Also, no past travel history + working only as a contractor + covid = very slim chances of getting visa. 😬

I just saw this Visa at doorstep service of VFS. Seems kind of promising given the appointment availability and all.

Has anyone used this? Though they charge extra for it, but given the urgency and intercity travel expenses(in case you have appointment in a different city) this seems to be a really good service

Just want to be sure if this is legit

The Itinerary I submitted but didn’t follow lol

I and my colleague Sherin are travelling together on this trip as we share the same interest of a slow and no-rush trip. The goal is to enjoy the culture of the country and the neighbourhood rather than rushing from one tourist destination to other. We have planned the itinerary carefully to accomodate this basic requirement. We have also taken the tickets through hostels/Airbnb so since it’s much closer to the culture of the place than normal hotels. Both our arrival and departure are from France itself, to avoid any issues that may rise in relation to covid situation 20th September - Arrival We’ll start from our home town on 19th to catch the 20th early morning flight from Mumbai. We arrive at Paris in the morning from there we’ll go to our Airbnb booking. Goal of the first day is to take rest and sleep to compensate the jetlag. After lunch, we’ll explore the neighbourhood and go for shopping in the evening. What’s more fun than taking a walk through the streets of Paris. 21st September - Eiffel Tower and City Tour (Notre Dame Cathedral if not closed) We’ll start our day by visiting the 1050-foot (320-m) tall Eiffel Tower and try to climb up the stairs as much as we could. Then we go for a tour of Paris that includes the Ile de la Cité along with an in-depth exploration of the world-famous Notre Dame Cathedral (although it’s closed as of now, we’ll still try to take a look from the outside and capture pictures from allowed areas). Back to the Airbnb after the trip. We’ll find a nice place to have proper Paris dinner and call it a day 22nd September - Latin Quarter and Oldest streets of Paris This is a busy day. We’ll first ross the Seine river to discover the northern edge of the vibrant Latin Quarter and wander some of the oldest streets of Paris. This is a dream come true, to finally spend time on the streets of Paris. Then we go to the Iconic intellectual hotspot: a bookstore called Shakespeare & Co!. Buy some books and take some photos. Rest of the day is to explore the city as time allows 23rd September - Le Louvre Museum and Tuileries Gardens We’ll spend the morning doing shopping at Paris. First time to buy something for folks at home. We’ll go for an excursion inside Le Louvre Museum and then to see the secrets of Da Vinci, Delacroix, and the works of the ancient Greeks. We’d like to spend more time with local people and hence we’ll try to spend time at Tuileries Gardens. 24th September - To Lyon We have a a trip to Lyon ahead so we’ll try to quickly wrap up the first item of the day - trip to the Champs Elysees and the majestic Arc de Triomphe. We’ll board a Train/Bus to Lyon as soon as we can. Exploring the neghbourhood is the major goal for the day. But only after taking rest from the travel 25th September - Streets at Lyon and traditional Lyonnaise dinner An exciting day today - we are visiting the UNESCO-listed Old Town and the Presque Ile. We are looking forward for this day since this gives us a lot of time exploring the old part of France and get to know the culture much better. We’ll also be visiting two rivers of Saône and Rhône if we get time. We’ll try to explore cobblestoned streets in search of the famous traboules and in the evening Walking up to the Fourviere Basilica for a wonderful panorama of the whole city. We have heard so much about the dinner from family-owned restaurants serving traditional Lyonnaise cuisine. So that’s dinner plan for the day (we are also considering the dinner from Auberge de Collonges) 26th September - A slow Sunday, Lyon’s fantastic culinary scene We’ll start the day exploration of Lyon’s fantastic culinary scene - Historic right bank of the Saône, known for its Renaissance architecture. We want it to be a slow day so we can visit city’s outstanding museums, great shops, and lively bars at night 27th September - Wine tasting The one and only goal for the day is the tour of Beaujolais and wine tasting. Wines from here are world famous. We’d like to explore the hills and landscape through which the vineyard is spread across - sampling the local gastronomy by stopping in the “Bistrot Beaujolais” 28th September - City of Avignon We’ll go to the beautiful city of Avignon in the heart of Provence and the rest of the day to explore this medieval city. And how that is complete without going to the palace - Palais des Papes. We’ll end the day with city exploration - specifically