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Visit the lake of Genova! It's close to Chamonix so it wont be a big extra journey.
Genova, Lausanne and Montreux are fascinating cities and the lake is one of the nicest in Europe. Jump on a boat or go swimming.
If you head about 50kms north you can add a visit to the Gruyère area. Very nice for hiking, cycling, hanging around small lakes, buying and eating chease directly from the mountainfarmers ...

If you are up for the sea, take the TGV from Paris to Marseille and visit the Mediter. coastline. Go to Monaco and St. Tropez, visit nice beaches and enjoy good weather!

For one so bent on adventure I recommend visiting the dockyards of Toulon after dark. Culture and adventure in one package. Stay sharp.

suggested equipment:
helment
one axe - possibly two

If you don't spend time in art museums near home don't waste your precious time in them oversees. Skip the Louvre, or stroll the gardens/visit the outside after hours when everything else is closed.

Walk through the http://www.restlessadventurer.net/travel/destinations/France/Paris/Catacombs/ instead. Skip the sewer tour. River cruises are always a bit lame but taking the night one when everything else is closed makes sense and the lights are pretty nice. Hike up the Eiffel as has been suggested.

Leave Paris and head to the Bernese Oberland (Interlaken/Lauterbrunen/Grindelwald/Gimmelwald) area of Switzerland. It's even sort of on the way to Chamonix. Bungee jumping, canyoning, paragliding, hiking, climbing. Canyoning in http://www.restlessadventurer.net/sport-rappelling/abseil-trips/Switzerland/Chli-Schliere/ is especially good.

Skip the big cities. So many of the smaller towns in Europe have great older parts, forts, castles, churches that are worthy of exploration without all the hoards of guided tourists. If Rick Steves recommends it, avoid it like the plague!. The food, the wine, the beer, the cheese......

I'm with Moni. Unless you have a current passion for some aspect of the cultural features, save the cities for a few decades later. My wife and I went to the Dolomites for 3 weeks one year, and didn't set foot in Venice, Florence, Rome, etc. It was the best vacation of our lives. Just mountains, meadows, climbing and relaxing. Another time we spent a week in London seeing movies and sampling Indian food restaurants. Man were we scolded for missing the museums! But we had a hell of a time. You define your trip, you are paying for it. If you want to climb the whole time, then hell yes!

I'm revealing that I'm a cultural boob, but you know, most man-made things evoke only a glimmer of the sense of wonder I receive from natural features. What I do find really interesting is the mountain culture, how people lived in them for thousands of years. That was one museum worth seeing - the "Ice Man" Ötzi. Fascinating...

Have fun!

MountaingirlBC wrote:I fly into France mid-June. Will spend a week doing family stuff with my boyfriend, then we have a week to do whatever we want before he heads home. I plan to meet my climbing partner in Chamonix on the 26th for 2 weeks of climbing. Any suggestions as to how to spend the week before? I hate shopping. Have no interest in sitting in a cafe people watching. We'll spend a day in Paris and go to the Louvre but other than that, I don't have much interest in art/history right now as I figure I will have plenty of time to hang around in galleries & museums when my joints crap out on me. I guess I'm looking for more adventure/nature than culture right now. I'd like to see a little of Italy and Spain too if time permits. Any suggestions?

Canadians, go down to Catalunya, Spain. Pass some days in a house or camping at Costa Brava. There are many beautiful and little sea inlets what you'll enjoy. Villages are very nice too. You could visit the Roman site of Ampuries, Dali Museum in Figueres, Girona or short trip to Barcelona. It's the second city in Spain, it's so cosmopolitan and Mediterranean. There are many places to visit there: Sagrada Familia, Parque Guell. Olympic Village area (modern), Plaza de España, museums... You also have big beaches up of down the city, I know those up, in Arenys de Mar, wich is connected to Barcelona by train. And you always have The Catalan Pyrenees there, not far from Barcelona and Girona

Thanks so much for all the great suggestions. I feel like I have some good options now and that perhaps I'm not alone in being a cultural boob. I guess I'm just more interested in natural history than human history. In the grand scheme of things, we humans are just a blip in the fossil record. I guess being a geology student gives me a strange perspective on the history of this planet.

