Need advise - Gordes as home base?
 

This is our first time in the Provence area. One of the hotels that can accomodate us is Le Mas de Romarins in Gordes. Is this a good home base and central to see major sights in Provence or are we going to be spending too much time driving to get from site to site? How is the area in the evenings? One of the attractions for us is the kind of room they have that can accomodate our family of 4. We hope to got to Les Baux, St Remy, Avignon, Arles, Nimes and any other suggestions is quite welcome. We'll be in Provence for 6.5 days.

thank you!

We rented a gite less than a mile away from Gordes and found it to be a super location for exploring Provence. Of the places you mentioned, we did not go to Nimes but did visit the rest and many more, too. Without a map in front of me, I'm guessing that our furthermost points in each direction were: west, Pont du Gard; north, Vaison la Romaine or Seguret; east, Moustiers-Ste-Marie (wonderful, scenic day trip), and south, Toulon (went there to visit friends). We did not feel that we spent too much driving at all; everything seemed surprisingly close, except for Toulon and Moustiers, which we knew were farther destinations. And Gordes is very near the perched villages of Roussilon, Menerbes, Bonnieux, Saignon, and the slightly larger Apt.

Have fun!

Personally, with kids and driving, I would stay in Avignon. It is more central and easier to get to all the places you will want to see or at least a B and B nearby.

The Mas de Romarins is a perfectly fine base, especially since you have six days to visit the area. ALmost everything you want to see will be within an hour's drive from there. The only other place I'd suggest would be the St. Rémy area.

As far as driving and with kids, I would not recommend staying in Avignon. Driving in and out of there is a total hassle...

Patricia

Thank you all for your response.

PBProvence - I am glad you responded to my post because I saw one of your posts to a question about an itinerary and you suggested just going to
Gordes for the day because there's nothing much there but the view? can you please clarify? Is it basically "dead" - I am specially concerned with a town being busy enough(not a sleepy, quiet town) but not too commercial and too touristy either.

Also, is the Gordes area classified more as part of the Luberon region than Provence itself or the Luberon/Rousillion region is also part of Provence? Apologies in advance if this question is too dumb, I am trying to get a crash course on geography.

Additionally, is St Remy more convenient to the sites I mentioned and approx how long does it take on average from St Remy to the sites I mentioned? How far is Avignon to the sites I mentioned? There's only one kid in our part, the other is my mom.

The Lubéron region is part of Provence. I personally would prefer to stay in St-Rémy and make a day trip over to the Lubéron. St-Rémy is located closer to Les Baux, Arles, and Nîmes.

Gordes is one of those small villages perched on top of a hill versus St.Remy which is more of a small town. There is more to see and do in St. Remy. We stayed in both places last summer. Gordes for one night at Mas de Romarins and then moved on to their sister hotel in St. Remy for the rest of our stay in Provence. If I had to choose one place to base myself in it would be St. Remy.

We stayed in a place literally a stone's throw from Gordes. I liked Gordes and I loved the view of the Luberon Valley and I loved the hotel. But I don't think I'd stay in that area again. The drive was long. We stayed 5-6 days and by the end of the second day I found myself saying, "never again." I think St Remy or Avignon makes for a much better centrally located place. I personally loved St Remy and will be staying there the next time we go.

Gordes is certainly not "dead." It's full of tourists during the day, at least in the summer, and has some interesting shops.

Judging from my family's experience a year ago staying in Joucas (north of an imaginary line between Gordes and Roussillon), Gordes would be a fine home base, particularly for the Luberon.

We've stayed next to Gordes for 4 weeks, next to St Remy 2 weeks, near Vaison 4 weeks, near Uzes for 2 weeks, and east of Aix for 4 weeks.

Where you stay depends a lot on how you want to experience Provence.

If you want to visit the large cities of Arles, Avignon, and Nimes - then St Remy would be a good base - although Avignon is just about as close to Gordes. The Pont du Gard & Uzes are also closer to St Remy. Les Baux is next to St Remy.

If you want to wander through vineyards, small perched villages, lavender fields, canyons, mountains, more remote areas of Provence, Mt Ventoux, Rhone wine villages around the Dentilles, Vaison la Romaine, then Gordes would be a better place to stay. It's also closer to the Sunday market in l'Isle sur la Sorgue, and to Senanque Abbey.

St Remy is active almost all the time - perhaps too active with day trippers at times. Gordes is active with day trippers too - but they're there mostly between 11 & 5.

I think the Luberon is much prettier than the Alpilles (St Remy) area.

You will have to drive to get to most of the better restaurants in the Gordes region - although we actually prefer that because the drive is always spectacular at twilight. There are plenty of restaurants in St Remy so you won't have to drive.

For a first timer, I think you'll find St Remy to be the nicest city, and the Luberon (Gordes) to be the prettiest region.

Stu Dudley

Stu,
As always, that was a perfect description of the difference between the two.

bonzhoor,
We spent two weeks outside of St. Rémy in the Alpilles, very near Patricia's home in Maussane and Les Baux, and found it ideal for touring as "first timers" to the area.

