mavip

My wife and I are active seniors and are planning to drive in Provence and the French
Riviera for 10 days. Thanks to all of your posts on this website and Stu Dudley's
wonderful itinerary, we have planned our trip. Unfortunately, we did not have much of a choice as far as accommodations as we are a bit late so we are staying 5 nights in Avignon and 5 nights in Nice. I know many of you including Stu have said to stay in a few different towns but it is too much for us to keep changing hotels.
We have put together a tentative plan of the towns and villages we would like to see. We have tried to organize them with the least amount of mileage and time from place to place .
We would appreciate any corrections or comments you might have on how we organized our travel. These are not necessarily in the order of days we will do them. Have we grouped them properly ?

From Avignon:
1. Avignon, St Remy, Le Baux
2. Isle-su-la-Sorge,Gordes, Roussillon, Cavaillon
3. Aix & Arles
4. Uses, Punt du Gard

From Nice:
1. Nice, St. Pul de Vence
2. Cap d Antibes,Cannes
3. Manaco, Menton, San Remo
4. Eze, Villefrance, Cap Ferrat

Do our combinations work.? Are we doing too much? Are we missing something we shouldn't be missing?
That you all for your continued help.

Christina

I dont know places around Nice that much, but from Avignon they are grouped pretty well except for Aix plus Arles. Also, aside from Avignon, those are both cities (even if small ones), not small villages, so combining them in one day may be too much of a good thing. Arles is closest to St Remy, but you must know where it is from a map. I just would never combine those two in one day, but you can, of course, they aren't so far apart that you can't do that. YOu do have a lot to do, I guess that is the issue, as I probably wouldn't want to do Arles plus St Remy plus Les Baux in one day, either.

Cavaillon isn't really any place that great, but it's kind of in your general direction that day. I wouldn't go out of my way to go there, I liked Apt better and it isn't far from Roussillon, actually. So if it were me, I'd do Isle-sur-la Sorgue, then the Luberon villages, then Apt and back home rather than spending time in Cavaillon which is off the main route anyway (off N100, although I think maybe it has a different number now, maybe D900, not sure). This is the route I'm thinking http://www.beyond.fr/travel/it_avignonapt1.html

TPAYT

It looks like you've done your research--good for you. It's a fantastic area of France.

We've been to the area on several trips. We've stayed in Avignon, Antibes, and Aix. You defintely can tour from the places you've chosen.
Some things that stand out for us were:

Grimaldi Museaum and Renoir House--Cagnes-sur-Mer.

Tourettes-sur-Loop---in the hills above Antibes

Antibes--a day at the Keller Plage resort on Garoupe Beach(excellent restaurant & people watching) and Sentier walk along the rocks(right from the beach.)
http://www.antibes.co.uk/keller/
If you are into that sort of thing. We're also active seniors and loved it.

Eze, Villefranche, Cap Ferrat(Rothschold Villa and Greek Villa in Beaulieu-sur-mer)---definitely don't miss any of these.

Monaco--the Palace and the yachts in the harbor(skip the casino.)

Cannes was good for a quick walk along the beach just to say you've been there, didn't do much for us.
Menton didn't do much for us either, maybe if you stay there it would be more interesting. So for us the Menton, St. Remo would be too much. I'd group Eze with Monaco. And Cap Ferrat, Beaulieu, Villefranche together.

As far as Avignon goes, your combinations look good. In Aix make sure you get off of the Cours Mirabeau into the pedestrian center with shops & restaurants. Much better than the C. Mirabeau IMO. We didn't find that area until the 2nd time we were there.

Just talking about it makes me want to return again.
Obviously this is just one person's opinion. We all travel differently.

