Itinerary Help Paris and South
 

Sorry to start another thread. After lots of advice my husband and teen sons and I will go to Paris and then South of France for spring break with a car. Yes, there will be lots of tourists but it's the only time we can go. I have some questions and could use some help.
1. I rented an apartment in Paris April 19-22.
2. Rented an apartment in Arles April 22-25th. We decided to avoid Arles on Easter because of the crowds for the Easter bullfights or something so starting with Paris
3. We want possibly one more destination in South of France... town where we can use as a base to explore other hill towns, more ruins etc. Don't want a farmhouse because then we have to drive for dinner. We like to rent an apartment because my son is a diabetic and it is convenient to have a refrigerator for extra insulin and also to have some juice and snacks on hand and pack lunches.
4. Leave back to NYC 28th or 29th
WE DO NOT HAVE PLANE TICKETS YET
We will rent a car.

Questions:
Looking at flying into Paris and out of Marseilles seems really expensive. It seems cheaper to fly in and out of Paris back to NYC.
Should we take a train from Paris to? ______ pick up the car and then drive to Arles? Pick up car outside of Paris and drive there?
Should we drop car back in South of France and train back to airpor? Or drive back to Paris airport? Wasn't sure about train reliability, transfers, strikes.

Was hoping the airline tickets drop a bit in price... I tend to gamble and it has paid off really well and a gamble, not so well in the past. Not sure when is a good time to really book those tickets.

I kind of want to get the basic outline of the trip and then can figure things out like booking a car etc.


Thanks

It has been many years since I rented a car in Paris with my two daughters and set off in a rental car for the South of France. As I recall it was a very long drive and we didn't make it that far. I think it would be easier and faster to take a train frim Paris then rent a car in which ever city you plan to spend a few days.

Take one of the many TGVs from Paris to the Avignon TGV station. Rent a car there, then do the Arles thing. Then go to the Luberon and perhaps stay here
Bed and Breakfast - Luberon B&B - Provence - a beautiful inn located in the Luberon Park in the heart of Provence.
Return to Avignon, take the TGV to the Gare de Lyon, stay near the gare, and have your last meal in Paris here
https://www.le-train-bleu.com/en/
Take a taxi to CDG the next morning.


Easy!!!!!!!!!


Stu Dudley

Agree generally with Stu Dudley. However, I would not rent an apartment in Arles for 3 days. Possible to cancel? Instead, I would pick a place in St. Remy and stay there 6 days -- with a car it's easy to visit Arles, Les Baux, Luberon region, Nimes, Pont du Gard, Avignon, etc. St. Remy also has the Glanum Roman ruins site. If you decide to leave out of CDG, I would definitely stay in Paris (or near the airport) the night before.

You might want to rethink your whole plan. You arrive in Paris on the 19th, then have two days in Paris. The 22nd is all travel getting to the south. Yes, the train is the only way to go or you will just have a very long boring exhausting trip on the 22nd. Why not just fly into the south (it will probably involve a change of planes on the 19th, although you may find a direct flight to Nice or some other southern city). Basing in or near St Remy is an excellent suggestion. Not moving your base will add a full day to your time-limited trip.

Alternatively, spend the entire week based in Paris.

Remember, the last day is also essentially only travel, so you are now planning a travelling trip rather than a vacation. Of course, these changes depend upon what airfares you can find and also if the arranged apartments are refundable or extendable without severe financial penalties.

First off, do NOT drive from Paris to "the South of France," which BTW is an enormous swath of land encompassing tens of thousands of square miles of territory - it's not just Provence. Take the TGV and then pick up a car.

I agree that renting a place in or near St-Rémy makes sense if you must visit "the South of France" in your very very short time.

I have to wonder if you were looking at two one-way fares instead of a multi-city fare, because normally flying into one city in France and home from another would not add significantly to the cost, particularly if you factor in the costs of backtracking to Paris.

I also wonder if you actually realize how very short a week is when you are acclimating to time changes and an entirely new culture. A full week in Paris is just a blip on the screen. Trying to split it into two separate "vacations" is a stretch, though one you may be willing to live with. I would feel very shortchanged on both ends of that trip.

