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3 days in Provence - Avignon, Arles, Aix, and the smaller Luberon Villages

3 days in Provence - Avignon, Arles, Aix, and the smaller Luberon Villages

Old May 6th, 2016, 06:50 AM
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3 days in Provence - Avignon, Arles, Aix, and the smaller Luberon Villages

Hi Everyone,

We are heading to Provence in late June.

We are thinking to go to
Avignon
Arles
Aix-en-Provence
St. Remy
L'isle sur la Sorgue,
Gordes
Menerbes
Roussillon
Bonnieux
and we are open to visiting other towns/villages too. The above listing is not fixed yet.

(1) Do you guys think it is manageable for us to cover all of those above towns and villages in 3 days?

(2) If we can cover all of them in 3 days = what should be the itinerary?

(3) Which do you recommend should be our base location for accomodation?

(4) If you are to decide which top cities/towns to see in Provence in just 3 days, what would those be? If we need to skip some of those towns listed above, to instead go to some other towns in Provence which towns would those be?

(5) And if we want to really cover all of those cities / towns above, what is the ideal number of days to stay?

We haven't decided yet where we will be based. But we are taking the train from Lyon to Avignon.

And we are leaving Provence via train from Aix-en-Provence going to Marseille or Nice depending on which airport we will need to flyout from.

Thanks in advance for your advice. Really appreciate it.
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Old May 6th, 2016, 08:28 AM
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You have about 5-8 days worth of stuff to see & do on your list. Does the train from Lyon to Avignon happen on 1 of your 3 days? Does the train from Aix to Nice or Marseille happen on 1 of your 3 days???

IMO, the Luberon (without l'Isle sur la Sorgue) can/will consume 1 very full day.

Aix will consume 3/4 of 1 day - as will Avignon. Arles will consume 1/2+ day. St Remy 1/3 day, l'Isle sur la Sorgue 1/3 day.

If train travel time is included in 1 of your 3 days, I would:

Day 1. Arrive at the Avignon TGV station, pick up a car, visit St Remy (or Arles), and drive to the Luberon & stay there for your 2 nights??

Day 2. Visit villages, countryside, and lavender fields in the Luberon.

Day 3. Drive to Lourmarin, visit, then on to Aix. Spend your remaining day in Aix (not on a Sunday).

Day 4 homeward bound!!

Stu Dudley
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Old May 6th, 2016, 08:35 AM
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1) no
2) not applicable as (1) is no
3) this is personal preference, a lot of people like to base in places I dislike, for example. None of the places you name would be impossible as a base as you can tell by a map. Aix is the only one that is really off-center, so I wouldn't choose it if the place is to be your one base. If I stay in Provence a week, for example, I do move between two bases to cover different areas (say Aix and then one much farther north or NW)

But my personal preference is that I would not choose Bonnieux or Menerbes or Gordes because the first two are two small and the latter too crowded and expensive. Other people like to stay in them, apparently.

If it were me, I'd take at least a week if I wanted to see all those places. that should be about right as several of those villages don't require an entire day, that's for sure (Menerbes, etc). But I do spend entire days in Aix, Avignon and Arles.
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