akw101

Hello all! Looking for some helpful advice on my itinerary for Provence. I'll be travelling with a friend, both of us are in our late 20s to France at the end of September. We' have 4 days in Provence and 3 in Paris. The rough idea up till now:

- we land in marseilles and spend two nights in aix making a trip to cassis one day
- the next two days we'll base ourselves in st. remy exploring luberon villages and les baux
- on the fifth day we take the afternoon TGV to Paris giving us time to see Avignon in the morning.

We're planning to rent a car in aix. With only one week its a short trip, but this will be our first time in France, so we're hoping to make the most of Provence in 4 days and leave 3 days for Paris. Having done some research online and on fodor's, I figured that these places would do justice to that.
Important question: should we keep one day for aix and 3 at st. Remy instead of 2-2?? the only reason we planned on two nights in aix is because we'll be reaching marseilles on an early morning (very long!) flight on day 1. So by the time we reach aix, check in etc we'll only have half of day one left. But i've also read that aix and surroundings is not the 'real' provence. Hence, the confusion. Also, have I missed out on any important place that we can cover from st. Remy or aix?

Thank you all in advance for your help.

DebitNM

I would go to Cassis on the way to Aix.

welltraveledbrit

Not sure what your plan is but you could pass through the Luberon (lourmarin, Bonnieux, Gordes etc) on your way from Aix to St. Remy rather than heading back this way, this would give you a more time for a manageable day out to Les Baux and surrounds from St Remy. Just pick a couple of towns to see and stop for lunch rather than running around to see too many.

akw101

welltraveledbrit.. That does makes sense. Did a quick research and looks like we can stop at Lourmarin and Bonnieux on the way to St. Remy. But is it safe to leave our luggage in the rental car while we're looking around these villages? The one reason we wanted to reach St. remy first was so that we can check into the hotel and not have to leave our luggage around in the parked car.

DebitNM

Our rental car was broken into in the parking lot at the entrance to Bonnieux. This was in late September when there weren't that many people around. There was nothing visible in the car[ nor anything of value], but they broke in anyway. Rental cars in France have license plates that clearly indicated they are rentals due to the department number on plate.

Backing into a space, with no room to get into the trunk may help.