely loved Monaco and Amsterdam and definitely plan on revisiting Amsterdam.
Places I want to visit

• Belgium (Brussels at least)
• Luxembourg
• Theme parks (Europe, Eflting, Phantasialand)
• Amsterdam
• Southern France

I have family in Frankfurt and friends near Europa (so definitely will end up there at least once).

Personally, my favorite experiences traveling haven’t been the huge tourist destinations, they’re just random hidden gems, so as a stupid American, I would love some insight on great places to visit, even if it’s a small or medium sized town/city near y’all.

If anyone has ideas for places worth visiting, I'd greatly appreciate it, need to start planning now. Any suggestions or input, whether its a specific restaurant, museum, site, natural landmark, or a whole city worth visiting would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Moon knight]

Highly recommended Theme Parks (other than Disneyland Paris) in France : Le Puy Du Fou, Parc Astérix and Le Futuroscope.

Places of interest outside Paris : Provins, Nice, Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Villa Kérylos, Grasse, Mont Saint-Michel, Saint-Malo, Honfleur, Dinard, Dinan, Etretat, The sculpted rocks of Rothéneuf, Beauval ZOO, Aix-en-Provence, Cité de Carcassonne, Aubagne ("Le petit Monde de Pagnol"), Avignon, Gorge du Verdon, Lille, D-Day Beaches (Normandy), Trouville, Pierrefonds, Castles of the Loire Valley, Strasbourg (during Christmas), Guédelon (construction of an actual Medieval Castle), Versailles, Giverny, Annecy, Saint-Tropez, Chamonix, the Great War museum in Meaux, Reims Cathedral, Colmar and so on.

Attractions in Paris : Musée Grévin, watching a movie in the "Grand Rex", Musée de la Magie, La Conciergerie, Les Invalides (Napoleon's Tomb and stuffed horse are there), Le Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, "Le Train Bleu restaurant", "Angelina" café, Georges Mélies Museum, Carnavalet Museum (Museum of the Paris' history), Le Manoir de Paris, Sainte-Chapelle, Fondation Louis Vuitton, La Felicita restaurant, le Panthéon, Victor Hugo's appartment in La Place des Vosges, etc.

The french rail system is one of the most developped in the world so that should help you.

Disneyland Paris doesn't sell anual passes until futher notice...

Outside France, you won't be far from : Europa Park (Ruhr), Köln (Germany), Brussels (Musée du Chocolat and Musée de la Bande dessinée are must do's), Luxembourg (haven't been here yet ).

 

[fradz]

For Theme Parks, I'll refer you to my post here: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/magical-dlp-news-rumours-thoughts.887042/page-99#post-10546473

Regarding the places you want to visit: I live in Brussels and have many clients in Luxembourg, so I'm there every month / every other month. I can guide you in these places no problems or at least give you detailed recommendations before you go.
There's a lot of cute little cities or even towns in the Netherlands, some very close to Amsterdam. There's also The Hague, a huge city, which has a pleasant beach front (Scheveningen)

For France, you have some suggestions from Moon Knight already. Obviously you have Alsace very closeby, one of my favorite regions in Europe, I'm guessing you know what to visit there.... If not: Riquewihr, Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg, Colmar, Strasbourg, ... I know a few good places to buy wine, you can say you come from me and you might even get a discount (I'll give you my name then). I also know a nice castle that you can sleep in. Otherwise, up north, close to Belgium, you have Cap Blanc Nez (very close to the Eurotunnel entrance) & Cap Gris Nez, and many cute villages on the coastline towards Boulogne-Sur-Mer

In Italy, Puglia is a beautiful region. I used to go there 2 to 3 times a year (ex-gf... ). I can also give you detailed tips for that place.

I see that Vienna is not on your list, I would also recommend that. Cologne(/Köln), both reachable by train. I found Nuremberg interesting, and Berlin very fun!

More places to see in my country :
- Dinant (not to mix up with Dinan of @Moon knight )
- Bruges & Ghent
- Leuven
- The Lion of Waterloo
- The Belgian Ardennes have a lot of nice hikes and cute villages, you can also rent a chalet and live with nature a bit
- Durbuy and surrounding activities
- You can combine Pairi Daiza and the Chateau de Beloeil, they're like 5km away
- Did you know that Belgium, not France, had the most number of castles per sqkm? There are some absolute beauties. Epic Universe is even using a former Belgian castle as an almost identical replica to build the façade for one of their dark rides.
- Old coal mines are really interesting to visit
- We have 400 breweries, including 5 abbeys that make trappist beers.... You know what to do in Belgium I'm sure

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Hey!

