I am planning a trip to Provence this coming September. My friends and I are in disagreement on whether to base ourselves in St. Remy or Aix en Provence.


What do you think is the better home base for a week?


Merci!

Aix is a pretty big city and a magnet for students and young people. St-Rémy is a town with a lot of attractive attributes. So it's a bit of an apples and oranges thing. It would depend on your age, what mode of transportation you're using, and what your interests are in visiting the area.

They are so different1 Aix is a large lovely student town famous for it's Cours Mirabeau with wonderful fountains
And Cezanne's studio.
St Remy is the mini capital of the Alpilles, lots of good rstaurants,and boasts the clinic where Van Gogh commited himself, Glunam and Les antiques that was destryed by invaders in the 3rd century. I always preferred staying in
St remy it's easy to get to the places I love.
You can take a day trip to either one.

Hi pjdemar,
We visited Provence last spring and spent a day in Aix and about 1/4 of a day in St Remy. Depending on what you are looking to do (as StCirq mentioned Aix is much bigger) either would be ideal bases - they are both lovely places.
Going back my first choice would be to stay in Aix, but we already stayed in a very small town and have experienced Provence from that perspective (and it was wonderful!)
Aix has much to offer, and I'm assuming you will have a car so day trips to the smaller towns (I recommend Les Beaux) would be easy.
Enjoy your trip!

I do like both BUT Aix is really very difficult to drive in and out of. Unless you stay someplace with a carpark,you will spend a great deal of thime trying to find parking.

Hi; This chateau in St. Remy was our 'treat' for this trip in 2005. Lovely. Dick www.chateaudesalpilles.com

1. Get out a map of Provence
2. Put a red dot on the map next to every site, city, village, etc that you want to visit while in Provence.
3. See which location (Aix or St Remy) is more centrally located to minimize your driving time to each site/village/city.

If you like to do the same things I like to do in Provence, you'll see that St Remy is better located. Like PamSF indicated, getting in & out of Aix takes some doing.

Stu Dudley

We enjoyed St. Remy more than Aix. St. Remy was closer to all the villages we wanted to see.

We happend to be there during the Fête de la Musique (Festival of Music) and it was quite a party! I belive it is on June 21st so if you are planning your trip any time soon, I would recommend trying to be there on June 21st.

http://fetedelamusique.culture.fr/87_English.html

St. Remy is my choice for sure...

As St. Cirq rightly says, they are too very different places. St. Remy is much, much smaller and basically functions almost 100% thanks to the tourist trade. Aix, by contrast, is a big university town with all that entails...

You can see and do all that St. Remy has to offer in a day, 1 1/2 tops. I lived in Aix for close to 2 years and still discovery new things when I go back.

Either would make a fine base for a visit to Provence.

-Kevin

Now if you want some other suggestions of where to stay:

Arles(wonderful old town with easy walking. Driving in and out is relatively easy compared with Aix

Uzes~charming town with a great Saturday market. You can also walk around the town and get some great food at places like Terroir.

I hope Kevin will chime in for some places on his side of Provence.