My friend and I will be in Provence next Spring. We will arrive by train from Paris for 4 nights. We will rent a car. We'd like to visit Avignon upon arrival and then head to our base.

We want to see St. Remy, Les Baux, Arles, Marseille or Aix-de-Provence. Is this doable in 4 days? And what would be the best base? Other consideration is that when we leave the Provence area, we are driving down to the Riveria and would like to visit St. Tropez before heading to Nice (Riveria base for 4 nights). Also thinking about dumping the car once we get to Nice. Is that a good idea, as the areas we want to see our Cannes, Nice and Monaco.

Since everything is so close in Provence, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the places to stay as a base. You might decide whether you want a tiny hamlet, small village, small town, or larger place, and the pros and cons of all.

Hi

for Provence - the first three are absolutely doable in 4 days.. if you add in Marseille, just keep on going along the Riviera. I haven't been to Aix so I can't say how much extra time you would need.

For the Riviera - oh, keep the car, at least one day - you really want to drive the Corniches. Stunning cliff views. try to visit Eze too. Nice-Monte Carlo cab is around 50 bucks one way. Cannes is farther away.

I think Arles is a great base for all those things in Provence although Aix may be more centrally located. Don't try to drive in Nice. If you decide to keep your car, immediately park it and use it only from excursions outside of the City (and stay on the outskirts if you are going to drive alot. There is a train that goes to Monte Carlo and I believe Cannes, which may be way easier. Ezes is a nice stop on the way to Monte Carlo but doesn't need much time dedicated to it.

When you head toward the Riviera, Cassis is a nice place to stop. We took a boat ride to take in the beautiful views of the Calanques.

I would say that St. Remy is a location to access all.

While the car can be a bother in Nice, I would not get rid of it--it is so helful to get to many of the hill towns above the cote d'azur as well as going east. I would definitely second the visit to Cassis and the boat ride to the Callanques--the 1 hr. ride gives you a nice orientation without having to devote a whole morning or afternoon to it. Also, consider a ride to Tourettes-sur-Loup--spectacular.

With 4 nights (3-days) you can do either Provence or the Cote d'Azur - can't do both or you'd be spending all your time in a car.

If you choose Provence, visit Avignon when you arrive and also go out to the Pont du Gard which is West of Avignon. I suggest St. Remy as a base, as it is a small town, and very little problem with parking, especially in Spring. Also has easy access to Arles, Les Baux. You can also go East to the Luberon villages. Alot can be done in 3-days.

Aix is way out of the way, a good 60 miles from St. Remy on way to Marseilles. Marsielle is about 45-min-1-hr from Aix and a large city. Except for Cassis outside of Marseilles, the most comments I've heard about Marseilles is "best to leave there".

If you want to do the Cote d'Azur/Riviera, then take the train to Nice. A car is nice, but can be a parking problem, unless your hotel has facilities, but they charge hefty; a public garage is also costly for overnight and don't do street parking if you can't read signs. If the car isn't moved in time, it will be "booted".

You can actually use the train from Nice to take you East to Eze, Cap Ferrat, Monaco; or West to Cannes. But the car is really more convenient to get to the small perched villages and driving the Corniches.

Also realize if that you go as far as Nice, do you have to get back to Paris to fly home? Consider flying into Paris and out of Nice (via Paris) to home (unless you fly Delta which has a non-stop to/fr Nice); or if you decide Provence you have to include the train time to return to Paris, unless you choose to fly out of Marseilles (the airport is 1/2-hr outside of city, closer to Aix actually) about 1-hr to 1-1/2 hr. from St. Remy.

It's one or the other, not nearly enough time to do both.

I understood the post to say 4 days in each base, Provence and the Riviera--if that is incorrect and it is 4 days in total, then Sandi's suggestions make sense. But I believe the original post indicates 2 4 day stays.

Robyn -

Duh - you're right it's a total of 12-days in France. Of course, if that was stated up-front, I wounldn't have been so dense. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

KOL -

With 4-days each, yes it can be done, but remember there will be lots of long strecthes of drives and those should be done on the Peage (super-hiway). Within the areas you can use the National roads to get between small towns.

Also get a copy of the Michelin #245 Yellow map which is a must.

And if you end up in Nice to do the stops along the Cote d'Azur, then arrange to drop the car at the Nice airport and fly back from there.

Depending on your air carrier (if other than Delta) you'll transfer via Paris.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.

We made our base in St Remy and found it to be a great spot to base out of for our trip in France.