I will be living in Metz, France from December 2023 until May 2024. I'm going to start off my time in Europe before the New Year, enjoying the last couple of days at Disneyland Paris, while welcoming 24' in actual Paris, unless a reasonable suggestion says otherwise.

Then, until May, I'll be in Metz, France, which is roughly halfway between Paris and Frankfurt (perhaps a little closer to Frankfurt) as it's right on the border with Germany and Luxembourg.

Moral of the story: I'll be free to travel every Thursday evening until Sunday night, so I need suggestions on what to do.

I'll also have a week off at some point to travel anywhere for an extended period.

So a couple of things:

I need a place/places to visit for the week, and a need a lot of relatively close places for the weekend.

And should I buy an annual pass for Disneyland Paris or leave the front-end DLP visit as the sole DLP visit?

Cities I've already been

• Paris
• London
• Dover
• Monaco
• Barcelona
• Madrid
• Zurich
• Venice
• Florence
• Rome
• Sorento
• Pompei
• Naples
• Frankfurt (all over)
• Amsterdam
• Blankenberge (Belgium port city)
• Denmark
• Munchen
• Prague
• Denmark (all over)
• Oslo

Absolutely loved Monaco and Amsterdam and definitely plan on revisiting Amsterdam.
Places I want to visit

• Belgium (Brussels at least)
• Luxembourg
• Theme parks (Europe, Eflting, Phantasialand)
• Amsterdam
• Southern France

I have family in Frankfurt and friends near Europa (so definitely will end up there at least once).

Personally, my favorite experiences traveling haven’t been the huge tourist destinations, they’re just random hidden gems, so as a stupid American, I would love some insight on great places to visit, even if it’s a small or medium sized town/city near y’all.

If anyone has ideas for places worth visiting, I'd greatly appreciate it, need to start planning now. Any suggestions or input, whether its a specific restaurant, museum, site, natural landmark, or a whole city worth visiting would be greatly appreciated.

Well, where to start!

I guess I can recommend a few places around where you mentioned. I very much like Belgium including Brussels, but also think Ghent is particularly worth a visit. Bruges is lovely, but crawling with tourists which I think gives Ghent a little more charm. I'm also kind of partial to Antwerp, but I'm not sure how many find it as appealing as I do!

In The Netherlands, I would recommend exploring a few of the smaller cities and towns close to Amsterdam. I live in The Hague and perhaps am biased, but you could base yourself there for a few days, and travel to other towns such as Leiden and Delft and possibly Rotterdam (not a huge fan myself). The Hague has a few things such as the Mauritshuis, a nice art museum that has the Girl with the Pearl Earring as its main claim to fame, and the Escher museum that are worth a visit. As @fradz mentioned, you can also head down toward the beach if you want a change of scenery. Depends what you're into as it's all certainly more serene than Amsterdam, but it may fit the bill if you're into smaller cities rather than huge tourist attractions. Same goes for Ghent and Antwerp over the more obvious Bruges.

If you're going to Phantasialand, then Cologne is a natural stop (as @fradz also mentioned). I lived there for three years before here and the people who came to visit at least told me they liked it! Also very much liked Berlin if you have more time in Germany, but that is, of course, tourist central!

 

[fradz]

I guess I can recommend a few places around where you mentioned. I very much like Belgium including Brussels, but also think Ghent is particularly worth a visit. Bruges is also lovely, but more crawling with tourists which I think gives Ghent a little more charm. I'm also kind of partial to Antwerp, but I'm not sure how many find it as appealing as I do!

Fully agree with the whole post, but I especially want to highlight that part. If you visit one city in Flanders, make it Ghent. Less crowded than Bruges and manyyyy beautiful things to see there. Try to have a hotel in the city center, as the sunset, sunrise and the nights in there are lovely.

 

[mrflo]

I am definitely recommending to visit Europa-Park (Rust - Germany) for at least 2 days. It is one of the best parks in the world and they keep on making it better each year. It is actually a resort with multiple hotels and an indoor water park (Rulantica). There is now even a direct TGV connection close to the station near to the park. From Lorraine TGV station (near Metz) it is just a 1 hour 25min ride.

And I almost forgot: EP will open a brand new Croatia-themed area in 2024 including a new coaster "Voltron" inspired by Nikola Tesla.

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