That said, I'm totally getting into the idea of throwing on backpacks and exploring some little villages (especially the ones with cheese! mmmmm I love cheese!) that we can access by trails and trains. My boyfriend won't be up for long days of hiking so this seems like a good compromise. I'm sure it would be easier to rent a car but I kinda like the idea of not having one. Kind of forces you to stop and smell the cheeses.

I'm going to print this thread out and start seeing how many of your ideas I can incorporate into a one week period. Definitely won't be your average/normal european vacation which is exactly what I want.

I neither like to visit many museums and historic buildings. Prefer the outdoor too though when I'm many days there I don't mind if I visit a town or city. Enjoy the trip, that's the most important thing wherever you are

OK, last suggestion since it sounds like you've got it pretty dialed.

When I spent a summer studying in Paris, I and some friends headed south and "discovered" and spent a week at one of the coolest little beach towns I've ever seen (actually one of the coolest towns period). It's called Villefranche-sur-mer, which means friendly village on the sea. It's halfway between Nice and Monaco. We took a train from Nice, hopped off and just wandered through town until we found a nice little inn.

Wonderful beaches with amazing water, nice little harbor with cool little streets with restaurants with outdoor seating, etc. Good seafood, good cheese, good wine. No car needed since you can cruise the town on foot. It was awesome. I'd go back now but the experience might be a little different with a 4-1/2 and 2 year old in tow.

Bottom line, and I think this has been said already, you'll be in France. I don't think you could pick a bad place.

MountaingirlBC wrote:Thanks so much for all the great suggestions. I feel like I have some good options now and that perhaps I'm not alone in being a cultural boob. I guess I'm just more interested in natural history than human history. In the grand scheme of things, we humans are just a blip in the fossil record. I guess being a geology student gives me a strange perspective on the history of this planet.

That said, I'm totally getting into the idea of throwing on backpacks and exploring some little villages (especially the ones with cheese! mmmmm I love cheese!) that we can access by trails and trains. My boyfriend won't be up for long days of hiking so this seems like a good compromise. I'm sure it would be easier to rent a car but I kinda like the idea of not having one. Kind of forces you to stop and smell the cheeses.

I'm going to print this thread out and start seeing how many of your ideas I can incorporate into a one week period. Definitely won't be your average/normal european vacation which is exactly what I want.

good for you! See the place warts, or in your case, cheese and all! Enjoy
Cheers

if you are on your own, I would also suggest to spend a few days in Fontainebleau for bouldering and meeting other people interested in climbing

also, as said somewhere above, you can go for hiking around the Mt Blanc area ( TMB, Aravis, Aosta, ...) which is the best way to get you acclimatised and enjoy beautiful scenery. This would also give you opportunities to meet people and to walk through 3 countries ( France, Italy, Switzerland ...)

if you want more detailed info about this area : have a search on :

http://www.camptocamp.org/

as I only see now that you are a student in geology ( as I have been myself 25 years ago ...), I think that you really have to go hiking around Mont Blanc and especialy go to see the dinosaurs feet marks at the Emosson dam in the Aiguilles Rouges on the Swiss side. The Mont Blanc area is worth to see as a climber but even much more with your geologist eyes !

MountaingirlBC, almost all towns that I've said to you have train stations. You'd enjoy those calas (little sea inlets), the water is so clear there. You could also go to The Pyrenees and even Andorra, where there are gear low prices. Is your trip in early or late june

Whatever we do we will end up in Chamonix on the 26th and from there I'll be hiking & climbing for the next 2 weeks so I expect to have lots of time to geek out on rocks. Dinosaur tracks sound super cool so I'll have to make sure I work those in somewhere.

I'm in northeastern France for a week starting on June 12th. The following week is what I'm looking for suggestions for. Then I'm climbing from the 27th - July 11th.... exactly where will depend on snow levels and conditions.

Chillaxing on a beach is starting to sound pretty good too although I know myself well enough to know that I can't actually sit on the beach and do nothing for more than few hours so beaches with cool villages and other stuff to do sound like a good bet.

You could learn to play boules with the old men at the village green.