Trip to France/Europe

My good friend M, who I've known since High School is engaged. M's fiance is originally from France. M is getting married this summer where the bride's family is... the south of France. So, if I want to support and witness this marriage, I have to get my butt to the south of France.

I took French in 9th and 10th grade, but we never really did conversation, just language drills and vocabulary and conjugation. And it's been over 20 years. Too bad they're not getting married in Mexico, Central America, South America, or Spain... I'd just have to brush up my Spanish a little. So, recently I find myself listening to an audible program on my Ipod and watching the French Language track of "Titanic" to get used to hearing the language.

I've never been to Europe, but I have my passport, having been to Guatemala and Honduras. As long as I was making it to Europe I wanted to see some of it and that didn't seem like much fun by myself. My friend who did Guatemala with me really wanted to go, but for various reasons isn't in a position to take a trip right now. A brainstorm hit - why not take my nephew? He will be turning 19 around the time of the trip and just finished a French class in his 2nd year of college. They are taking a trip to Europe the end of December for my brother-in-law's 50th birthday, so he already has a passport.

The only catch... taking nephew means I have to pay for nephew. I sat with it for a while. When would another chance like this come up for some good quality time when our schedules match up and I could help him get to practice the language he's learning? I've been able to save up a little, but that was going to potentially be used in the following ways: a general financial cushion, a new car since mine is a 1990 and getting kind of sad, downpayment on a house/condo when I'm ready, pay off some of the student loan I'm still paying on. I will take a hit in the pocketbook, that's for sure, but it seemed that this trip was the thing to do. So we'll do it and hopefully have a great time.

The last couple weeks I've been checking airfares and locations online and trying to figure out the basics of my trip - better to fly in and out of same place or would I have a linear route that would be better to fly into one city and out of another, etc. Yesterday, after a grueling day on various travel and airfare websites I bought our tickets. Tickets! Finally! Woo Hoo. We're going to Europe. :) I've got airfare to get my nephew to me, and airfare to get us to France.

I only want to miss 1 Sunday at the parish. After many phone calls I actually finally found someone who said they could supply for me that Sunday. So if we leave on Sunday afternoon after church is over, it gets us into France the following morning and we end up with about 11 days to see France and possibly some other areas in Europe.

Now I just have to finish figuring out the details of our trip, how many days where and when so I can book accomodations, and do I rent a car, do we take a train, or a little of both? M's family has rented a large house for the wedding party and a few guests. I sent money for us to stay there. If I plan it right there could be time before the wedding for us to explore some of that area. There's a fortressed castle/city not far away in Carcassonne, and Arles where Van Gogh painted and other interesting areas in Provence that might be done as day trips from the house.

Originally I wanted to spend a couple days in Italy, either Florence, or Venice or both. Then I saw how beautiful the lakes region between Venice and Milan and to the north was. So I thought maybe the lakes region and then either Florence or Venice.

But then a brainstorm hit. Hey, some ancestors came from Germany. Wouldn't it be neat to go to Germany and see the region where they were born and lived?

The problem... if you have to spend several days in a city for a wedding and you want to see Paris and that takes 2 to 3 days, then that leaves you with not much additional travel time. You can't do it all in one trip.

Originally I was of the mind, "I don't know when I'll ever get back to Europe" mindset. That lends itself to wanting to try and cram it all in. That didn't feel right, I know from my time in Guatemala how nice it can be to just hang out in a city and get to know it. In a book I have the author says in planning, "assume you'll come back." That was helpful. So I'm trying to strike a balance between assuming I'll be back and being okay with not seeing everything this trip, but also being mindful that it is possible I might not get back. If not is there something I would *really* regret not doing? I'd love to see Italy, but if I have to choose between the two, since genealogy has been an interest of mine, I think I would regret not popping into Germany when I was nearby and had the chance.