sailingchick

We are going to be in Turin Italy, leaving on Aug. 10. We are thinking of taking the train via Cuneo to Nice, which is supposed to be a beautiful train ride, then renting a car in Nice to travel the backroads and explore Provence. We'd like to see beautiful villages, get away from some of the tourists if possible, do some hiking and see lavender and sunflowers if they are still blooming . We're thinking maybe 3-4 days. Anyone have any suggestions? We're not tied to the train trip to Nice, so if you think we might prefer getting from Torino to France via a different method, we'd love to hear your suggestion. After Provence, the plan is to head for Paris for a couple days then fly home. Thank you very much for your help!

StCirq

You won't see lavender and sunflowers in August. You'll definitely see tourists.

Christina

I think the train to Nice sounds okay if you want to be in Nice, otherwise, don't know why you would stop there since you just want to rent a car and leave. I think the things you want to see aren't near Nice, anyway, but am speculating.

I agree August will probably be too late for sunflowers and lavender, but I think it lasts later in the high Vaucluse. Maybe. But they do have a big lavender festival in Sault on August 15th, even if the harvest is done by then. I guess you could go to that area from Aix or Avignon, if you wanted.

I'm just thinking about where you could go by train. For example, there is a direct train from Torino to Lyon, as I see it (the only place in France), and it would be easy to take a TGV from there to Avignon. You'd have to either transfer in Nice or somewhere else, anyway. Unless you do rent a car in Nice, as you said, but even then you'ud have to transfer once to get to Nice, so transferring in Lyon to get to Avignon is the same number of transfers. Turin to Avignon takes 6-7 hrs with one transfer and Turin to Nice takes 4-6:30 hrs with one transfer. I'd rather go to Avignon and rent a car there and go east than explore Provence from Nice, but that's up to you.

There are some lovely areas and villages in the upper Vaucluse/Drome area (such as Grignan, Nyons, Vaison-la-Romaine) and there might be fewer tourists up there.

info
http://www.visit2provence.com/englis...fields,30.html
http://www.saultenprovence.com/
http://www.fetedelalavande.fr/

kerouac

Obviously Nice is not Montpellier, but this is the same sort of road experience that you can have in mid-summer: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...way-around.cfm

amer_can

If you have a car the area in the Drome region is interesting. The over mountian road to Grenoble from Die has a very interesting museum about the WWII resistance. A beautiful drive but winding. Nearby Saillon there is another interesting place where the life of the silkworm is on display. This road was were Hannibal marched his elephants, The wine is very good. The mountains are interesting..one looks like the profile of de Gaulle..but the lavender will be gone. Not a heavily tourist place.

amer_can

Google beau plus villages...they are lovely, plentiful and great for stopping to enjoy the square, a glass of local wine and people watch. forgot to mention this in the precious submission..

cigalechanta

If you are in a hurry, the back roads can take forever
should you be stuck behind a caravan or one of those slow moving farm vehicles.

Alan_CT

Here's a website with good descriptions of Provencal villages. We stayed in Vaugines last trip, a tiny village in the Luberon, at a chambre d'hote that really was just a bedroom suite in a modern home. But it was set just above the village, had nice views and an excellent breakfast of local cheeses, breads etc.

http://www.beyond.fr/index.html