Thanks for help. We are two couples from Texas. My wife and I have traveled a few days in this area before. The other couple has not. We are interested in staying at least 2 nights in any one location. We can start in Nice and end up in Paris or vice versa. We will use frequent flyer points through Delta. We enjoy excellent local wines, beautiful scenery and higher end local inns. We will rent a car, say in Nice, and turn it back in Beaune. Hopefully train to Paris. The other man is a pro class golfer. They will stay in Paris for a couple nights but we may skip and head back to J.R. country. The 10/11 nights would just be the Nice/Paris portion.
Appreciate hearing your opinion on: pacing (e.g., add a night here delete a town there), itinerary, best local inns/hotels, BEST time of year (to miminize points with Delta and maximum enjoyment of trip [say generally late Spring v. early Fall]), don't miss experiences (including restaurants [stars not necessary]), etc.
1st 2 or 3 nights ~ probably Nice area so they can get a flavor of French Rivera.
2 nights ~ Aix en Provence
2 nights ~ Saint Remy
2 nights ~ Beaune
1 night ~ Paris
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
10 Days From Nice to Paris ~ what do you think?
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Your itinerary is really:
1 1/4 to 2 1/4 days in Nice
1 3/4 days in Aix
1 3/4 days in St Remy
1 1/4 days in Beaune
1/2 day in Paris
That's not nearly enough time in each location. Also consider that you don't want to be in Aix on a Sunday or Monday morning when most/all the shops will be closed.
I would eliminate at least 1 location - probably Beaune because that has the greatest amount of "sit-in-a-car" travel time involved (not scenic for most of the way too).
For your itinerary, I would just visit Provence & the Cote d'Azur - probably flying into Nice & out of Marseille - skipping Paris and the need to be close to Paris for a flight in or out.
If you can't get FF seats from Marseille, I would fly into Paris & immediately take the 3 hr TGV from CDG to the Avignon TGV station & start in St Remy. Then fly home from Nice. So that makes it:
4 nights/3 1/4 days St Remy
2 nights/1 3/4 days Aix
4 nights/3 3/4 days Nice
That gives you more time "being there" instead of so much time "getting there".
Do you have my 27 page itinerary for the Cote d'Azur & Provence? We've vacationed there for 34 weeks (plus 2 weeks near Beaune). I've sent this itinerary to around 3,000 people on Fodors. E-mail me at StuDudley@aol.com if you would like a copy & I'll attach one to the reply e-mail.
Reserve soon - we booked our June '13 France vacation about 4 months ago - and we're going to areas that are "less traveled" than where you're going.
Stu Dudley
I don't think your itinerary is so bad myself, given you have a hosrt time to begin with. Because going from Aix to St Remy is kind of a trip anyway, that you would be doing, if you want to go in that direction. It depends, when I travel like that in Provence, I travel lightly and going from one hotel to another is really no big deal. I don't have massive amounts of stuff that I unpack and settle in to a hotel, etc., I basically live out of my suitcase for clothes, and just take out toiletries and a few things. So packing up doesn't take long.
However, I can see cutting out Beaune altogether, also, as I'm not sure what the big attraction is there to make it worth it in a short trip. It's a small time focused on wine tourism, there is plenty of wine in Provence, obviously.
I think the OP's itinerary is also fine but if it were me I'd just stop over in Aix for one day and spend another day in the St Remy/Avignon area which has many more IMO spectacular things to see and do than lovely Aix - like the Pont du Gard - Roman era aqueduct, Avignon itself, one of the dreamiest old cities in France known for its sprawling Palace of the Popes and famous half-broken bridge as well as St-Remy itself and its neighbor, famous Les Baux, one of the finest archaeological sites in France.
>>but if it were me I'd just stop over in Aix for one day and spend another day in the St Remy/Avignon area<<
So would I (and we have several times). But the OP stated that he/she wanted to stay at least 2 nights in each location. I think Aix is a 1 day visit - so I suggest that you arrive from Nice late in the day, have a great dinner in Aix, then next day visit Aix, lunch on the Cours, explore more in the afternoon, and then leave for St Remy early in the AM the next morning.
Stu Dudley