About 80km East would put you somewhere between Reims and Chalons-en-Champagne, right?
There used to be an old racetrack near Reims - the pit boxes are still there and very photogenic. I've been through that area a ton of times, either on the way to the South of France or towards Switzerland and to my shame, never stopped there.
Also, Verdun and a lot of the WWI battlefields are fairly close.
Belgium is a very short tgv ride away.
Take cash as plastic isn't as widely accepted as in the states. Enjoy yourself and travel around on the great mass transit. I find most folks to be warm and inviting if you show a little effort. Chat up your bar tenders and employees as everyone is very proud of their home cities and will make sure you find the best things to see and eat.
In reply to 84FSP :
Good point. Chip and pin cards are the best for this. American style cards without the chip are harder to get accepted.
For getting cash. Usually any old atm machine from a bank will give you better rates than the money exchcnagers at the airport. For credit cards ensure you use one without s foreign transaction fee and you’ll also get nearly the best exchange rates available.
I got nothing, but I give two thumbs up to the cousin. 
Fueled by Caffeine said:Belgium is a very short tgv ride away.
And Belgium has awesome beer.
Besides the race weekend and the trip to the ring I am not sure you have much time for other things. The triangle of travel you just described will take up a lot of your time. Like New York to DC to Detroit kind of travel times. Rail and air travel are different over there so really take a look at your options. I drove a rental while there and enjoyed that but pulling off at random exits and stopping in small towns was part of my goals.
As you plan to travel probably call your mobile provider and see if they offer any deal to reduce your roaming costs. OR just get a pay as you go phone with data and mapping capability, or invest in maps. Also some credit card companies offer cards specifically for traveling, (at least they used to, I don't travel international as much) and may be worth it if you find one that waives all per charge fees and instead charge a single annual fee. Use it for the trip then pay it off and cancel it.
Not sure how close you are to your family member that is having the wedding or their bride but ask her if any of her family is into F1 and maybe they already have a trip planned that you can add on to.
IF you were going to stay two weeks then I would recommend travel to other things. Otherwise there are probably tons of opportunities for enjoying life in the Paris suburbs or around your hotel of choice.
Bonn is ok if you just want to spend a night before your ring runs.
Then Graz, Austria if you are interested in being closer, still several hours to the redbull ring track. I got to visit it before redbull started working on it. Seeing it on TV now I can tell it is quite different.
Fueled by Caffeine said:In reply to 84FSP :
Good point. Chip and pin cards are the best for this. American style cards without the chip are harder to get accepted.
For getting cash. Usually any old atm machine from a bank will give you better rates than the money exchcnagers at the airport. For credit cards ensure you use one without s foreign transaction fee and you’ll also get nearly the best exchange rates available.
I think it's more the chip thing than anything else- we used CC's all over Italy, as they had the best net exchange rate.
Which brings me to my real point- call your bank and all your CC providers. First, tell them you are going overseas, and where you are going. That way, your card won't be wrongly suspended (which can suck bad on a trip). Second, ask what the exchange rate and fees are. Based on that, then you can put a plan together on how to spend money- like CC#1 first, cash second, CC#2 third- etc. You'll also get an idea of how bad the exchange rate is at some of the airport exchangers. Oh, and one more thing- there are real bank ATM's at airports. You need to spend some effort finding them, but they are there.
One other travel suggestions- phone. Find out if your phone company has coverage in the countries you are visiting, and how much it costs. Then do some searches to find out where can buy a pre-paid card (like for Vodafone) and how much they cost. If the prepaid is better, ask your phone company to unlock your phone. Some will let you do that.
When traveling in Europe, it's really nice to have the data stream, so that you can use the tools your phone has.
I use these guys for when I go to the states. I bought a spare SIM card and buy time before I leave. They seem to be doing Europe now. Anymore, I find that I cant live without text and data when on the road.
In reply to NOHOME :
As a comparison, we got a pre-paid card from Vodafone for 20 Euros that was more than enough for our two weeks in Italy. Probably a little more now, but I'd bet not much more.
"s" car go
... and T-mobile and a chip card WITH a PIN.
Paris is lovely. I do get a bit frustrated with it however. France has so much beauty, but a very large area around Paris is very flat and boring. If you just stay around Paris, I think you'll find yourself saying that Europe is ugly.
