We are still trying to plan our trip in October. We put out a message on the Loire Valley. Ever since that, we have been approached by friends who say "take the autoroutes in Provence and you will avoid alot of windiness" which was my wife's concern. When we started reading, we noticed that Avignon is mentioned to be a good "base location". However, we have heard some concern about "safety" and "car parking" and overall security issues. Do you guys agree or do you think that is over stated? St. Cirq, I know you answered alot of questions for us in the past. We hope to hear from you. Thanks again. Your response will help us solidify our decision on whether we stick with Loire Valley.

You don't leave anything in your car of value or maps to scream tourist. I suggest St Remy as a three day stop and visit Avignon for the day. Some hotels like the L'hotel in St Remy where I have stayed have their own parking area.
The Mistral blowing is unpredictable. I once experienced it in Avignon in August.

First, ignore your friends who've told you to stick to the autoroutes in Provence - bad advice.

Here are the areas to keep away from while in Provence - I'm pretty sure I mentioned them on your Loire post
1. Les Baux & the Alpillies.
2. The mountains & canyons just north of Gordes, Roussillon, St Saturnin les Apt
3. The mountains just south of Bonnieux, Menerbes, & Oppede - and north of Lourmarin. There is only 1 road that crosses these mountains - the Combe de Lourmarin from Bonnieux to Lourmarin.
4. The area around Sault
5. The Dentelles (see a map), but the loop around the Dentelles through the winegrowing villages is fine - Malaucene, Vaison, Roaix, Seguret, Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Beaumes de Venice, back to Malaucene.
6. About 5 miles east (and beyond) of Vaison
7. Gorges de la Ardeche
8. Senanque Abbey area

This leave you with:
Arles
Nimes
Avignon
Aix
St Remy
Pont du Gard
Uzes
The beautiful Luberon valley (Gordes, Roussillon, Bonnieux, Oppede, Menerbes)
Southern Luberon valley (Lourmarin area)
south of the Alpilles
Pernes
l'Isle sur la Sorgue
Carpentras
Apt
Rhone wine vilages mentioned above - plus Vaison
Orange

Then there is the Camarque (fflat as a pancake) and Aigues Mortes.

Stu Dudley

We spend about 2 months in France almost every year - perhaps 2+ years worth of travel.. We have never been robbed. Follow cigale's advice - plus back your car up against a lightpost, tree, wall (so the trunk can't physically be opened) if your bags are in the car.

Stu Dudley

How WOW!! How I disagree, I love the Alpilles, rich in olive trees and beautiful villages so maybe you were speaking tongue in cheek????

I love the Alpillies too - but they are mountains, which the OP is trying to avoid. Eygalieres, Maussane, Paradou, Fontville which are all south of the mountains are fine for the OP to explore. Immediatly around Les Baux is not.

Stu Dudley

Good grief, the WORST problems I've ever had with wind in Provence with rental cars were on the autoroute - or are you talking about "winding roads," which is something altogether different?

Plus, I don't even know what you mean about taking the autoroutes in Provence. The autoroutes are major highways, designed to get you from one major place to another. You can't take highways to get you to pretty villages and such. If your concern is tortuous roads, sure, the autoroutes as major highways won't fall into that category, but what are you going to do when you get to your destination and want to tour the pretty villages and such?

As for Avignon, it's not much different from any French city. Parking is a pain and security issues are minimal. Put a fresh baguette and a French newspaper on your dashboard and call it a day. Hide your valuables in the trunk. Whoever is chiming in about Avignon being a security issue obviously has never lived in DC.

After all this, I really think your wife's aversion to winding roads is a major limitation to your enjoyment of most of France.

If you are afraid of windy mountain roads...avoid at all costs the Ardeche Gorge!!!

What are we talking about avoiding here: winding roads or windy roads?

Avignon IS a great base for Provence.

I don't have any supporting statistics, but can't believe there are any more safety or security issues there than any other comparably sized town in France (or the US, if that's where you're from). I've been there many times and never felt the slightest threat.

As for parking, just stay at the Hotel d'Europe and they'll park your car for you. It's located one block inside the wall so you don't have to drive through the centre-ville at all.

Actually Avignon has a well-deserved reputation for petty theft, car break-ins, etc. There are parts of town I certainly wouldn't walk around in at night. Here's a link showing Avignon to be the worst small city in all of France as far as crime is concerned - it's a bit dated (2002) but things haven't changed - http://tiny.cc/9DoaT

That being said, if you stick to the well-trodden parts of the historical center, you'll be fine.

As for your car, there is only one way to be sure not to suffer a theft - NEVER LEAVE ANYTHING IN THE CAR. 95% of the time your rental car will have a license plate which marks it as a rental. Leaving a baguette and newspaper showing is not going to fool anybody. If you are between hotels and absolutely must park your car with your things inside, then be sure to have already put it all hidden in the trunk. And do not make the classic mistake of parking, then getting something out of the trunk you've forgotten (thereby showing the thief lurking nearby what's inside). I've seen people do this many times. That is the proverbial open invitation. Stu's suggestion to park the trunk up against something is a good one.

-Kevin

You guys are all being very helpful. I did mean "winding roads". StuDudley and St. Cirq remember my wife's concern. She can take some winding roads but not alot so that was the issue. The security we know as we have travelled by car alot in Europe in the past. One has to be careful. As we still have time to finalize, we thought we would ask this question again. My wife is even making me rethink flying to Nice and doing that area for 5 days by that train. Of course, going up to the villages would be out for her. Thank you so much. Please be patient with us. We love to understand all the outstanding areas of France but we know we have to land on one area only as an extra to our week in Paris. Have a good day everyone.

