Hi all you Provence experts --

Planning a May 2011 trip to Provence, concentrating on Aix, Arles, Avignon, Luberon and Southern Rhone valley areas. I see that the Cannes Film Festival is May 11-22 that year and the Monaco Grand Prix is May 26-29. Any reason to think that these events will have an impact for these areas in terms of increased crowds?

I had originally planned on traveling the last two weeks of May but could switch to first two weeks in May if needed.

Thanks!

It's a good distance from Cannes to particularly Arles or Avignon so I should think the Film Festival will have no impact on crowds there. However, the numerous May holidays in France may mildly effect some of your weekend sight seeing/travel plans.

Only Cannes and Monaco and the surrounding towns are affected by those events. Believe me, the people who go to either are totally obsessed by what they are attending and would not dream of doing any extra tourism at that time. Now, after the Cannes festival, there may be a few high end tourists on the prowl, but I doubt that they would stray from the coastal region.

Thanks so much. That's what I was hoping, but thought it made sense to check, just in case.

It shouldn't affect your plans, but it definitely does affect things around Cannes, and I think as far as Nice, in terms of hotel bookings. Rates go up and they get booked up far in advance.

I can only imagine! We are deliberately staying away from the Riviera. Will do that on another trip.