I'd like to call this the best of Europe according to me trip. I've been to about 20 different countries in Europe and my favorites so far are France, Slovenia and Croatia. Normally we stay in Paris for a whole month but our apartment wasn't ready for us so we spent about a week in Provence then a couple days in Lyon before we got to Paris.  Amsterdam was thrown into the mix because the cheapest plane ticket from the Pacific Northwest to Europe was from Vancouver, British Columbia to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a fairly expensive city but we saved so much on the plane tickets that we had 2 days in Amsterdam and 1 day in Vancouver BC for free. You can't beat free.

We also spent one day in Italy and 3 days in Slovenia because that ended up being the cheapest way to get to Croatia. In the past we took a train from Rome to Bari then a ferry to Dubrovnik. This year we saved enough money by flying from Paris to Trieste and then traveling through Slovenia that the Italy/Slovenia trip also ended up free. Again, you can't beat free. 

How we got everywhere:

Train from Seattle to Vancouver Canada - flight from Vancouver Canada to Amsterdam, Netherlands -> bus to Eindhoven, Netherlands -> flight to Marseille, France -> train to Avignon, France -> trains to Nimes, Arles, Orange France -> train to Lyon France -> train to Paris -> train to Bayeux France (and back) -> very expensive taxi to Beauvais France -> Flight to Triest Italy, bus to Villa Opicina -> taxi to Ljubljana -> train to Zagreb -> flight to Dubrovnik Croatia -> bus to Split Croatia -> Flight to Amsterdam -> Flight to Vancouver Canada -> train to Seattle WA.