tongsa

Provence for a week in late sept - planning to pre-book a car, stay 1 or 2 nites at Avignon, then go up east to gordes/l'isle sorges (spelling?), stay at some "chateau/ farmhouse outskirts,or at st remys, drive to arles and stay thereabouts for 1 or 2 nites (do camargue/nime etc), drive to aix and stay at some farmhouse for 1 or 2 nites, see the rest and then take tgv back from marseilles. is this too ambitious? i dont want to do day trips and stay only at one place! pls. gimme ideas on places and hotels.

PB

First of all, Avignon, Gordes and l'Isle sur la Sorgue are all quite near each other... you would probably be much more comfortable planting yourself in one spot and doing day trips since you have a car. <BR> <BR>Your best bet would be to stay in the vicinity of St Remy for most of your stay and only move when you plan to go to Aix. <BR> <BR>Judging from your post, I am assuming that you have no hotel reservations as yet ? Surprise ! September is still high season here in Provence and many places are booked up. <BR> <BR>I suggest you look at the websites for the different villages or towns you are interested in - you will find listings of hotels as well as lots of information on the towns themselves. <BR>Here are a few to get you started: <BR> www.arles.org <BR>www.saintremy-de-provence.com <BR>www.aix-en-provence.com <BR> <BR>PB <BR>

tongsa

that is part of the problem - everything looks good and am greedy to make the most of my first time trip! but thanks will get on it asap!

Christina

Here are my 3 favorite URLs for that area: www.avignon-et-provence.com and www.beyond.fr and www.provenceweb.com The latter two are best for information on the area, maps, very detailed info on towns and villages, market days, etc. The first has a very nice selection of accommodations at all levels from B&Bs up to 4 star hotels. I'd suggest 3-star Hostellerie la Grangette at Velleron, probably 10-15 mi NE of Avignon, that is a very good central location to see that area. Mas des Gres is nice outside Isle sur la Sorgue (really nearby Lagnes, see perso.wanadoo.fr/patrick.denis/gres.htm) as well as Mas de Cure Bourse (Rick Steves mention, they do not have email, only FAX but seem nice, I corresponded with them but stayed elsewhere) and Mas Pichony near Pernes les Fontaines (decent but budget, very cute for that level, though, they are within www.hotes-en-france.com, a good overall URL for you, also, with B&Bs). I hung around Isle sur la Sorgue a bit last summer as they have some decent restaurants there (I was out in the boonies nearby). I stayed in Pernes-les-Fontaine which I thought was a good choice as it is very very central for that area. Hostellerie Grangette is very nearby as well as other B&Bs, I stayed in a HOtel which wasn't in town but out in the country a few miles -- HOtel l'Hermitage, it was outstanding, can't recommend it enough, it would be a great choice--it's only a two-star hotel but was much nicer than that, I couldn't believe it. I think it's only a 2-star because there's no elevator but it doesn't matter because it's only two stories tall. It didn't have a restaurant either, but serves breakfast--I didn't mind, in fact, I liked going other places for dinner. It's around on a few websites easily found with a search. If you can't find anything, there is a budget modern 2-star hotel on north side of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue called the Cantosorgue (in fact, it's within the avignon-et-provence URL) where I ate twice because they have a wonderful restaurant with a terrace hanging over the river which is quite pleasant (and cool in the summer). I was surprised how good their restaurant was for a 2-star hotel, but it was kind of the place to go around there out to dinner, it appeared. If you can't find anything else, you could do worse than staying there even though it's not quaint or farmy at all, but it's a very good location. In fact, since they have a restaurant, AC, TV, etc, I'm not sure why they are a 2-star, it could be the elevator thing again as I think they are only 2-3 stories, not sure.

tongsac

thanks everybody. got my bookings done and u were right - got a lot of refusals. so now am staying at avignon, outskirts of st remy's and aix and have booked my car as well. now the tgv-medit to avignon - there seem to be all sorts of restrictions as the tickets have to be picked up within a few days. i dont get there until end sept so cannot book yet. am afraid that the tgv med will be all reserved on a saturday at that - and i will be stuck. Any suggestions - should I wait to pre-book or take a chance and go.

Christina

I"m not sure I can help you on the train, but I would guess that getting a ticket Nice-Avignon or Aix-Avignon would not be a problem at end of September even on a Saturday. There are restrictions on needing to pickup a ticket within short time after purchase online. You can buy your ticket with reservation from Raileurope www.raileurope.com if you are really concerned although you'll pay a premium of maybe $20 on that ticket (a guess, but you will pay more than buying onsite). If you don't buy ahead from them, I'd try to reserve once I got there instead of waiting until the last minute upon departure, although I think that would probably work. Are you taking the train from Marseille or Avignon to Paris? I'm not clear on that. Those trains can get pretty full; I was just on one in July on a weekday morning and I think every seat was full in second class, but a lot of French people were on there going on vacation or something. You can do what I did, reserved online (with credit card for pickup in France) about one week before going and then picked up my ticket in France the day after I got there at a train station, that was within the time limits allowed. That should work fine if it's for a train run at the end of your trip.

travellyn

I got all messed up on the SNCF website, too. They don't make it clear at first, but if you prepay by giving a credit card number at the time of booking, you can pick up the tickets from any SNCF station any time until 30 minutes or less before the train leaves.

tongsa

the problem is i fly into cdg at paris and then take the first tgv med to avignon and dont want to lose any time getting there. my worry is the direct to avignon will be full up. <BR>

wendy

Did your itinerary last month. I called the TGV 800 number form the US, and had the tiz mailed to my home., It took about 4 or 5 days. More efficient than the website becuase they can confirm immediately. Try booking your car fom Autoeurope. They were the cheapest that I found. You can go on-line, or call. If you call, they do discount. I listened to PB, as I planned on staying in 2 loocations,and she suggested St. Reny also. It was a perfect location to tour from. Any questions, email <BR>

Christina

If you can, I would compare the raileurope fee for that ticket to the standard SNCF ticket and see the markup--if it's $25 or less, I personally would just pay it for the convenience and to make sure I had a seat. But that's up to you, I did save about that much on my ticket because I purchased online, but I wasted about an hour of my time in France getting it from a train station when I got there (the train station I went to was very small and busy with long lines for the clerks), so I'm not sure it was worth it that much. Not sure what the 800 number is Wendy is referring to. An 800 number is within the US, I thought, not in Europe, but that number (which is usu Raileurope) won't give you a discount, I didn't think. There is some TGV SNCF number in France with English speakers you can call, but it's not an 800 number (8-35-35-35). It's a a pay per minute call ("area" code 08 in front tells you that), but I've seen that the charge is only about 2.23F/minute so that's only about US$3 for 10 minutes, not bad. That's in addition to your regular phone charges, of course.