+1.

The seven capitals in seven days trip is a great way to miss most of Europe. Pick one to three countries, see some big cities, some small towns, some out of the way places to get a better feel for the region. I also highly, highly recommend the Rick Steves travel guides to help you have a better on the ground experience - what sights are worth seeing, how to avoid lines, and what sights are not worth your time.

Fly to Paris. Take the train to Avignon.

Keep in mind that once you are in Europe flights on carriers like Ryanair and easyJet are dirt cheap. Most flights are around an hour.

I have family in London and we usually visit them in the summer with some type of side trip onto the mainland. England and Ireland are very nice and Barcelona has some incredible things to see. The Netherlands is also great (the entire country reminded me of a perfectly laid out train set) and Belgium was worth the trip. We haven't done Germany or Italy yet but I think the German trip may be in 2010.

but you loose another 2 hours getting to and from the airports that aren't the main ones..
Ryan air "brussels south" is nowhere near Brussels at all, it's in Charleroi, a different province..
same for Barcelona

the budget airlines fly on budget airports, then you waste time and money on getting to the actual city you want to visit

The travel to the destination is part of the reason for going. I've flown Ryanair plenty of times and never felt we were tossed out in some out of the way place.

I've done the trip from London to Barcelona and I didn't think it was too bad. We actually flew out of Stanstead and into Girona, once we landed it was an hours drive into Barcelona. Still faster than driving the whole distance.

Wow.....I've got a lot of researching to on the suggestions! I'm trying to keep the trip to 7 to 8 days because my oldest son is going to summer school (we're still not sure if he can miss a whole week). I'll post some feedback later this evening after I have "presented" the recommendations.

Thanks!

Nah. Nuthin' wrong with Bristol or Bournemouth or Bremen. Nuthin at all.

Trust me on this: your son can miss a week of summer school.