Hello - my husband and I are in the planning stages of our trip to Paris & Provence this June. I have been reading everything I can on this message board (what a tremendous help!) to prepare and get ideas. I have Stu's itinerary (also a big help), the most recent Michelin Green Guide to Provence & the Streetwise Provence map. I have ordered the Food Lover's Guide to France & the Provence Michelin map that Stu recommends. I would also like to order the more detailed versions, but am still looking for a site that has both I need...

Before I mention our tentative plans, a little about us - young (mid 30s), active, adventurous, wine/food/travel loving couple. We enjoy driving & exploring the countryside & are early risers. When we travel, we like to research the area, come up with tentative plans, but then we are spontaneous enough to throw it out the window if we get somewhere and find something else we'd rather do.
My husband is a cyclist, so we are thrilled to be in Provence during the Dauphine Libere road race - we are going to try to see a little of 2 stages.

Below is our tentative plan 6 days in Provence, 2 days in Paris - please provide ANY feedback/suggestions you think would be helpful:

Mon-Wed: London (my husband has some meetings) hopefully we will take Chunnel to Paris Wed evening

Thurs: arrive Avignon AM by TGV - p/up rental car, drive up to Mt Ventoux to see stage finish of Dauphine Libere.
How long should the drive from Avignon to Mt Ventoux take? Can't figure it out using Mappy.com.
Carpentras & Les Baux on drive from Mt Ventoux to hotel in L'Isle sur la Sorgue (La Maison sur la Sorgue) http://www.lamaisonsurlasorgue.com/

Fri: Carpentras market if it starts early enough before we leave to drive to Nyons.
See start of Dauphine Libere stage in Nyons.
Head back to L'Isle sur la Sorgue stop at Chateauneuf du Pape area winery (suggestions??)
We'd love to see other wineries - suggestions?? (reds are our favorite, but we also enjoy whites)

Sat: Move to Bonnieux hotel - Les Trois Sources http://www.lestroissources.com/les-trois-sources-a.html
We want to see Menerbes, Gordes, Roussillon, Lourmarin - is that too ambitious for 1 day??
Dinner La Chen - Bernard Mathys restaurant??

Sun: L'Isle sur la Sorgue market
Stu's lavender route

Mon: Move to St Remy hotel La Maison du Village http://www.lamaisonduvillage.com/
Cassis - boat trip to see calanques
Cap Canaille

Tues: Uzes
Pont du Gard & Castillon du Gard
Eygalieres

Wed: TGV to Paris - still figuring out hotel - know we'll stay in the Latin Quarter

Thurs: Paris

Fri: fly home

We are changing hotels 3 times in the 6 days, but we aren't people who mind that too much and I thought it could be nice to stay in 3 different areas. We have 1 hotel out of town in Bonnieux and the other 2 are right in St Remy & L'Isle sur la Sorgue.
Is this a crazy approach?

Would love suggestions for restaurants, great shopping towns, wineries, any "must see":

Ok - I think this should be plenty to get feedback. Thanks in advance!

jen

You have such a short stay that I would drop one of the Provence hotels. The towns are all very close to one another so driving is easy.

It doesn't make sense to me to stay in L'Isle sur La Sorgue then check out and then drive back for the market there a day later. Stay there through Sunday so you don't have to worry about the parking situation for the market. You can drive to the hill towns easily from your St. Remy hotel...

My husband and I also only had a short time in Paris and it sound like we travel like you do- I would suggest taking the Batobus along the Seine and stop as you like. The lines were not that long, and it was a good way to see Paris with a short amount of time to do so. We love St. Chapelle, and attended mass at Notre Dame.

I would highly recommend the Batobus- getting around is easy, you can walk almost anywhere and jump back on when you are tired.

Thanks for the responses.

amwsou - I completely see what you are saying. It is so hard to have it all match up - location for the bike race, hotel availability, market days, not being somewhere only on Sun/Mon... there are worse problems to have though;-), the planning is so much fun!
The place in L'Isle sur la Sorgue is quite a bit more expensive than the other places, and Les Trois looks so neat - being the only country type house we'd stay in. But you do make a good point, so I'm going to reconsider and see if I can juggle anything around to limit us to 2 stops. I know that Les Trois is not available for us to extend our stay, so I would have to find another country type setting.

Kathryncee - thanks for the Batobus suggestion. I haven't spent much time on Paris plans yet, so I will certainly add that to my notes.
We have a recommendation from a friend who visits Paris frequently to get to St. Chapelle at sunset when they have live orchestra and amazing reflections from the sun shining through the stained glass, so that is on the list.

Thanks again - any other comments...

Any Provence experts care to weigh in for her?

Hi!

Les Baux is not up in the area of Carpentras and the Mt. Ventoux area. It is closer to St. Remy. On Thursday, there is a market in Orange (area of Chateauneuf de Pape)and there is also a late afternoon/evening market in Velleron which you could drive through on your way back to L'Isle sur la Sorgue.