Kevin, is it still really true that rental cars are identifiable by the license plates? I know that it used to be that almost all the rental cars came out of one area of France (can't remember which) and had license plates that identified them as such, but I thought that all changed a few years ago. Would love an update.

Oh, and if a rental car has a sticker on it that identifies it as a rental, I always tear that off.

StCirq -

Yep, the large majority of rental cars we see here have license plates from L'Oise (department 60). 76, 80 and 51 also show up pretty often. There is some kind of fiscal advantage for rental car companies to register their cars in these departments, but I'm no expert.

What's for sure is that at least around here, if you see a car with "60" license plate, it's 95% certain to be a rental car - and if it is some horrible off-color green, the odds go up to 99.9% !

-Kevin

Fees for car registration vary by Department. Rental companies therefore register cars in the department that is cheapest ! They seem to have stopped putting Hertz (etc) stickers on the outside of the car.

The new French registration scheme that started in 2009 does not use the department number ............... in theory. It is optional (blue sections) and virtually all seem to want to keep the department number visible.

I guess if you see a car without this optional number, it will be a rental car !

New plates : http://fabrice.info/blog/wp-content/...avril-2009.jpg

Previous plates : http://www.kazeo.com/sites/fr/photos...-1096870-L.jpg


I live here permanently and bought an ex Hertz car from Spain recently. It has distinctive rental car features :
Wheel trims attached with cable ties
Diesel sticker on fuel cap and across speedo
Hertz emergency numbers on windscreen sticker
White circle on top left hand corner of windscreen

No one pinches it because the interior is obviously not rental car clean ............... and the Michelin France atlas is battered and a few years old !

I never park with anything valuable visible in the car anywhere - ever.

Peter

Ok guys, you have provided good information on Provence. What are your thoughts about 5 days in Nice and seeing that part via train? Thank you in advance. PS St. Cirq and StuDudley, you've kept on my post and helped from the beginning. Alot of other good comments from others too.Many thanks.

There is alot to see and do around Nice - by train and especially by bus. It would be easy and pleasant to spend 5 days. Several museums, coastal towns and hill towns. We took a bus up into the hills - I don't remember it as being especially winding - not like Capri! - but I am not bothered by that. Alot of the trip was along the coast - maybe only about 15 or 20 minutes into the hills. And have you "chucked" Avingnon? Arles is close by, not as big as Avingnon - great base for trips in the region.

Nice is where the Alps dump into the Med - therefore there are a lot if winding & steep roads inland from Nice & along the coast corniches east of Nice (Eze, Monaco, Menton, Roquebrune). This is the area where Lance Armstong trained for the Tour de France. This is also where Grace Kelley failed to navigate a turn & drove off the side of a road & was killed. The Nice Hinterland is a LOT more mountainous than Provence. West of Nice towards Antibes & Cannes is not as steep & winding. If your wife can't tolerate winding & steep drop-offs from a car or bus - inland & east of Nice is an area you'll want to ignore - which is too bad because it's a beautiful region

However, if you strictly stick to Nice with train day-trips to Antibes, Cannes, Villefranche, Monaco, & Menton (some of the last 3 destinations are through tunnels, I believe) you can have a very nice 5 day vacation. Just don't take any buses along the Corniches to get to these last 3 places.

So - here is a rough summary:

Provence.
1. Take the 2 3/4 TGV from Paris to Avignon. Rent a car.
2. Exlore the small villages and the rolling hills in the Luberon - Peter Mayle country
3. Visit the Pont du Gard & Uzes
4. Visit the cities of Avignon & Arles
5. Explore the region around the Alpillies - St Remy, Maussane, and Eygalieres
6. Visit the Cote du Rhone winegrowing villages (Seguret, Beaumes de venise) plus Vaison la Romaine
7. See the Sunday farmers/crafts/antique market in l'Isle sur la Sorgue.
8. Visit the Camargue and Aigues Mortes

les Baux, the region around Sault (Lavender fields - but you won't be there during blooming season), Senanque Abbey, the Luberon Mountains, won't be appropriate for your wife.

Cote d'Azur
1. Take the 5 3/4 hr TGV to Nice (or fly).
2. Explore the many sites in Nice - one of my favorites.
3. Take the train to Antibes and also Cannes
4. Take the train to Villefranche sur Mer & spend a couple of hours wandering through the streets in this cliffside village
5. Take the train to Monaco & Menton.

Assumptions about the Nice area:
The perched coastside village of Eze may or may not be acceptable for your wife - because of the winding roads to get there. I've never taken the train there, so don't know what that is like. St Paul, Vence, Tourrettes sur Loup, Gourdon, St Jeanette, Carros village, & other mountain villages might be too much for your wife by car or bus. St Paul might be OK.

Based on your wife's desire to avoid winding roads, I think you'll find more diversity in Provence. If this were not the case, I think both areas would be excellent regions in France to explore.

BTW, we've vacationed for 16 weeks in Provence and 16 weeks on the Cote d'Azur. I've developed a 27 page itinerary for these regions that I've sent to over 1,000 Fodors people. E-mail me at [email protected] if you want a copy.

Stu Dudley

Thank you so much. We have sent you n e mail StuDudley.