When? June or September

We are in the early stages of planning a 3-week trip to France for next year. We want to avoid July and August but cannot make our minds between June and September. Our rough itinerary (if it helps) is:

3 days Normandy

5 days Provence

5 days Cote d%26#39;azur

2 days Loire chateaux

7 days Paris

The travel guides seem to say the weather should be similar so does anyone have any suggestions or reasons why we should pick one month over the other?

Thanks in advance...

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We always go to France (Provence) in September since trhe weather is absolutely gorgeous, the hoardes of tourists have already gone home AND the food is wonderful, with the summer crops still really producing, and, depending on how late in the month you are travelling, there is the possibility of early truffles - What%26#39;s not to love!

Personally, I wouldn%26#39;t spend that much time (5 days)in/along the Cote d%26#39;Azur -instead I might consider 2 or 3 days at max - as there is much more of real interest to see in Provence where there are loads of wonderful historical sites including some of the best preserved Roman ruins in the world.

Also, in September you have the potential of being there for the vendange (grape harvest) in the vinyards of the southern Cotes-du-Rhone and the various appelations of Provence as well.

Perhaps you may also want to think of this as a first trip to France and choose a specific region or two where you will concentrate your explorations rather than to going all the way from the far North to the shores of the Mediterranean in a relatively short time and just skimming over everything.

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If you%26#39;re wanting to see lavender fields, go in June. The fields are all harvested by September.

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Thanks AlpilleGal! Great comments. We might do as you say and reduce the Cote d%26#39;Azur time. Provence is the area we are probably most excited to see and we haven%26#39;t really got down to the details yet so will keep this mind.

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Yes, we were wondering about the lavender fields as well, but the posts I have seen here seem to suggest that they aren%26#39;t really in full bloom until well into July. We wouldn%26#39;t travel in July just for this.

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