My fiance and I are planning our honeymoon (yay) for next fall (2013) and are feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the choices. I've scoured through several forums and find them SO helpful so I thought I'd throw my own specifics out there and see what comes up. Right now, we are looking at about a 12-15 day trip and here is the rough plan-

* Fly into Paris- train to Provence (Aix), renting a car and staying in St. Remy- train to Tuscany (we haven't yet figured out home base for Tuscany). Here are some questions I have for all of you out there who have done similar trips:

- Does it make the most sense to arrive (by train) into Aix for a rental car or would Avignon be better?

- Any recommendations for a good home base in Tuscany and day trips

- We would LOVE to stop in Portofino on our way from France to Tuscany. Is this something that we could do without completely going out of our way?

- Once we find a good village to stay in, we were thinking about renting a scooter in Tuscany rather than doing another rental car. Has anyone done this and if so, any recommendations/advice?

We aren't really interested in shopping (although poking in and out of a few little shops would be nice). Our focus is the culture of the areas we'll be visiting-really experiencing the food, wine, people. Thank you for ANY insight/help you can offer, it is very much appreciated!

St. Remy is closer to Avignon than it is to Aix, and the Avignon TGV station is new, easy to navigate, and there are car rentals right there, if that's any help.

Happy planning!

Hi AA,

>we are looking at about a 12-15 day trip..<

If you want to enjoy a pleasant honeymoon, I suggest you save Tuscany for your anniversary.

I would fly into Marseille, rent car and drive to St Remy - about 1 hr.

Spend a week in Provence.
Drop car in Avignon.
Train to Paris.
Spend a week in Paris.
Fly home

We very much enjoyed our stay at http://www.hotel-en-provence.com/uk/index.php in Graveson - about 0:15 hr from St Remy de Provence.

Details at
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-in-europe.cfm

Enjoy your visit.

I think ira has the right idea. Much as I love Italy (been there more than a dozen times!) in your circumstances, I suggest you fly into Marseilles or Nice, get a car, do St Remy, then spend a week in Paris, with side trips.

I love Italy, Paris and Provence, and based on a few years of reading Ira's opinions and travel reports, I would take his advice.

Hi Ashley,

So hope you got lotta useful suggestions here

BTW my neice visited Tuscany in fall 2011 and said it was amazing especially the Tuscan delicacies like pasta, minestrone, closed pizzas and much more.

I would suggest if u r keen on learning to cook and eat the best meals one of these villas will be gr8

http://www.tuscany-cooking-class.com/accomodation.html

I also happened to come by luck past a spl offers page in this url http://goo.gl/t76rt

so check them out and get more ideas from members of Fodors to enjoy your trip.

I saw in this conversation someone was talking about anniversaries.

worth a look are these links for wedding villas
http://www.traveltuscany.net/tuscan-wedding-villas/
www.tuscandream.com/weddings_in_tuscany.cfm
www.weddingvenuesintuscany.com/
http://www.tuscanynow.com/villas-in-...-weddings-list

ENJOY YOUR TRIP

I like the Provence/Paris trip. I couldn't really take in in your original post that Paris wouldn't be a part of it!! A large city yes, but with the feel of a much smaller city--and with a vibrancy and "life" that is not to be missed. Let alone that it IS "Paris". LOL

Oh, and the "good" part of Paris/Provence is that you can very conveniently do it in either order since you can train directly to and from CDG arriving or departing.