Friday, it looks like you're going back up to the same area as Thursday, so you will be doing the same drive up as Thursday. If your heart is set on the Carpentras market, is there somewhere you could stay in that more northern area on Thursday and Friday? It would save you considerable driving time.

I think you could all the things on your Saturday itinerary, but it will be a very full day!

I would do LeBaux on the way from St. Remy to Cassis or after the market at L'Isle sur la Sorgue on Sunday. If I recall correctly (!?), Stu's lavender route is a more northerly direction. Depending on the time in June, the lavender may not be in its "glory" yet.

You can "google" Luberon/Vaucluse markets and see what days the various markets are.

Have a great time! The area is positively breathtaking!! The "northern" area has several perched villages (Sablet, Seguret, Gigondas, etc.) that would be fun to stop in (Gigondas for a wine-tasting).

The area around Roussillon, Gordes, Bonnieux, etc. is spectacular! Time didn't permit our getting to Lourmarin last summer, so it's on my "next trip" list!

And L'Isle sur la Sorgue is a wonderful town with all the water wheels, rivers/streams, etc. And the Sunday market is quoted as being the second largest market in France.

You will just barely dip your toe in the water and will want to come back to Provence very soon!!! The boat ride to the calanques in Cassis was a highlight of our trip!

Enjoy!

joy/luvparee

Interesting. I was about to say skip the calanques trip. Cassis is a longish drive from St. Remy and I found both the town and the boat trip not that great. If you've seen photos of the calanques, you've seen it all. And the town is like a lot of Cote d'Azur towns, too many tourists overwhelming a small place.

You could go up to the Vaison-le-Romaine/Chateaunneuf du Pape country instead.

Still we were going elsewhere on the Riviera, and Cassis will be your only stop on the coast.

It does seem like your overnight stops don't correlate well with your itinerary. Have you timed the drives on a site like www.via-michelin.com or www.mappy.com?

Thanks so much - I was hoping to get this type of info! Having never been to the area, and using the only map I have right now (Streetwise), I’m trying to put together a tentative driving plan not really knowing if it makes sense. I must have been mistaken about Les Baux being near Carpentras – some of the towns have similar spellings and I get them mixed up – again a problem of not knowing the area.

Joy – I have the Orange market in my notes, but didn’t know about the Velleron evening market. It seems like it would make sense to try to stop there instead of Les Baux since it’s not even in the area.
It does seem odd to do the same/similar drive on Friday, but since we want to see the start of the bike race in Nyons, there is no other option… unless we find somewhere further north to stay as you suggested.
I didn’t come across any towns/accommodations that fit the bill, but that certainly doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Does anyone have a suggestion for an area and hotel (similar to our other hotel choices) that would make more sense for the drives we have to do with the bike race on Thurs & Fri? If so, then maybe we could move the other accommodations around and get rid of something.

The Gigondas area is in my notes too – so I’m glad you mentioned it (and the other towns).

Mirmar – I’ve been using mappy for some things, but am still working on the rest – sounds like I need a lot more work on it since our days don’t correspond very well w/ our overnights. Since Cassis will be the only stop on the coast, I’d hate to take that out and we’ve never seen the calanques. Maybe there is another town on the coast that would be a better/closer option than Cassis – any suggestions?

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your comments – really is helpful!

jen

We visited Cassis/Les Calanques last year and loved it. We did a day trip from where we stay near Carpentras. We were almost going to skip it b/c we were afraid of traffic and crowds, but our hosts convinced us it would be worth it. On our drive back, we stopped in Aix to wander around and had dinner.

The drive should have taken us about 1 and half hours, but of course we got lost, so it was closer to 2 hours.


We wandered around town, relaxed and swam on the beach and did a 45 minute boat trip of the Calanques. We were there at the beginning of July and didn't find it too crowded. It wasn't deserted, but the it wasn't annoyingly crowded either.

For wine tastings, I second the recommendation of Les Dentelles area for wine tasting...Gigondas, Seguret, Baumes des Venise.

We'll be returning for our third stay this year, and we stay at Domaine le Vallon in Aubignon. We also don't mind driving and have visited most of the places you mention (we like to change our mind and go with the spirit of the day also!)...


If you love wine and food...and you mention you are thinking of Eyglaliares...I highly recommend the restaurant Chez Eygaliares. We ate there on our HM and it was probably the most incredible meal of our lives (and most expensive). Others on this board also recommend their less expensive option, Chez Bru. I think both are mentioned in Stu's guides.

Another restaurant rec in Vaison La Romaine is Bistro D'O. Vaison is the morthern most city of les Dentelles.