city’s pretty squares and the medieval bridge along the Rhone River 29th September - Another day with Wine - Châteauneuf du Pape This is the second day with wine-related activities. We’ll go to the one of the most renowned wine-growing region in France - Châteauneuf du Pape. Although, there are only 13 variants of wines, we have heard there are 20 of them unofficially. We’d like to explore the process, meet the people and buy some wine to bring back to India for friends and families 30th September - The Alpilles This day, we are going to Aix en Provence. The journey is filled with city exploration and other destinations such as Alpilles. We are not sure if get the time to hike there but we’d love to include that in our plan - as time allows. Citadel of Les Baux de Provence was in our plan from the beginning. The view from the top is absolutely stunning. if we are not tired, we’d like to have a quick visit to Carrière de Lumières as well. We know it’s a short duration destination. It would seem like totally worth the effort going there. 1st October - Cooking class The main attraction of the day is the Provençal-style cooking class in Aix en Provence. We have got an Airbnb experience where the host/chef teach us the traditional cooking style of the place and well, we get to eat what we make. This will be a long day already but we’d like to do a short visit to the antique shops in Saint Rémy de Provence and do some normal shopping as well. 2nd October - the final destination in France - The Nice Every single person we spoke about France trip had suggested us two place to stay - Lyon and Nice. We are now moving to Nice. The return flight is also booked from Nice. So we’ll be back to the city after the visit in Italy. To the city of Nice on the French Riviera. It’s mostly exploration of the city today including 1. Visiting Nice’s old town, or Vieux Nice 2. Stroll through city’s daily market called Cours Saleya 3. Walk along the Promenade des Anglais 3rd Oct - Second Sunday - totally for Perfumes at Grasse Who would have thought we were able to make our own fragrance and then add it to the database so we can buy the same in the future, when we go with our kids and wife. It feels special and amazing. We’ll spend the whole day at Grasse for the perfume tour. We’ll also end time for perfume shopping but nothing other than this in today’s agenda 4th October - To Pisa, Italy After two amazing weeks at France, we are leaving to Italy to see the the tower of Pisa. It’s a long trip. We’ll take rest for the most of the day but also try to go for exploring the neighbourhood. Afterall the major destination at Pisa is the leaning tower. We’l try to cover that today itself so that the trip to Florence on the next day doesn’t have to be delayed. But if we don’t get time today, we’ll delay the trip to Florence. Visiting leaning tower is important 5th October - To Florence Florence is close by. So we haven’t taken another accomodation. We’ll probably spend the whole day in the city and eating local food. We are planning to cover a city tour that includes Duomo, the Campanile, the Baptistery, Piazza Della Signoria, Ponte Vechhio Bridge and Piazzale Michelangelo 6th October - Rome Another important location in terms of historical evolution. We’d want to explore what we have seen in movies about Rome. This day is dedicated to city tour and visiting the Vatican. We’ll try to cover the holy basilica of St Peter as well if time allows 7th October - The Collosseum Visting Colosseum is an important event in the whole trip. Going back to the school days where we only saw it in our text book. We’ll also see the Trevi fountain and take pictures. We’d like to explore the city and eat local food but we’ll also try to visit the Circus Maximus if time allows. We might not get time for this since we need to move to Milan before it gets darker 8th October - Milan and pizza making Our next stop is Milan. This is a great stop between Rome and Nice so we don’t have to traval the whole distance in a single stretch. We’ll explore the city and also visit Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. We’ll also visit a pizza making experience. There is no point in leaving Italy without learning how to make pizza 9th October - Back to Nice We’ll head to Nice from Milan. We have heard good stories about Nice and wanted to return from Nice instead of Paris. To make the trip memorable, we have booked a photo session and a classic yacht sailing at Cannes (through Airbnb experience). Each would take few hours and rest of the time we’ll stroll through the streets eating local food 10th October - Final Day It’s a calm sunday. We are not expecting a lot of crowd in the neighbourhood. We’ll take a walk through the streets and do final shopping before we return. We’ll head to airport in the morning itself to catch our noon flight. Off to Dubai for transit and then to Mumbai