PaoloCast

We're just back from southern France, so you can check out our Trip Report, but here are a couple of questions and suggestions. First, I assume you aren't planning on driving from Nice. Virtually every town you mention is readily accessible by bus and/or train. Just getting in and out of any of these towns in a car takes up too much time. And secondly, I argue for concentrating on one or two towns rather than trying to take in too many. For example, we did Antibes in an easy 25-30 minute train ride for about 17E rt from Nice. The Picasso Museum is terrific; a great market; and a nice walking around town. We had a nice lunch and got back to Nice in the later afternoon. It seems a lot to try to do Antibes and Cannes and get back to Nice. Except for St. Paul de Vence, your other days may be too ambitious. Again, I'd pick one town and soak that up and relax.
From Avignon, St.Remy (where we stayed for a week) is easy, but the center of town is nice but nothing extraordinary. Les Baux is terrific, so I'd suggest driving right through St. Remy to Les Baux. (Parking tip: Try to get as far up the hill as possible for lots near the entrance. Surprisingly, there's a lot of in and out at Les Baux, so you might get lucky. Otherwise, it's a heck of climb. I'd go to Les Baux first and then stop in St. Remy if you feel like it, but with your Luberon towns, you'll not miss much if you take a pass on St. Remy.
I heartily agree with at least one of the above posts. Cavaillon is a fair sized city and difficult to get around and through -- and not much there. The other three towns are fine, but that's a full day. Finally, Aix and Arles are easily a day each. I can't see how you could do both in almost any scenario. Yes, in Aix, get off the Cours -- "up" toward the Place Horloge or "down" into the pleasant Marazin section.

Underhill

I'd be inclined to give Menton/Monaco/San Remo a miss in favor of more time in and around Nice. For example, you could spend one day visiting the perched village of St-Paul-de-Vence, the pretty town of Vence, and the lovely mountain village--known for its artisans--of Tourrettes-sur-Loup. If art interests you, the Fondation Maeght, near St-Paul, is noteworthy for its modern sculptures and some paintings.

Cannes has never called to me; so I'd drop that and go to Mouans-Sartoux/Opio/Valbonne, which are considerably less touristy. Grasse is notable for the fine International Perfume Museum, and down in Biot--below the village--is the superlative International Art Glass Museum and a glass-blowing studio.

Much, much more itneresting than Cannes and Monaco.

HappyTrvlr

Skip San Remo, Menton and Monaco.
Skip Cannes.
Everything else is worthwhile. Nice needs at least three days itself.

StCirq

I agree with the suggestion to dump San Remo, Menton, Cannes, and Monaco.

kwren

I just returned from the Luberon area of Provence and the Cote d'Azur. It was beautiful!

If you DO decide to go to Menton - take the Moyenne Corniche (the middle road). I just did that and the views were beautiful. Much better than the low road right along the coast. We weren't impressed with Menton though, so you could give it a miss as suggested, or just go part of the way.

St Paul de Vence - great town with lots of cute boutiques. Sit at the Cafe de la Place just before going up the hill into the pedestrian part of the old town if there is a boules game going on. Very entertaining and a great place to watch the Frenchmen in action. (Don't be put off by the poor attitude of the waiters - laugh it off with a pichet of wine!!!)

Agree with Underhill...we stayed just outside of Tourrettes-sur-Loup at the Mas des Cigales (and loved it). Cute town and nice little market on Wednesdays. Tourettes s/ Loup provides violets to the candy factory a few km away in Pont du Loup. it's called Florian and they give free tours which were interesting. I read (after I got home) the if you continue past there, the town of Bar sur Loup is also worth visiting. It's on the way to Grasse from Tourrettes sur Loup. There is also another Florian with a tour of chocolate making in Nice by the old harbor, but we didn't stop there.

Roussillon - if you are going anyway, take the hike called Sentier des Ocres. You will see the old ocher mines and the colors are beautiful. What I enjoyed more though was the cemetery just before you hit the ticket window for the hike. What a beautiful setting overlooking Roussillon.

If you can get to Isle sur la Sorgue on Sunday, that's the amazing market of the area. We couldn't get there on that day so went to the Thursday market there. It was fine, but I'd love to get back to the one on Sunday.

cigalechanta

while staying in Avignon, walk across the bridge, (where you'll see men playing boules)into the village of Villeneuve-Les-Avignon. There's a famous Provencal garden and a Saturday morning good flea market.

seafox

You can't come home from the French Riviera and tell people you did not go to Cannes or Monaco. But what you can do is follow some of the above advice. Take a walk on the beach in Cannes ... that's enough. Take the train from Nice to Monaco (too much of a hassle to park). walk the yacht basin, go up to the casino, take some photos and have dinner back down along the water... then head home to Nice for a night cap (or better some Champagne)

mavip

Thanks for all your advise but I do agree with seafox. A short time in Cannes and Monaco sounds like more than enough., but we want to see both places. Still trying to figure out how we are going to do all of this!!!! We just don't want to leave anything out.
Another question: D o you all take cell phones with you? What service do you use in France?

HappyTrvlr

Ask your service for a plan for Europe.

cigalechanta

I stopped in Monaco only to play, once, the slot machine.