Near St Remy is Glanum and the monestary where van Gogh spent his last year (they are right next to each other)

In St Remy, make sure to stop and buy some chocolate at joel Durand and some Calissons at Le Petit Duc!

lp_nyc - it is so good to hear another positive review of Cassis and the Calanques. As I mentioned earlier, I really want to leave this in because it is our only chance to see the coast and we ARE beach people, so it will be a nice opportunity to get that in.

I am also glad to see another mention of Les Dentelles area wine tasting - we won't miss it! I'm adding the restaurant in Eyglaliares and your other suggestions to our notes too - they all sound wonderful!

Funny you mention Domaine le Vallon in Aubignon - that was one of our first choices for accomodation, but they are booked the first few days of our trip when we will be on Mt Ventoux and in Nyons - I am so disappointed that we will not be able to stay with them - they were so nice while I was checking availability, even holding the reservation without deposit for 6 days until I could get back to them (they offered to contact me if they got another inquiry about the dates I was holding). I really wish they had an opening, but we'll try next time (I'm sure we'll be longing for a next time...).

Thanks again to all of you who have taken the time to respond - your comments are so very helpful!

jen

Very near L'Isle sur la Sorgue is our favorite B&B in France. It's in the countryside, although the countryside is getting busier than it was 6-7 years ago.

www.chambresdhotesprovence.com/ is the web address of this country Mas. We've stayed here 3 times and each was magical. We love the evening dinners which everyone gathers around for a 4 course meal including unlimited wine, at one "family" table. We usually dine outside. Breakfast is wonderful, served at individual tables on their pebbled patio overlooking the Luberon hills.

We drive all over Provence from this location, finding a different market town each day.

The prices are very reasonable and we've been quite happy with our room, a different one on each visit. They have 2 pools also and Julien and Carole speak English as well as their native French. Usually the guests are from European countries, and the U.S. A nice mix.

Have a wonderful trip!

Jen- Glad to be of help! I am definitely a beach person, though my husband is not. The beach at Cassis is not huge, but when we visited, it was sandy, clean and perfect for a few hours. I like a calm sea, so I can actually swim, and found the public beach perfect for this. In hindsight, my husband and I both agreed we would have liked to take a longer boat trip in the Calanques, where they drop you off and you find a more secluded beach to spend the day (hiking involved) and they pick you up later.

And when you return to Provence, you must stay with Fred and Michelle at Le Vallon. My husband and I vowed that we wanted to return there very year around our anniversary because of the wonderful time we had there. They really are special people. When we were there last year, it felt like coming home.

BTW- your Uzes, Pont du Gard, Eygalieres day is an almost replica of ours during our HM. We started in Nimes...

If you want to see pictures of our trips , email me at ep243 at yahoo dot com and I will gladly share. My husband and I both love this area, and compared to others on this board, we are by no means experts, but hopefully some day we will be!

lp_nyc - thanks for the additional info - I will keep that in mind about the boat trip and if we have time, try to do it - sounds like a great idea. I will email you for pictures.

Images2 - thank you for the hotel recommendation - the 'family' meals sound fun! I'm going to look at the website now.

thanks - any other comments from the other experts??

jen

I can’t remember how long it takes to get from Avignon to MV, but you will need to be on MV bright and early to stake out a spot. According to Via Michelin, to Sault, which is a town close to the bottom of MV, it’s over an hour, so give yourself 2 hours or more and don’t forget to bring food and water because you will be there all day. They will close the roads at a certain point and not open them again until every rider has passed. However, on this day you will probably not get to the top and that is a worthwhile experience. Official website:
http://criterium.ledauphine.com/criterium06/indexen.php

This site is very helpful
www.beyond.fr
From the website: The D164 road from Sault to the top of Mont Ventoux is 26 km: 20 km to the Chalet Reynard ski station and the 6 km to the peak

As for your staying, I think you are better off in no more than 2 places. Perhaps Vaison La Romaine - as it is extremely charming, surrounded by Les Dentelles, IMO had the best market (TUES), and is in driving distance to CDP, Orange, Nyons (race start). And if not VLR than some village within the Luberon.

Then consider St Remy or Arles where you’ll be closer to Pont du Gard, Les Baux, & Glanum.

And if you do make it to Bonnieux, between Bonnieux and Apt are two Cotes Du Provence vineyards. We stopped at Chateau de Mille.
http://www.chateau-de-mille.fr/

Michelin headquarters in the US is in Greer, SC..near Greenville. This is their website:http://www.michelintravel.com/

cleck on shopping cart to order..you can also call them: 1-888-610-5122

WOW - what great posts job816_2 & gracejoan3! Such useful information. I quickly googled Vaison La Romaine, and will start searching for accomodations - anyone out there who can recommend specific places and/or towns, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Going to try to order the maps now - thanks again.

jen

bookmarking

Domaine Le Crestet is perhaps 15-30 minutes from Vaison. It is a gorgeous place with a working vineyard. You could "Google" and check it out. I have not stayed there, but friends have and loved it. We stopped and walked around this past summer.

Enjoy!

joy/luvparee