Yes take train from Paris to Arles and stay first night - avoid a day of car rental charges - pick up car next day - book trains early for neat discounted tickets at www.oui.sncf - French Railways - www.seat61.com has loads on doing that yourselves online - general info trains check www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts. Fly out of Marseilles or Nice or Lyon, etc to negate having to go back to Paris.

Following StCirq, I ran a test for early April on matrix.itasoftware.com

Paris round-trip ranged from $450 to $1,000.
Fly into Marseille, home from Paris -- almost exactly the same price; the only difference is the need to go through a European gateway for Marseille.
That's why I start with the more complicated itinerary, then go home from Paris non-stop. It leaves Paris at a more civilized hour of the day than starting early morning Marseille to make a connection to New York.

Conclusion: Multi-destination itineraries must be booked through a multi- destination search function. They are not a pair of single tickets.

I also wondered about the air fare comment, as I have flown into Marseille and out of Paris and I think it was the same price or even cheaper than RT Paris (this was on Air France). I do that a lot, fly into one city in France and out of Paris so I compare those fares a lot and for me, if it is ever more to do the multi-city, it is minimal and not more than the train cost, not to mention a total waste of some of your vacation time when you do that.

I suppose it's possible for some dates and city combos, I've just never seen it myself.

for example, I just checked Air France for 4/18 and 4/28 and it costs $1270 to fly into MRS and out of CDG, $1276 to fly into CDG and out of MRS and $1209 to do RT CDG. Those are the std economy fares.

so it isn't a whole lot more expensive, unless you consider US$85 a whole lot more even though you have to pay for air fare and waste a day.

Personally, I prefer the longer trip at the beginning as by the end of the vacation, I just want to get home quickly, but if an apt has been rented already, that is out.

Ok I can cancel both apartments if needed.....but it seems that Easter might be easier in Paris. And this trip is really 11 days... - 2 days travel so 9 days. My husband just doesn't like Paris (I am sorry, I don't get it either)... but I want to go back to Paris so I figured a short stint there and then off to the South. OK let me go look at tickets again. I was seeing round trip from NYC for $529 and multiple destinations as $1,200 round trip.

And thinking of Easter.... is it better to be in Paris over Easter or in a small town like St. Remy? (where to avoid the most insane crowds like Kyoto in cherry blossom season!)

Why don't you spend you last day or two at the beach? A nice end to a busy week for the boys. Cassis or Bandol are great little towns along the sea with walking distance restaurants. About 1.5 or 2 hour drive from Arles. We stayed in Bandol at the end of a France holiday and didn't move the car until we left for the airport.
then you could drive back to Marseilles and fly from there. This gives you 2 days paris, 3 days Arles, then 2 days seaside before travelling home.

There aren't going to be insane crowds, or really any crowds at all, anywhere in France over Easter. It's mostly a quiet, family-oriented holiday.

OK so we took people's advice and flipped some stuff around. We will fly into Paris (we have an apartment booked already)..... then take a train down South. Pick up a car and eventually fly out of Marseilles. We rented a really nice apartment in St. Remy.
Question: traveling with teen boys. Only SO many hours we can go to museums before the eye rolls start. We have 3.5 days in Paris could make it 4.5 if we extend our apartment rental (if available).....but... not sure.

1. Would it be better to extend and see Versailles (they may like that)... or head down South. Only thing is our apartment in St. Remy is not ready for another day. One thought was pick up our rental car in Marseilles, head to say? Cassis and see Les Calanques (not sure you can hike it end of April though... still looking). If we head down South, we would need one night in another town before heading to St. Remy. Maybe one coastal town? If we did this, we can return the rental car in Marseilles and fly out.

Who we are: teen boys. We love small towns and ruins and of course, I love art and museums as a painter. But a variety of hiking and culture seems to work well for us as a family. We all love Rome as a favorite city. But, we also have many memorable times from Orvieto and Umbria walking and Hiking around Peloponnese (you know, day hikes... 3 hours and poking around ruins). Going Easter week... end of April.


Suggestions are welcome and needed!

You could stop at Orange and see the roman theater or go slightly off course and stop at Nimes.
Or spend one day in the Camargue. something like a tour on horse. For example : https://www.arnellescamargue.com/

Be sure to see the Pont du Gard of course - ancient Roman aqueduct near Avignon.