Thank you Rumsey, I appreciate the suggestions.

Thank you Christina. We intend to stay within the walls.>>

oh, I thought you wanted to be right near the palace. Within the walls is a very large area, if it were me, as I said, I'd pick a place where you can walk to the train station and the main square.

We will probably stay nearer to the general attractions.

Avignon in the historic center is not that large and walking is a joy! Would not worry about exact location.

We stayed in Avignon Villenueve across the river. Not a bad base. Liked Arles and even more some of the smaller towns we stayed in. Les Baux, Gordes. Drive out to the Roman ruins at Glanum across from the St-Paul Asylum surrounded by olive trees where Van Gogh spent some time.

We will stay within the walls, so a car is not needed, unless we want to see the countryside.

I agree with Southam- why would you want to stay within the walls?
There is a lot to do outside the walls of Avignon proper...

Anyone who is interested in Roman architecture should definitely visit both Nîmes and the Pont du Gard. I'm not sure you could visit both on the same day from Avignon. We stayed in Nîmes and visited the Pont du Gard by bus from there. We should have allowed more time for the visit, because the bridge is in a very attractive park.

The amphitheater in Nîmes is smaller, but better preserved, than the Colosseum.

We also visited Avignon by train from Nîmes, on a different day. It was attractive, and the papal palace was interesting, but we didn't regret having chosen to stay in Nîmes.

It looks a day trip to Nimes is a possibility. Whether we rent a car for the day or take the train is to be determined.

I'm not a big fan of Nimes. We've visited it perhaps 4-5 times. I think Arles, Avignon, Aix, and Montpellier are lot more interesting.

Do you have my 35 itinerary for Provence & the Cpte d'Azur? If not - e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach one to the reply e-mail.

The reply function on Fodors has not been working for me since Tuesday last week - so I had no ability to reply to your post when you first made it.

Stu Dudley

Thank you Stu.

I rather liked Nimes - a fairly untouristed but bigger city than Avignon - elegant boulevards and Roman arena -city with a unique look but with limited time and so much else to see would be low on my list. But with car and doing Pont du Gard a drive through would not take much time with a stop at Roman relics.

For our two artists, Aix, though go not a great base, is absolutely beautiful, one of the prettiest small cities you can imagine, with lots of flowers, squares and small walking area. It also has the Cezanne studio.

Arles, with the Van Gogh tours, would also be interesting to them. Plus the Roman Colosseum is wonderful.

Someone else mentioned the Camarque. It is quietly gorgeous!

As others are mentioning, Avignon might not be any better choice than other places. It is nice, with lots of restaurants, but, IMHO, not as interesting as Arles or Aix. Once you visit the Palace of the Popes, there absolutely no need to be near the Palace. Closer to the train station would be easier to go other places, and there are equally nice places near there.

There interest in art is not necessarily landscapes-it is more people, architecture, and things that are unusual.

We are revisiting our choice as a base. It seems Nimes would be interesting and convenient from which to take a day trip or two. The Roman antiquities are most interesting. And since we are coming from Barcelona, we can take the TGV directly.

I have only walked around Nimes a few times but thought it a swell city that few folks seem to want to visit. And buy some denim - named after Nimes like de Nimes.

The Roman relics are superb.

Last May, I spent 2 weeks touring Paris, trains to Lyon, Avignon, Montpellier, Barcelona, then flight to Rennes for side trip to Mont St. Michel before returning home via Paris. I never got around to posting a trip report.

We stayed in Avignon and loved it. We stayed in a lovely apartment, Aux Augustin. The owner, Patrick was so helpful too. I would also highly recommend the Auriele's Food Tour; you'll want to book before you get there as highly popular and she does only about 10 or 12 people for 3.5 hour walking tour and tastings (bakery, wine, coffee roaster, chocolates, etc) and very helpful on other questions during your stay.

I just noticed you are also visiting Barcelona. For any adventurous couple in your group, we did a fabulous Tapas tour on a motorcycle with side car called Brightside Tour.

Thank you Palen and Singer for your suggestions.