I'm in the very early stages of planning a trip to Provence for late June 2012 using AA air miles.

The length of time in Provence will probably be between 8 and 10 days.

I'm considering adding a few days in a second location. I looked at air fares within Europe just to get an idea and was appalled at what I saw.

For instance, Marseille to Palermo looked like about $600 or was it Euros. Am I looking incorrectly or is it just so expensive?

On the other hand Marseille to Paris was very inexpensive.

Are there less expensive ways to fly within Europe?

It depends where you are getting fare quotes from, if some major website like Expedia (and not European), that doesn't surprise me, as they don't list local budget airlines.
Also, if you are really checking flights for far in advance (like a year), prices may be weird.

But it doesn't have to cost that much, Ryanair has flights from MRS to PMO for only 30-40 euro one-way, I just checked.

You can check www.whichbudget.com to get an idea of flights, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if flights to Palermo were a lot more than to Paris, a major airport hub in Europe. Also, you are starting in France, so would get a lot of options on Air France. Other than that, fares can differ dramatically based on the dates you put in, they will be a lot higher if they are within a day or two. I think you just can expect that flights to smaller airports that aren't even on the continent are going to cost a lot more than to major cities in more central locations on major airlines. And flights that are farther are going to cost more, also, obviously as fuel is very expensive nowadays. Palermo is farther from Marseille than Paris. But I imagine there aren't hardly any airlines flying that route directly, you'd get more options going from a capital to Palermo, I imagine (eg, from Paris).

I don't know if you read French, but I check www.opodo.fr for cheap flights within Europe. or www.opodo.co.uk, as well as www.whichbudget.com

But your blanket statement that you are appalled by flights within Europe in general is surprising to me, although you do say that flights to Paris are cheap, but it depends where you are going, the days you want to go, etc. Lots of these budget airlines only fly a couple days a week, for example. If you want some country other than France from MRS, check some budget airline's possibilities like Ryanair. But be aware of the caveats and possible extra fees on cheap airlines like that, especially luggage rules and fees. MRS is a large enough airport that there must be cheap flights to various places in Europe. Easyjet flies from MRS to London and you can get cheap fares on it if you have the right dates.

Thanks for the response. I had forgotten about Ryanair. i'll check into their restrictions and charges.

Although this plan is for June 2012, when I checked the air fares I used June of 2011 just to get an idea.

Ryanair doesn't fly every day but that's not an issue at this time. I'll just put Sicly back on as an option.

Thanks again.

Thanks for the response. I had forgotten about Ryanair. i'll check into their restrictions and charges.

Although this plan is for June 2012, when I checked the air fares I used June of 2011 just to get an idea.

Ryanair doesn't fly every day but that's not an issue at this time. I'll just put Sicly back on as an option.

Thanks again.

Paris?

I personally like Skyscanner.net because it includes all the budget airlines as well as big airlines & because you can be very flexible with your search (e.g. enter just the city you're departing from and see which city/country is cheapest to fly to from there, search across a whole month for the cheapest option - on a little bar graph, really easy to visualise etc.)
Just a word on Ryanair if you've never flown with them before - they are very strict on baggage limits & of course charge you for checking bags. Then there are charges for using a credit card (which you have no option about) and probably other optional bits and pieces. They also often fly to/from airports that are miles away from the city with that name. So it is worth thoroughly investigating before making your choice - sometimes it's worth paying what seems like a higher price because it might just work out the same once transport to the airport etc. is factored in.