tom18

I know that one can go by train from Avignon to some of the larger cities in Provence such as Arles and Nimes, but is it possible to go by bus from Avignon to some of the smaller villages such as St. Remy and Gordes? If so, is there a website giving the schedules? Thanks in advance.

DebitNM

I am in the area presently and see buses all the time that go between towns and cities.

http://www.seeprovence.com/travel/buses.html

If you google Provence buses, there are lots of pages if the above one doesn't tell you what you need.

MmePerdu

Edgard runs buses from Avignon and has schedules on their website.
http://www.edgard-transport.fr/horaires/?rub_code=23

FrenchMystiqueTours

Here are the Conseil Général websites for the bus networks in the departments of:

Vaucluse - http://www.vaucluse.fr/1119-recherche-de-lignes.htm

Gard - http://www.edgard-transport.fr/

Bouches-du-Rhône - http://www.lepilote.com/

Saint-Rémy is in the Bouches-du-Rhône department and Gordes is in the Vaucluse department. I haven't checked bus schedules for these places but if your French isn't up to the task I or others can assist you.

Myer

We stayed in Avignon for a week last June.

You can't really go to Gordes, Roussillon by bus but we took one of those minivan tours to those.

If you click on my name you can read my trip report and if you go to www.travelwalks.com you can see the photos.

We spent 1 1/2 days in Aix, then 8 days in Avignon and trained to Paris for 4 days.

We did not rent a car and got around by train and bus.

PhilippeProvence

Travelling by bus to the luberon villages or the Alpilles can be a bit frustating since you won't see as much as you should and you'll be stcuk in one village when the idea is to hop from one village to the other and see the differences (ex Gordes and Roussillon). A car could be an idea but a van or a guided tour with a local is also a great experience.
For example, so many things to see around st Remy
http://saintremydeprovencetourism.blogspot.fr/

Myer

We were able to visit all the towns of interest to us by bus or train except the hill towns of Les Baux, Gordes & Roussillon.

For that we took an afternoon mini-van tour that was just right for us.

For can read my trip report by clicking on my name and see my photos at: www.travelwalks.com

tom18

Thanks everybody for your feedback. I read a little French and my browser translates into English, so I should be able to figure out the information in the links you provided.

Philippe – Thanks for the link – I’ll check it out. Do you have a recommendation for a company for the van tour?

Myer – I read your trip report. Very nice, great pictures, and you provided a lot of good information. I do have a couple of questions. First, you mentioned the bus schedule –did you get one when you arrived there, or did you find it online? Second, do you have the name of the van tour you took?

Myer

I don't wait until the trip to get anything. Might make some decisions then but I have all of my info in advance.

The name of the tour is www.provence-panorama.com

We went on Tue PM from 2 - 7:30.

Our driver was a yound girl who was excellent.

It was tour #2 to Les Baux, Gorde & Roussillon. We stopped near the Abbey but we were a few weeks early for lavender.

We did pass a field that had lavender in color so she stopped for about 15 minutes and we got out and walked thru the field. Photos.

Like anything I would have liked more time in the hill towns but that the price you pay on a tour.

The biggest surprises were Montpellier (though technically not in Provence - I found a walking tour that turned out to be excellent) and Arles.

I hope to be back in a year or so and use Montpellier as a base.

Biggest disappointments - St Remy (pretty dead little town), going to Isle-sur-la-Sorge on market day. A beautiful town overrun. Going to beautiful Uzes on market day when the main square was overrun.

We were there in June which is spring. The bus to Pont-du-Gard only goes directly to the parking lot on weekends at that time of year so we went on Saturday that happened to be market day in Uzes.

This is the link to the bus to Pont-du-Gard / Uzes.
http://www.edgard-transport.fr/ftp/F...A15_031212.pdf

Notice that the stop at PdG is Rond Point (Argilliers). It doesn't even show PdG parking lot. That's because we're in winter. In a few months they'll show it on weekends and then in summer everyday.

You can also see the Uzes stop only a few minutes later.

To St-Remy:
http://www.lepilote.com/ftp/FR_documents/FH0057.pdf

Info on Avignon and bus / train links.

http://www.beyond.fr/villages/avigno...ce-france.html

- - - - -
If you are going from the U.S. you may start hearing the phrase "chip & pin".

Just about everywhere else they use a credir card that has a gold, square chip in it. Also, you don't sign it. Instead you enter your pin.

That way if you lose it nobody can use it.

If you go into a train station or any place with unmanned vending machines you will need a chip & pin card to use the vending machine. In a train station you'll have to get into line unless you have one.

There are very few places in the U.S. that issue them. I got mine from Andrews Federal Credit Union in Maryland.
www.andrewsfcu.org

I believe they call it their trekker card.

The process is long and almost painful but the card worked fine. I even used it to buy Metro tickets ib Paris where my regular card didn't work.

Just remember that chip & sign isn't what you want. It's chip & pin.

Underhill

The thing to keep in mind is that bus schedules in much of Provence are designed for schoolchildren and people going to and from their work. Those schedules seldom work for tourists.

Myer

None of the buses we took were scholastic buses. Those normally run early and late but not in the middle.

dreamon

We stayed in St Remy in 2008 (so might be out of date). There were buses from Avignon, as mentioned already, but also buses from St Remy to Les Baux but only in the tourist season. Check to see whether they run in June. Timetables are available online.

The bus wasn't running when we visited so we took a taxi from St Remy (cost 20euro). It is possible to walk back on an off road trail (which we did) but as it's about 12km it does take some time. Alternatively you could get a taxi back.

If you want to see more than one village in a day, then a tour sounds like a better option. Note that buses on Sundays are infrequent.

Myer

There were a couple of companies that offered minivan tours. There's a visitors center in Avignon about a block above the hotel where we stayed (Bristol).

They have all of the brochures and can book the tour for you. They even leave from there so it's very convenient.

I believe the bus 57 goes from Avisgnon to St-Remy and the 59 (I'm not sure about those numbers but you can check them) goes from St-Remy to Les Baux.

We could have taken the bus from St-Remy to Les Baux but I analyzed the schedule and decided that our choices in Les Baux were to stay a couple of minutes or about 3-4 hours or more.

I decided that wasn't a good idea so we added Les Baux in by selecting the #2 tour.

There were some tours that go to more places but I'm glad we limited to 3. More than that and you don't spend any time in each and then don't remember which is which a day later.

Three was very good.

tom18

Thanks again, everybody!

PhilippeProvence

Hello Tom, to my knowledge Panorama is the only one in the region offering Van tours. There are numerous number of local guides offering tailor made tours as well

Myer

Tom, I believe that if you do a search on "Avignon van tours" or "Avignon mini van tours" you'll find a few more.

We selected Panorama because they had a few tours that were possibilities and the #2 tour did just what we wanted.

Also, if you decide to daytrip to Montpellier I can post a link to the walking tour that we took. The train to Montpellier is a little more than an hour.

ssander

bookmarking

PalenQ

Les Baux-de-Provence was an absolute highlight for me. Easy to combine by regular bus for a pittance and be able to spend as long as you want - twin with St-Remy-de-Provence and be sure to see the asylum Van Gogh committed hisself to after slicing off an ear in a rage of fit in Arles - here he painted feverishly - you can see large reproductions of his paintings at the exact spot here executed them in this bucolic setting on the edge of town.

I did them by bicycle from Avignon so you have plenty of time for both by bus.