Driving Thru Provence
 

We will be spending approximately 10 days driving around Provence, flying into Paris. Please give us any ideas of a good drivng itinerary and places to stay. If there are any good locations that are centrally located, we would probably want to stay in two locations over the 10 days.

Please give me some idea as to your budget for lodgings; also your cultural preferences, etc.<BR><BR>There are a wide range of hotels, etc.<BR><BR>

We probably want to average around $125.00 per night at the highest rate for a hotel. <BR><BR>We would like to take in some museums and cultural attractions, but most of the trip would be to drive from town to town and explore the physical sights<BR>of the various areas

If you will be in Provence in late June/July you can experience the blooming of the lavender. Sunflowers abound.<BR><BR>I do not like to move from place to place. I would stay in St. Remy for half the trip. You can easily get in to the Luberon area and to the 12th century Abbey Senanque where lavender is harvested by monks. <BR><BR>You would also be near Avignon and could visit the Palais du Papes; the film festival.<BR><BR>The city of Aix en Provence is about 50 miles away. Called The Paris of the South it has a wide boulevard, Cour Mirbeau, with great fountains and cafes lining it. You could easily reach the Med from Aix and see Cassis-see the calanques (fjords)there <BR><BR>A hotel in your price range in St. Remy might be Chateau des Alpilles, I am not sure of price range. Since we go to Provence each year we stay in a lower cost but lovely little hotel L'Amandiere. Rooms are small but attractive, nice pool and garden--breakfast only. As to Aix, people speak favorably of the Hotel Pioggenet(? spelling). I have never stayed in Aix but visited it many times.<BR><BR>Good luck.

We just returned from France on Sunday, and I, too, recommend St. Remy-de-Provence. We stayed at Castelet des Alpilles (as opposed to Chateau), and it falls within your price range. It was very nice. Be sure to visit Pont du Gard, the papal palace in Avignon and Les Baux. We enjoyed Provence, but liked the Langdoc region even better...Carcassone, the Cathar castles &amp; gorgeous scenery. We also spent a night on the coast in Collioure, which was terrific.<BR><BR>Have fun!

Could anyone recommend a deluxe (or splurge) lodging in St. Remy? I am now convinced that that is the place to stay as a base for 7 days in very early July. I guess a pool would help that time of year too! Thanks so much.
laurie

Both the Domaine de Valmouriane and the Ch&acirc;teau des Alpilles would fit the bill. The Domaine is typical Proven&ccedil;al, while the Ch&acirc;teau is more elegant, if that helps at all.There's also the Hostellerie du Vallon de Valruges, but I don't know anything about it except that it gets a red ch&acirc;teau in the Michelin guide, always a good sign.

There's a new place right on the main Street called &quot; L'Hotel, les Ateliers de L'image.&quot; www.hotelphoto.com there is a photo gallery and a French/ Japaneese restaurant with a terrace with a view on the garden and the Alphilles. In the back you'd think you were in the country. One room has the living room built into a tree. There's a large swimming pool, a vegetable gareden and a labyrinth.

Because we were staying 7-days in St. Remy as our base, we stayed at the Vallon de Valruges (referred to as the &quot;VdeV&quot;). We had a very large room with small separate sitting room and balcony overlooking, yet far enough away from any noise from the pool. They have their own parking which was wonderful - you can walk into St.Remy in about 7 to 10/minutes (the VdeV isn't immediately &quot;in town&quot;).

Have no idea what we paid, but if choosing this, be aware that they often try to book with breakfast &quot;and dinner&quot;. We didn't take with dinner, though did have dinner at the hotel once - there are so many wonderful restaurants in town or nearby.

I would suggest that if booking July, you do so quickly as the summer is high season and prices might be high as well.

However, if looking for a real splurge, you can check out Cabre d'Or or Ousteau de Baumanier (sp) both in Les Baux, just 12-15/miles south of St. Remy. Both have lovely rooms, pools, outstanding restaurants. And even though Les Baux is a busy little town (so is St. Remy in the summer), both hotels are on the southern access road leading into the upper town of Les Baux and easy enough to enter and exit.

Or you can go to nearbt Les Baux and stay at Oustau de Baumaniere, for a very top place to stay......

Oustau! A meal there is a highlight.

That sure made everyone's taste buds excited........... I remember it well!

We stayed at the Cabro D'Or a couple of years ago, and it was lovely, and the dinner there was excellent. It is apparently owned by the same people as L'Oustau de Baumaniere, which is basically right next door. The Cabro is somewhat less expensive and grand, but still luxurious in a slightly rustic kind of way.

We stayed at the Cabro d'Or and had a big problem with the breakfast: the croissants were so light that we had to keep grabbing them as they floated above the table! They were sent down from the Oustau de Beaumani&egrave;re where we had lunched the preceding day in the days when Raymond Thulier was still the chef--that was indeed a meal to remember.

Iconmel,

With 10 days you will do well to split it into 2 different bases. Perhaps 1/2 the time in Arles/St. Remy - from there you can easily visit all of the main sights in the West of Provence. Then I'd say the other half of the time in the Luberon. We recently returned from a great stay near Apt - it was a perfect location for visiting all of the famous villages nearby as well as the areas further east, such as Manosque and Forcalquier and even Moustiers, which made for a great day trip.

if you're interested in staying in arles, I recommend grand hotel nord pinus:
http://www.nord-pinus.com/US/index.html

even if you don't stay here, it's worth
stopping by for a look -- quite a hip interior...

We stayed one year at the Nord Pinus, lovely yes but at night it was very noisy (unfortunately our room overlooked the forum. They have their own garage in back but another year we enjoyed staying at the Calandel.