Provence Base
 

We will be landing in Marseille and have 5 days in provence. We will be renting a car pickup at airport and return same location. My question is where should we base ourselves. Should it be in one place or should we move around. We do like to go out for dinners in the evening, so something totaly remote will not work. We were thinking aix en provence the first day. (will be tired from our flight)

Hopefully, you will have a gps in your car. A few years ago we rented a car in Marseille to go to an apartment we rented in aix-en-provence. No insstructions for our gps, so we wandered around and around the town loop before we found our turn to get to the apartment. What a pain.

Try this article's links to get you started.
http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/gui.../overview.html

I agree - be sure you have a gps. We stayed in St. Remy for a week in March and really loved it. From there we were able to spend time in Aix, the Luberon, Avignon, Pont du Gard, Les Baux and a great wine tour in Chateauneuf-de-Pape and Gigondas. It was about an hour drive from the airport in Marseilles to St. Remy which we did at 10pm - VERY happy to have the gps.

...I would never personally stay in city in Provence and don't feel choosing a place to stay based upon eating out a strong point. I love the villages and have always found a restaurant if we were tired of cooking. But would choose St. Remy over Aix and would not move around. Always have a good map - a few years ago my GPS had a mini stroke, it was defining moment with my DH saying, "please get back to your old way, get out the map". Being anywhere is Provence is wonderful, no matter where you land. Enjoy your holiday.

We used Avignon as our base, and it worked out perfectly. It's a nice city.

If you have a GPS, you can download Benelux/France maps onto it. That's what we did, and it was great.

thanks everyone. We are now thinking of not renting a car at the airport. (tired, and jetlagged) Thinking of taking a bus from Marseille airport and going to spend the first day relaxing in Aix en Provence. The next day pick up our car and spend 2 nights in Saint Remy. (will visit surrounding areas) followed by 2 nights in Roussillon. And then returning car to Marseille airport. What do you think?

You will get lots of ideas but only you can make the final decision. My thought for only 5 days is to spend it in one place. If you want to spend the first night in Aix it is probably a good idea if you are arriving late. After that, I would choose one base for the remaining nights. We like St. Remy as a base. It is small enought that you can easily get in and out of town for you day trips and large enough that you have a choice of restaurants for dinner.

Research market days. Going to the different markets was one of our favorite pasttimes in Provence.

I think you're right about driving out of a big city after a long flying day. If the bus is easy to get, staying the first night in Aix is a good idea. Driving out of Aix the next day is very easy.

A tip on Aix: Make sure you find the inner part of the city with the maze of pedestrian street with shops & restaurants. On our first trip to Aix we walked on the Cours Mirabeau and had dinner. We were not that impressed. We didn't discover the charming pedestrian streets until our second trip to the area---poor research I guess.

I do have to agree with the post above about choosing one place to stay. You lose so much time checking in and out. The small towns in the area are very easy to visit on day trips.

Maybe you want to have dinner without driving far, if at all, at night. So, St. Remy then Roussillon makes sence. From St. Remy you could visit Gordes and L'Isle sur la Sorgue on the way to Roussillon.

This is just one traveler's impression. Hope I've helped some.

Hi MV,

You are spending 5 nights in a small place: A circle from Marseille to Roussillon, Avignon, the Pont du Gard, Nimes, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Arless and return is under 8 hours.

I suggest you pick one place to stay.

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence is just about the middle of what you wish to visit.

We very much liked our stay at the Cadran Solaire (http://www.hotel-en-provence.com/uk/index.php)

Details of our visit are at
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-in-europe.cfm

((I))

Hi
I think Marseille isn't a good plan to stay
Isle sur la Sorgues or St Rémy are a good choice ( i prefer Isle sur la sorgue )
Many hotel and B&B there some of them do dinner in the night
Don't forget your GPS and good travel
David

thanks everyone. We now have 6 days. (first night spent at aix after long flight) taking bus from airport. After that we have 5 full days. So from your responses better to spend the 5 days in saint remy. I just thought last 2 days in luberon area would give us a different change of pace. But your right everything is soo close.

Good idea to change 3 day in st remy and 2 in isle sur la sorgue ( gordes roussillon and don't miss oppède le vieux )

We found St Remy to be a perfect base for five nights and added a night in Vaison Romaine and Gigondas. Driving in Marseille would not be a fun experience.

I agree that driving IN Marseille isn't a joyful experience, but driving out of the airport and over to Arles or St-Rémy or something in that vicinity is a piece of cake. It seems like an unnecessary detour to take a bus to Aix to spend the night. I'd just get in the car, get to my destination, and be done with it.

Driving in and out of the Marseille airport is easy as it is outside of the city.

I would spend 5 nights in one spot as well. Distances are not that great from St Remy to Luberon villages and other sites.

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