Hi! I am planning a trip for me and my fiance this July to West Provence, and am looking for any insights you have on our tentative itinerary. We will be spending 2 nights in Annecy and then heading south to explore West Provence for 5 days, before flying out of Marseille. We are planning to stay in Lourmarin as our homebase for exploring the West Provence / Luberon area. Here is what I'm currently thinking for our itinerary:

Day 1 - pick up rental car in Annecy and drive the scenic route (4 1/2 hours) through Grenoble/Sisteron to Lourmarin. Stop along the way and try to get to Lourmarin by dinner time. (Any recommendations for this drive / difficulty, and stops along the way?)

Days 2-4 - Spend time in the Luberon region exploring other villages (Rousillon, Gordes) and possibly spend one day at the Verdon Gorge, with a stop in Moustier de Sainte Marie on the way back to Lourmarin. If you have any specific recommendations for how to spend our time during these three days, we are open to any and all suggestions!

Day 5 - Check out of Lourmarin accommodations in the morning and drive to Marseille. Possibly spend a half day in Cassis? Return rental car at night and stay overnight in Marseille. Fly out of Marseille the next morning (are taxis to the airport easy to schedule?)

We are so excited for this trip but know it's a short amount of time to spend in this region! We are a little overwhelmed at the amount of information out there and would appreciate any thoughts that you have on how to improve our itinerary

I would estimate the drive from Annecy to Lourmarin as more like 6 hours at minimum. Viamichelin.com is far more reliable than Google for this sort of planning. Also, Moustiers Sainte Marie is a solid 2 hours back from Lourmarin most of the same way, so there’s another day of almost all driving.

A suggestion: stop for a night in Moustiers Sainte Marie, and take a little more time to enjoy the area before driving on in a bit more leisurely fashion to Lourmarin. You could see more of the eastern Luberon more enjoyably that way.

Then, still stay five nights in Lourmarin. The Marseille airport is only an hour’s drive from there, so that would be where you’d drop off the rental car.

Cassis could be a day trip from Lourmarin, certainly a shorter drive than the Gorges du Verdon, but there is so much more to see in western Provence, depending on your interests.

if your heart is set on a night in Marseille, you can still do that. Folks will tell you traffic in Marseille is insane, and they are not wrong, but you can get to the train station almost directly off the motorway and dump the rental car. Yes, there are taxis that can take you to the airport and also a shuttle bus. The time it takes is not much better than driving straight from Lourmarin, but at least in the morning you’re travelling in the opposite direction from rush hour traffic.

Thank you so much for all of the helpful insight!

Would you recommend taking the less scenic drive from Annecy through Avignon to get to Lourmarin via a more direct route? If you think the scenic drive is worth it, I will look into staying in Sainte Marie Moustiers for the first night and then heading to Lourmarin after visiting the Verdon Gorge.

To your second comment, do you think Verdon Gorge and/or Cassis is worth a stop? Cassis would be our only time along the coast so we thought it might be a good change of scenery, but I have also read that there is so much to do in West Provence. It is hard to pick with limited days!

For where to stay the last night, our flight is at 6:40am out of Marseille airport. We thought it might be easier to return the rental car the night before in Marseille when the rental location is still open and book a taxi since it is so early in the morning. Is it possible to pre-book a reasonable taxi from Lourmarin directly to the airport the morning of our flight, or would it make more sense to just keep the rental car and return it very early the morning of our flight?

Greatly appreciate all of the insight.

If you are interested, Camus is buried in Lourmarin and the gorge is quite away from Roussillon.

Sorry, thought I had posted an answer but it went away.

if your flight from MRS is that early, you surely do want to return the rental car the day before, as you were planning. I’d almost be tempted to stay at an airport hotel.

The scenic drive really is worth it. Only you know whether the Gorges du Verdon are more worth it to you than Cassis and the calanques — both are valid attractions, but the driving will undeniably take time away from pleasant wanders in the Luberon.