Provence - Finalizing Day Trips - Please comment
 

If I may gain access to the Provence brain-trust yet another time. Please see below for my plans for some day-trips for the full-days we are in Provence.

We are going in (early) June. We are based in Aix for the entire time (not ideal - I know).

My biggest struggle - two of our days are the dreaded Sunday and Monday. I want to make sure our plans for those days make sense given what is open and what is not.

Here it is. (Big thanks to all the folks on the boards (e.g. Stu) that have helped me get to this point).

Saturday - partial day - explore Aix

Sunday
Isle su Sorgue
Gordes
Oppede-le-Vieux
Menerbes
Lacoste
Bonnieux
Lourmaine

Monday
Cap Canaille
Cassis
Calanques
Nans-les-Pins (Massif Ste Baume)

Monday (alternate)
Bedoin (market)
Vacqueyras
Beaumes - de - Venise
Le Barroux
Malaucene
Vaison - la - Romaine
Seguret
Gigonadas
Chateauneuf du Pape

Tuesday
St Remey
Glanum
Les Baux
Arles

Wednesday
St Tropez
Gassin
Ramatuelle
Tour of Massif des Maures
Grimaud
La Garde-Freinet
Village des Tortues
Notre Dame des Anges

Thursday
Stay in Aix - rest/market

Friday
Avignon
Pont du Gard
Uzes


Can't seem to fit in
Moustiers Ste Maire
Grand Canyon du Verdon
Sad about that.

Looks fine to me. If you do the Bedoin option, and switch the St Remy day with the St Tropez day, you will hit 4 markets in 4 days - might be a little too much, however.

Stu Dudley

What are the drawbacks (if any) of hitting a town (such as St Remey) on a market day?

Thanks

Drawbacks:

1) you need to get there early top find parking easily.

2) you should reserve a restaurant for lunch ahead of time.

3) instead of experiencing a relatively calm and sleepy town - you will see something akin to Mardi Gras !

-Kevin

p.s.: I realize #3 may or may not be a drawback depending on your POV...

Ditto Kevin's remarks.

When you are in a town on market day, your eyes are drawn to the market stalls - not the towns architecture, cute shops, hidden alleyways, etc. A few year ago, friends visited us & we sent them off to St Remy on Market day. They returned and said that they enjoyed the market, but they wished that they had visited St Remy on a different day.

We went to Carpentras last year for the first time on a non-market day - it's a different place when there are not thousands of people shoulder to shoulder. Apt is also quite enjoyable on non-market days. Same with l'Isle sur la Sorgue.

The market in Gordes is small enough and in a big open square, so it does not interfere with enjoyment of the town. Same with the Bedoin market.

Stu Dudley

I'd say that Sunday and your "alternate" Monday are too full...
You'll wind up spending all of the morning getting to and wandering around the l'Isle sur la Sorgue markets (food, "stuff" and antiques), and if you opt on having lunch there, you'll find your afternoon too short to visit all the villages you've listed. - I'd replace Bonnieux with Roussillon and skip Gordes (except for a "drive by photo")and Menerbes. I'd been keeping Oppede-le-Vieux a secret for years, but looks like it's out now...it's one of my favorite villages and I go over there as often as I can to wander around.


Lourmarin is a longer drive than you'd think, because of the twisting road... but it's a nice way to get back to Aix.

Your "alternate" Monday also means a lot of hours spent behind the steering wheel.
Beaumes de Venise is okay, but not a place to get that excited about and I've never seen the attraction of Vaison, personally, except for the old village perched above the town.

PB

We found the Roman town ruins in Vaison and the arena very interesting, along with the church near the large parking lot. The Roman museum has some good things in it--and as I recall the rooms were air conditioned, lovely on a quite hot day.