2.5 weeks in France- skip Lyon for more time in Provence?
 

My new wife and I will be spending 2 and a half weeks in France for our honeymoon in September. It will be the first trip to France for both of us.

We are planning to spend the first 9 days is Paris.
TGV to Lyon, spend 2 nights, visit Beaujolais region for a half day
TGV to Avignon, rent a car from the train station. Stay in Aix 3 nights as a base to explore Provence
Drive to Nice, spend 3 nights there as a base for Côte d'Azur.

How does this sound? Should we skip the two nights in Lyon to spend more time in Provence / South of France? We both love food and wine and this will be a major focus of trip.

Should we plan to drop off the car when we get to Nice? Or should we keep for exploring the Côte d'Azur. It seems like its difficult to get central hotels in Nice with parking

Appreciate your thoughts!

You are moving around too much, and spending too little time in each destination (typical of "first-timers"). Yes - skip Lyon - especially just after visiting Paris. You are gonna want some countryside (Provence).

Aix is our favorite city in Provence - but it is not centrally located to visit the sites in Provence that most people want to visit. Plus it is another "big city". And your next stop is Nice (big city). Suggest that you stay in St Remy instead. Ditch the car in Nice.

My wife & I have vacationed for 43 weeks in Provence & along the Cote d'Azur. Attached is my 35 page itinerary for visiting Provence & the Cote d'Azur.

Stu Dudley

I love Aix, and would definitely go there, but it may not be a great base for exploring much of Provence. I have not been to Lyon, but friends loved the food there. I trust their opinion, so would keep that since food is of interest. I also love Paris, but would cut a couple of days (three nights) from Paris for more Provence or for a couple of day trips to Versailles and the Loire Valley. Tough choices, but anything you choose will be great!
Question? Is your trip RT Paris or are you departing from Nice? Just wondering if any other routing might be better.

I love Paris and have visited too many times to count but for you I would recommend cutting your visit to 5 nights and add it Provence. Agree with Stu that St Remy is a good smallish town central to much of what you want to explore in the Region. Can recommend the Restaurant de Tourrel which is a Michelin one star in the middle of town. It’s located in what appears to be a very nice hotel but we did not stay there. Did once stay at the Le Vallon de Valrugues which is a nice hotel about a 10 minute walk into town.
I would transfer most of your extra Paris nights to St Remy

The days when one could change one's plans depending on the vagaries of the weather are much regretted.

Amen, Kerouac.

I also wonder whether you already have 9 days’ worth of activities in your mind for Paris. if you do, and can’t cut Paris back, fine, but yes, cut Lyon or Nice (I’d cut Nice, but then I am remembering five outstanding meals in Lyon.)

For the best red wines in Provence you want to stay substantially farther north than Aix. I’d look at Pernes les Fontaines or Mazan or Carpentras for a tour of the Côtes du Rhone area. But, nothing wrong with St Remy as a base for the Luberon, Arles, Avignon.

A little while back there was a honeymoon or honeymoon-ish couple posting on here who had found the most divine-looking chateau in the neighbourhood of Avignon….

Congratulations are your upcoming wedding!!!
A few questions:
Is this trip in 2022? Some hotels might be gone.
Are you already locked into any hotels and airfare?
How important are winery visits to you?
Is your honeymoon right after the wedding?
Right away, I see city, city, city, city. If that is your style, that is fantastic! But I don't see a remote, relaxing, romantic, recovery from the hectic wedding, location. I would definitely cut a few days from Paris and find a beautiful more remote place to substitute for one of the cities. I don't think 4 locations is terrible for 2 1/2 weeks, just not all cities. We stayed in Villefranche which I don't know if it is a honeymoon spot but it was easy to park a car there, and cruising the French Riviera was pretty fine! We easily visited all of the nearby area. Others can help better with winery suggestions, but somewhere beautiful with a chef coming in to cook you dinner would be lovely! It will be fantastic!

Welcome, QuinoaKing and wedding congrats. For food, don't skip Lyon! You might steal a day from Paris for Lyon. There were wine tasting tours from Lyon when we were there Pre-covid.... could you add that to Lyon also?

Edited to add, we loved this hotel in Aix : https://www.aquabella.fr

Sorry, I meant cruising the French Riviera in our CAR!

Using Nice as a base is for public transportation. If you have a car, it doesn't make much sense to me, plus the glory of the Coter d'Azur is outside of Nice.

In general, using any city as a base with a car is not a good idea. You are in Provence, stay in the villages.

Because food and wine are an emphasis and you decide to skip Lyon, you might want to check out Chateau La Coste. It is an organic vineyards but also has amazing art walk and architecture and two restaurants of note: Francis Mallman (showcased on Chef's Table) and Hélène Darroze (6 Michelin stars). Her restaurants is at the villas which are for overnight stays, so that could make a spectacular honeymoon stay for part of your trip. We have a lunch booked at the Francis Mallman restaurant in early November and are super excited about it!

https://chateau-la-coste.com/en/rest...staurants.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Mallmann

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne_Darroze

We are staying in the lower Luberon near Cadenet for 2 weeks next June. I checked out Chateau la Coste as a possible dinner location. Not my style at all - I want something "old world" when I go to France. It could be in the Napa Valley. It is quite expensive also. We all have different tastes. Just make sure you know what you are getting if you book there.

This is where we dined several years ago:
https://chateaufinesroches.com/fr/#

Stu Dudley

Well the cost was one reason we booked at lunch versus dinner. Plus we really want to go there to see the art and architecture which wouldn't work at night. And we don't like to really dine out far from where we are staying at night-I don't really like to drive at night on all the country roads in France anymore.

I agree that it might feel like Napa but the art installations and architecture are unique-so it depends on what you want.

The chateau La Coste looks lovely. Don’t know the area at all. Not particularly convenient to most popular destinations in this part of Provence. Pricey rooms though. Checked one weekday night in November and the cheapest room was $900. Haven’t eaten in one of Helen Darroze’s restaurants yet. Looks interesting and $135 for dinner is pretty normal for a Michelin one star.

""Looks interesting and $135 for dinner is pretty normal for a Michelin one star."

What I saw on Fork was 85E & 138E for lunch, and 170E for dinner.
https://www.thefork.com/restaurant/h...e-r588935/menu

Stu Dudley

Yes I would agree that Chateau la Coste is really for us anyway of point of destination for the day trip not a base. Between the price and the location, there are much better places to base to explore the area. But for folks interested in the art and architecture, it looks really special. There is an exhibition of Bob Dylan's art on right now, but unfortunately it ends before our dates, but I think between whatever temporary exhibits that will be on in early November and the permanent art and architecture, it will be a great day trip for us.

I'm in agreement with those suggesting taking a few nights from Paris [perhaps 3] and using those to give you 3 nights in Lyon, and and 4 in each of Aix and Nice [or wherever you decide upon in those areas]. The reason is that 2 nights only gives you a day in Lyon [no time for a day trip to anywhere], 3 nights give you only 2 days, etc. If of course you have a full programme already planned for Paris you might not like this idea but it will enable you to get much more out of your other destinations without really shortchanging Paris.