If you're staying a week or more, you'll have time to drive around. I suggest heading east and hitting:
Strasbourg, FR. It used to be German but the wars pushed the border around. Lovely town and you'll be hard-pressed to find nicer people.
Heidelberg, GE. Neat old castle with terrible german wine. Lots of old-meets-new.
Dinkelsbuhl, GE. One of the older towns that still has its original medieval wall surrounding it. Every single night since the 1400s, a bugler walks the wall and sounds the all-is-well call.
Munich, GE. This is germany in a nutshell. It is iconic.
Saltzburg, AU. The salt mine tour is so much fun. The Abbey is remarkable. Not to mention, the drive from Munich through Bavaria will transport you to every Disney animated movie from the 40s. You'll feel like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty all at once.
Wind your way down through Lienz and cross over the Dolomites into Cortina, IT. Ridiculous beauty crossing the alps.
Venice, IT. Because duh.
Milan, IT. What an amazing old town. Do the rooftop tour of the Duomo
Head up through the interlaken region of Switzerland and then tell me how much you feel like coming back for Christmas.
If you want to go further north, this loop will be more historic and less whimsical, but still lovely.
Head up to Brussels and the Hague, then up to Amsterdam. Cross into Germany and do Hamburg and Berlin. Swing back through Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, OR... continue on south east and do Prague CZ, Vienna AU, and the Budapest, HG. Then fly out of Budapest.
Sorry, I have to politely disagree with Munich being Germany in a nutshell. It might meet tourists' expectations of "Germany in a nutshell", but Bavaria and especially Munich is its own, err, special place.
Regarding cell service, if the OP has T-Mobile, no need to change phone companies or worry about getting a SIM over there. If not, one of the issues is that the pre-paid SIMs available in Europe tend to work well in the country you pick them up in but incur potentially high roaming charges in other places. Especially if one picks up the SIM in Switzerland - don't ask me how I know *that*. Either way, make sure your phone doesn't have a carrier lock...
Regarding credit cards, a lot of the cards these days don't charge foreign transaction fees - definitely worth checking. Also, credit cards aren't as prevalent in continental Europe as they are here and in the UK, so make sure that you also have some cash on you.
In reply to BoxheadCougarTim :
I don't disagree about Munich. I was speaking about expectations; waiters in lederhosen, women carrying eight mugs of beer, hofbrauhaus, glockenspiel, etc. You're right though... not the real Germany. Its the Germany you expect from watching the bugs bunny cartoons with Hansel and Gretel.
Also regarding cell service, they can get a data-only SIM from their provider or Project Fi and do data calls for about $10/gb. Messenger, Hangouts, Viber are good apps for data/wifi calling, and likely cheaper than some roaming plans or adding global to your current service.
GSM is the standard radio worldwide. North America seems to be the only one doing CDMA for now, so Verizon makes it tough overseas unless you have a phone with a GSM radio. T-mobile should work in all of Europe with the proper plan.
I'm going to go against the prevailing tide of opinion here and suggest you not try to cover too much. Unless all you want to do is see a few cities and a lot of highway, running all over Europe in a couple weeks is missing the point. Pick one area not too far from the wedding location (I'd say Alsace-Lorraine and Normandy fit the bill), and spend some time getting to know it. My best trips to Europe have generally been those with the least travel once I got there.
Tour the Bic factory? Tour the Mavic factory? They are both in France.
Curtis said:In reply to BoxheadCougarTim :
I don't disagree about Munich. I was speaking about expectations; waiters in lederhosen, women carrying eight mugs of beer, hofbrauhaus, glockenspiel, etc. You're right though... not the real Germany.
It's Bravaria, but not Germany.
02Pilot said:I'm going to go against the prevailing tide of opinion here and suggest you not try to cover too much. Unless all you want to do is see a few cities and a lot of highway, running all over Europe in a couple weeks is missing the point. Pick one area not too far from the wedding location (I'd say Alsace-Lorraine and Normandy fit the bill), and spend some time getting to know it. My best trips to Europe have generally been those with the least travel once I got there.
Thumbs up; a couple of regions or a couple of iconic cities. Paris plus one of the country regions (Normandy perhaps) would fill 10 days easy; that is unless you want to do go everywhere see nothing tourism.
The Ring is just out of they way unless you're flying solo and it's on top of your wish list. You can spend days there alone.
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