Hi France travel experts! Our family of 5 (grandma, parents, two kids ages 16 and 12) will be flying into Barcelona and out of Lyon in March 2024. We've settled on a high level itinerary, but everything is cancelable and we are open to revising the plan. The arrival and departure cities were dictated by an excellent seat sale on flights. Choice of the two Southern France home bases was in part made for us by finding great Airbnbs in each. I thought I would solicit some feedback now before starting to dive into the more specific daily planning. Any thoughts are much appreciated! About us: we are very active and like to be out and about exploring, but happy to be doing that in cities or countryside. We did London and Paris for 2 weeks last year and loved it (it was the kids' first trip to Europe), but in retrospect we should have added a couple of additional locations to that itinerary - we like to move around. The kids actually love museums, history, art, and wandering around cities/towns, which is convenient for the adults since that's what we like too! Grandma is very active and no special concerns from a planning perspective. I've included some of the "must sees" based on our research so far. Here's the plan:

March 14 am: arrive Barcelona (Airbnb - 3 nights, I am sure this won't do Barcelona justice but we'd rather spend more time in France)
March 17: morning train from Barcelona to Nimes (hotel - 1 night) (there is a specific reason to be in Nimes this evening, celebrating a special day at a particular restaurant grandma wants to go to)
March 18: spend day in Nimes and then pick up car rental late afternoon, drive to Airbnb in Castillon du Gard (Airbnb - 3 nights). Home base to explore: Uzes, Avignon, Pont du Gard, anything else we can fit in.
March 21: relocate to St Remy (Airbnb - 5 nights). Home base to explore: Luberon villages, Glanum, Baux-de-Provence and Carrieres Lumieres, Aigues-Mortes
March 26: drop off car and take train to Lyon (hotel - 2 nights)
March 28: fly home

I have done a lot of research and reading and am comfortable with this plan but thought I'd throw it out there in case there are any obvious flaws that a first-timer to these areas wouldn't have thought of or read about before planning further. We are realistic and know that with our limited time, we can't come close to seeing everything and need to prioritize. A few things on our "maybe?" list include Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Montpellier, Setes - but these might have to wait for a future trip. I'm sure there will be one!

Thanks so much in advance for any feedback!

That seems fine to me.

Attached is my Provence/Cote d'Azure itinerary and one for Lyon also.

Stu Dudley

Thank you, Stu! With your endorsement I know I must be on the right track

The only place on your “maybe” list that would be easy to get in and out of by car is Arles — presuming you’d head straight for the paying parking garage on Bd des Lices and walk from there. The others, like Avignon, have more extensive suburbs to navigate.

Make sure your train to Lyon is going to stop at Part-Dieu or Perrache. The Saint-Exupery TGV station is in the airport area and an expensive tram ride into town.

Thanks so much for that tip about Lyon train stations FTOttawa! I hadn't realized that and would definitely have defaulted to the TGV station (I still have to book that train).

There are definitely TGVs through both Part Dieu and Perrache, so you’ll still get there quickly.

If you have a chance to swing through Fontaine de Vaucluse on your Luberon day, not only is March likely a good time to catch the Fontaine in spectacular flow, there is a good little museum of the history of the Resistance and daily life under the Vichy regime.

Lyon has the most amazing choice of museums so the more time you can spare for it, the better. Also a safe and lovely place for your kids to wander independently.