Our original plan was to spend 4 days in Villeneuve-les-Avignon then 5 days each in the Alpilles and the Lubéron.

But my friend and her six children gave us the use of their rental home, and all plans were scratched, which in retrospect was a godsend for us as "newbies".

I agree with Patricia-driving in and out of Avignon was for us a major hassle.

From our les Alpilles base, we took day trips to:

Eygalières, the Camargue (Stes. Maries-de-la-Mer and Aigues-Mortes), Arles, Nîmes, Pont du Gard, Uzès, Avignon, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, l'Isle-sur-la-Sorge for Sunday market, Senaque Abbey and lavender fields, Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, Gordes, Joucas and the Lubéron villages of Goult, Roussillon, Ménerbes, Lacoste, Oppède-le-Vieux, Lourmarin, Bonnieux, Saignon.

We used Patricia's and Stu's notes, as well as the kind help of other Fodor's Provence experts, which proved to be invaluable advice.

If we had based in Gordes (which I personally found to be picture-postcard-perfect, stunning from a distance but with less soul than Roussillon) we could have reached Mount Ventoux., Vaison-la-Romaine and as far east as Moustiers-Ste.-Marie as grandmere was able to do. This we'll save for another trip.

We didn't drive to Aix.

Hope this helps.

Maribel, you complimented Stu on his apt comparison. Now it's my turn to compliment you. I agree that Rousillon has more "soul" than Gordes.

bonzhoor...

in my opinion, Gordes has become, over the years, a village that would look exactly right at Epcot Center. It's been so "done" and is so "cute" it doesn't seem quite real anymore. Of course, the fact that the majority of residents aren't even French adds to that. One of the reasons I suggest that you drive past and take a photo is because it's so filled with tourists.

Gordes is in the Lubéron region (the Vaucluse) of Provence. There is also a town there called Roussillon...but there is also a region, west of Provence called the Languedoc Roussillon.

ALmost everything you'd like to see is within 45 minutes of St Rémy.. and there is plenty to keep you busy in the town itself. Restaurants, cafés... things to do in the evening.

Everything you"d like to visit is also about 45 minutes to an hour from Avignon..just much more traffic to contend with.

There are some sites that appeal to kids in the area as well -for example, there's a free flight bird show (eagles, falcons, hawks, etc.) at the ruins of the Château in Beaucaire - just across the river from Tarascon

Anyway, Stu and I differ greatly in our views of the prettier of the two - the Lubéron or the Alpilles. I prefer the more "savage" Alpilles (obviously, since I live here), as the Lubéron reminds me of North Carolina - lots of boringly pleasant rolling hills, just with some great perched villages like Roussillon and Oppède-le-Vieux.

Patricia

You might try asking a question here: http://avignondailyphoto.blogspot.com/

I agree, Gordes is a wonderful day trip, but to stay may be too much. Check out the Colorado Provençal area, a town called Rustrel. I rented a house there for my 40th birthday and 40 friends, and it was a great base to go from the Avignon, Apt, all the Luberon and even to St. Tropez.

ttt

I would probably be one of the people criticized here for hopping around to stay in more than one place. I've always felt that moving around was good in case you booked a "dud" room one night.
We stayed in both St. Remy and Gordes and I would prefer St. Remy.
I did stay in your hotel. It had the most astounding view of nearly anywhere I stayed. However, I stayed in one of the older rooms and would not have wanted to spend a week there.

Having visited the Luberon area of Provence this past June, and choosing Gordes as my base, I would highly recommend St. Remy instead.

Gordes was in fact DEAD to us. We ended up here as the hotel choices we made for St. Remy were booked. Driving everywhere was a bit annoying, as we like the ability to walk around town and choose a restaurant. I guess we are just "town/city" folks at heart.

I do agree to the beauty of the area, but I suppose its a matter of preference; small, villages and natural beauty or more lively towns with historical significance and an array of restaurants.

We just returned from a week in Provence. Our friends stayed at Mas de Romarins and were very pleased. It has a nice view of Gordes and is within 5 minutes walking to the center of this busy town. The smells from their restaurant were wonderful, although we ate elsewhere. The room was not huge, but was bigger than your average Paris hotel room, and had a very nice updated bathroom. As far as location, I can't say that anything is too far away from anything else around there. We slpit our time between Les Baux (La Riboto - divine!) and Saignon (Auberge du Presbytere - wonderful!) and were never felt too far from any destination.

Have you got a web-site address for le Mas de Romarins@
Has anyone stayed in st. Remy recently and has a favourite hotel?
Thanks a lot, Ann

One of the more important aspects of staying in St.Remy, especially if you have a motel in town, is that after an exhausting day of touring you just park the car and walk to one of a nice selection of restaurants instead of getting in the car again to the very darkened roads of Provence. St.Remy in the evening (after the tourist day trippers have gone home) is very relaxing with nice shops to peruse after dinner.