Last minute tweak to Provence: Arles and Avignon
 

We are in Provence for 5 days during our trip. Based on a lot of great feedback I had allotted a whole day to Arles and a day to be shared between Avignon and the Pont du Gard. Just wondering if you agree or should the full day go to Avignon?

Thanks in advance for your input.

3/4 to all-day in Avignon, and share Arles with the Pont. It will take you 30 more mins to drive from Arles to the Pont - but it could take you 30 more mins (than Arles) to park your car, go into Avignon, and than back to the car.

Stu Dudley

"then" back to the car

I don't think you can predict which one you'd rather spend more time in. But I think I've heard the folklore/culture museum in Arles is closed for a while so if that is true, I'd spend less time in Arles than AVignon.

But Arles has all the great Roman edifices, along with the church of St-Trophime. Not to mention the van Gogh connection.

Along with what Underhill mentioned, Arles also has the wonderful Museum of Antiquity (Roman emphasis) and just a few miles south of town (on the D570) there's the Musee de la Camargue which we found very interesting. Perhaps the day in Arles (with lunch) then on to Pont du Gard for the evening.

We stayed about 15 miles from Arles in October and took advantage of our proximity to revisit the city, It is ...pleasant, very pleasant ...but not overwhelming.

But the nearby Abbaye de Montmajour was, I thought, stupendous.

Avignon and the Palais des Papes were likewise very pleasant but I preferred Villeneuve les Avignon, just north of the centre.

Finally, if visiting the very atmospheric Pont du Gard, I cannot imagine driving away w/o visiting Uzes, the absolute gem of that region.

There is a stunning exhibition in Abbaye de Montmajour going on right now.
Arles could take less than a day unless you are visiting on Market day (wed & sat) or if you're mad about roman and intend to visit the Museum (outside of the center).
You could spend a day in Avignon but a 1/2 day might do the trick. Indeed dont forget to visit Villeneuve and get to Fort St André for a stunning view over Avignon.
Enjoy your trip

I think Avignon has good museums, also (in particular the Petit Palais, I think it's called), and probably more and better ones than Arles, as well as the cathedral and palace and bridge, of course. It's just personal interests, really. I'm not particularly interested in Roman ruins, for example, and have seen enough of them in lots of places around France and elsewhere. If you want to see more Roman ruins, you'd like Arles.

They didn't have any Van Gogh collection when I was there, I believe that is new and last I heard wasn't opening until Spring 2014.

Hi everyone - (I am kkkKelly but my account is not working and I can't get any support from Fodors.) At any rate, I want to thank you for all your input.

Funny, it was StuDudley's doc he emailed me that had me second guessing the Arles timing. We will be there on a market day which will undoubtedly add time onto the visit.

@PhillipeProvence, the Abbaye de Montmajour is on our must-do list so this is exciting.

@tedgale - Uzes is getting tacked onto one of these days somehow, someway. I've read such great things about it.

Really appreciate all your expert advice. We leave soon and can't wait!

I agree with everything tedgale wrote.

As for Van Gogh, there are no painting of Van Gogh in Provence but a smallish train station one in the Fondation Angladon Dubrulle in Avignon.
What Christina was refering to is an exhibition about VG in Arles' Van Gogh fondation which is progamed for next year in conjonction with the Amsterdam Museum. This is not supposed to be a permanent one, but things change sometimes....
More about Van Gogh on
http://saintremydeprovencetourism.blogspot.fr/