La Belle France

The itinerary was well planned to give a range of experiences throughout the holiday. The visits to a winery, cider brewing were very interesting, and some more of this type of local experience would fit well with all the other visits. I found the visits to Normandy and other War Memorial sites of particular interest and quite moving. The viewing of historic places such as Monet's garden, the Taurin Tapestry and other special places were excellent breaks from the large number of castles visited. The provision of free time to allow our own investigations of some towns was most welcome, providing some leisure time too. The small group size is an attraction to the Back Roads touring style as it allows all members of the touring party to meet and mingle well. The tone of the holiday was set by the friendly and knowledgeable tour guide, Marie Plattard, and the expert coach drive, Alex. Marie was always available to provide local information and suggestions for our free time, and to help where possible with any problems we may have had. I would certainly seek-out what Back Roads tours had to offer when considering other country holidays, and recommend it to my friends and family.

La Belle France was an excellent tour, with a friendly, knowledgeable and good humoured guide (Marie) and a very safe and reliable driver (Alex). The group size was perfect - 14 tourists, and the organisation and paces we visited fulfilled all expectations.

Well designed itinerary and excellent tour leader and driver. Great to visit towns such as Dinan and Chinen. Loved being able to arrive at Giverney early and visit Monets garden house and the village. Honfleur glorious and enjoyed the two nights there. The dinners were excellent, the hotels well located and pleasant - with great staff. The timings were great - allowing time to get between locations with plenty of time for independent exploring. Highly recommend.

Excellent tour made possible by the tour guide and driver. Generally a good balance between organised time and free time was achieved. Accommodation was good

most enjoyable , well balanced & organized tour, lots of hilights from beautiful gardens, classic Chateaus & monasteries, castles, forts & free time.

Best guide, Max and driver Ken🥰they created a wonderful experience. Scenery was made more interesting by Max’s history and story telling. The whole group came together and we had such fun.

This was a superb trip run by our French tour leader Max and his very experienced and helpful driver, Ken. We stayed in the most charming villages and had some spare time to explore them which was even better. We saw a huge variety of sites - including fabulous gardens, fascinating military sites and amazing historical buildings. The included dinners were great with the highlight being a gourmet meal in Chinon.

Great trip. Saw a lot of France most tourists don’t. Wonderful guide and driver.

We loved this tour. The itinerary suited us. Steph was a good guide and Brian a safe driver. Our hotels were almost all great. The included meals were enjoyable and we liked the freedom of being able to buy our own lunches and dinners on a number of occasions. There’s also a nice amount of free time. Loved driving through the little villages on the back roads.

Accommodation is mainly terrible Only 2 venues where acceptable in the entire 10-day tour The food was pretty **** too

Well looked after by Truda and Ken

Guide was knowledgeable, we visited some wonderful places, bus had a few empty seats which made it comfortable.

Excellent Guide and driver, only 14 travellers, ages various and we all got along very well. Great locations, and good hotels. I thought the tour value for money.

Great itinerary, excellent tour guide (Albert) and the best driver (Ken). Small towns of great interest, enjoyable excursions and plenty of time to do your own thing. Accommodation acceptable, not luxurious but always well located and close to restaurants. Small group works well although a full bus made things cosy. Fortunately no long journeys.

The places we visited, and the tour leader and driver were a standout! One of the best BRT tours we have ever done.

This was our first tour with Blue-Roads and it certainly won’t be the last! During the whole 10 days, we drive on the freeway once or twice - the rest of the time we wandered through beautiful little villages in the French countryside. With a maximum of 20 people, we quickly developed great relationships with everyone and had a number of wonderful dinners and drinks. We arrived at our hotel each night about 4:00pm which gave us lots of time to explore on our own or just find a table in the town square and enjoy a pre dinner drink or two. The itinerary was fabulous and we had lots of time at each of the sites. Could not recommend more highly.

The tour lived up to its description in the Back Roads brochure. Our guide was very experienced, knowledgeable and personable and was able to add stops to the trip to satisfy the requests of some tour members. The hotels were all well located, interesting and a memorable part of the experience. The days were full of activity without us feeling too rushed. A minor negative was that the tour bus, a Mecedes Sprinter, felt a little cramped for the 15 of us on the tour, especially on the longer drives.

Have done seven tours with Blue-Roads. Apart from the bus, which was not up to the standard of those in the UK, the tour met your usual standard. Both the tour guide and driver were stand out exceptional. The accommodation gave an excellent vibe in that it was quintessentially French. Have recommended Blue-Roads for consistency of product and feel pricing fair.

I have always wanted to go to France.The tour fulfilled all my expectations. I saw so much of the countryside, and Tthe Chateaux and Gardens were delightful. The tour guide, Charlie Jaques, was marvellous in every way; caring, competent, knowledgeable and entertaining. I couldn't imagine anyone better.

The Itinerary and accommodation was excellent. Daily water on the bus would have been greatly appreciated. Charlie our Tour Guide made a good trip into a Brilliant Trip his Knowledge Expertise and Sense of Humor certainly was greatly appreciated. Alex our Driver BRILLIANT also an absolute Gentleman. Wonderful Like Minded group of people to travel with all in all a Fantastic Trip .

I’ve already submitted a review to Blue-Roads