Pont Du Gard & Le Baux Provence
 

We have one day starting out from near Avignon, and want to see Pont Du Gard and Le Baux de Provence.
I am thinking of starting in the morning and going to see Pont Du Gard for a couple of hours, then driving to Nimes or Arles (not sure which one is better to visit) and then ending the day in the village of Le Baux and the Chateau, and then returning to Avignon for dinner.
There is also a consideration of doing this trip in reverse, to visit Le Baux in the morning if it is less crowded then.
I would appreciate any suggestions regarding this plan, including its feasibility, interesting stops along the way, etc.

That's a full day schedule that you have. Do Les Baux when the chateau area opens in the AM or late in the afternoon around 6PM or so. The Pont du Gard has an OK cafeteria for lunch. Don't forget to visit the museum there. We spent a couple of hours just at the Museum. If you think you'll run out of time - skip Nimes. We prefer Arles over Nimes.


Stu Dudley

>>>I would appreciate any suggestions regarding this plan, including its feasibility,
You can easily compute the travel time on your own without having to wait for someone else to do it for you, for example using www.viamichelin.com or the google map.
Presuming you have not thought about Carrières de Lumières at Les Baux, you are probably looking at something more than a 10 hour day.
Another input for Arles over Nîmes especially if you are a Van Gogh fan.

While in Lex Baux, do go see the exhibition at Carrières de Lumières. Very much worth your time!

That's a bit much for a day, unless you just want to give Nîmes and Arles a look-see. Both are worthy of a couple of hours at the very, very least, especially Arles. It would be hard to say which is "better" to visit unless we knew why you chose them - historically they are very different, but if you're just going there to see them and aren't interested in or knowledgable about their pasts, sure, just stop and take a look. It's Les Baux (plural - relating to the bauxite content of the land there), and that also can take some time, depending on what time of year you're visiting, which you don't say. The place is murderously crowded in high season and parking gets to be a huge pain. If you want to see the Carrières des Lumières there, that will add another hour or so.

Thank you. I have computed the time of travel, but hard to estimate the time to explore. Some places you would like to linger a bit, others just to see them, and move on. I realize this is highly personal but there are some common themes that people do share. I was not planning to visit Carrieres de Lumieres, but more interested in the Chateau.

Arles definitely over Nimes -smaller and more on way I'd think to Les Baux - I'd maybe start out in Les Baux and end at Pont du Gard - unless chateau at Les Baux is open late and the sight at Les Baux IMO is the dead city itself on a hilltop - the whole thing being the attraction. Well, check opening hours for both and schedule accordingly.

I think most people probably feel Arles has more of interest than Nimes, but don't think the location makes any difference given how much time is available. Nimes isn't that much more out of the way, it probably doesn't matter, you could easily go there and then east on the D999 to Les Baux.

I'd just look at the main sites in each and decide based on your own interests. Becuase sometimes things are closed so if that is the main attraction for a place, why go there. For example, probably my favorite thing in Arles was the regional museum (Museon Arlaten) and it's closed until 2019. I thought Nimes was a pleasant town in its way, but its main attraction are the Roman ruins, I think. The Maison Carree is the best-preserved Roman temple anywhere, so they so. So if you were really a Roman ruins buff you might go there. Both have Roman arenas, after all. Arles has some small art museums, as I recall, but I wouldn't go just for those. But if you were a major Van Gogh buff, you'd probably go to Arles because he lived there and you can see some sights he painted,

Actually I felt the same about Nimes as being a great short stop if only for its stellar Roman relics - Arles' lures are more the city itself and the many copies of van Gogh and Cezanne, etc. paintings set up where those masters executed them. So for short stop Nimes yes.

I you happen to be doing this trek on a market day at Uzes, (Wednesday and Saturday) consider stopping there first. I love that market. We drove from East of Avignon to Uzes, bought picnic provisions at the market, went to Pont du Gard for our picnic lunch and a short swim. We even dipped into the museum there. We then drove to Arles and visited the hospital where Van Gogh spent time, skipping the remainder of the town. From there we made the circle drive to Les Baux - just viewing it from the road rather than going into the town (the one time I visited I found it overly touristy and one of our crew would have found the walking very hard) and then on to St. Remy - where we had a nice stroll and did a bit of shopping prior to our dinner reservation there. This was in July - so the day was long - but we enjoyed it all very much.

Arles also has interesting Roman ruins, including the Alyscamps, a long road with tombs along either side. There are also the arena and ruins of the theater. While not Roman, the church of St-Trophime is a must-see, with a fine cloister.

What time of year is this trip?