Provence in October?
 

My friend and I have been planning a trip to Italy in the fall. But now we're longing to go back to Paris. Leaving around Sept. 25th, thinking we'll take in Provence on this trip.

Fly into CDG, 4 nights in Paris, train to Avignon, 6 nights in Provence w/ car, fly out of Marseille.

Is early October a good time to visit St. Remy and area? Wouldn't that be grape harvest time? Too early for truffles? I never read about anyone flying out of Marseille...is there a reason?

Our budget in St. Remy would be 100E for twin-bed room. Any suggestions? We like to be in town or near enough to walk to/from dinner. Small hotel preferred. We love old architecture, historical sites, good restaurants, gardens, charming countryside ... we're not big art buffs.

I would appreciate suggestions. I only chose St. Remy because it sounds like it is a good central location. For some reason I find researching Provence more confusing than other areas. Thanks.

grape harvest time depends on the weather, but october is definitely a lovely time to be in provence.

flying out of marseille is fine; relatively large airport with a good number of flights daily. the airport is outside of the city, making for ease of access.

the problem with rsearching provence is that it's so big, compared with other areas of france--excepting burgundy. st-rémy is centrally located for visiting arles, the camargue, the pont du gard, les baux and the alpilles area, and avignon--even the lubéron. you've chosen a good base.

Underhill is right on the money about Provence being large! My husband and I were in Provence at the exact same time last year as you will be this year. It's wonderful then because the extreme heat of the summer has worn off, yet it's still pleasant enough to wear short sleeves. The leaves won't be turning colors then since it's still the tail end of summer.

We ended up dividing our six nights in Provence into three nights in Beaucaire (to the west of St. Remy) and then three nights in Jouques (a small village northeast of Aix-en-Provence). We did this because otherwise we'd have had far too much backtracking and driving to deal with. It's something you might want to consider, too, especially if you want to fly out of Marseilles. There's as much to see in that end of Provence as there is in the St. Remy area.

October is a great time to visit here... the weather is usually good, and it can even be quite warm. The grape harvest will be over and yes, it's sadly too early for truffles (mid-November through March).

Few people talk about flying out of Marseille because there are no flights to the US from there... good connections to Paris, Munich and Frankfurt though.

Here are a few recommendations for places to stay in St Remy... and I'd be happy to recommend some restaurants in the this area as well. Just let me know.
Villa Glanum (outside town, direction Les Baux - next to Glanum)
Comfortable, country style hotel. Pool, handicap access.
28 rooms from 65 - 80 euro
Closed from 1 November to 23 March.
Tel: (33) 490 92 03 59 Fax: (33) 490 92 00 08
[email protected]

Mas des Carassins (outside town, direction les Baux)
Restored 19th C Mas (farmhouse) with lovely gardens. Pool
12 rooms from 95 - 125 euro
Closed 4 January to 28 March
Tel: (33) 490 92 15 48 Fax: (33) 490 92 63 47
[email protected] www.hoteldescarassins.com


l'Amandiere (outside of town, direction Noves - about 2 kms.)
Calm setting with nice garden. Rooms have a balcony or terrace. Pool
26 Rooms from 52 - 62 euro
Closed End October to Mid-March
Tel: (33) 490 92 41 00 Fax: (33) 490 92 48 38

If I can answer any questions (I live ten minutes from St Remy), feel free to email me at [email protected]

Patricia

I don't want to hijack Jeanne's post, but Patricia, can you recommend some hotels/inns that are right in the town of St. Remy? I just beginning to sort out a possible trip an I too am getting a little confused with all my research on the area. Thanks in advance!

JeanneB, just one more vote to say that you can be confident that early October is a great time to visit Provence. Several of our trips have been in late September through to the third week of October. It's a gentle time of year. You'll love it.

Anselm

Me too..I thought those hotels you mention were in the city or so close by you could walk to the city center?..

Well, I certainly am reassured that the season is good! Thanks, all.

Okay, I have a stupid question.

Which region or department is this? Are St. Remy and Aix in the same region? I think if I can get that straightened out it will make my searching easier. Doh!

Does anyone have a good map website?

jeanne, St Remy and Aix are both in the department of the Bouche du Rhone.
If you look at the map (buy one if you don't have one) and google one for now, You'll see St Remy is in the Alpilles, that's the mountains. Aix is in the Mont Victoire area. PB lives in the area near St Remy in Mausanne-les-Alpilles(one of my favorite towns)
and has a beautiful B&B on the outskirts and also gives cooking lessons .

Jeanne, your question isn't the least bit stupid. Straight from my France Regional Tourist Board brochure, Provence is divided into these departments: <b>Vaucluse</b> with the towns of Apt, Gordes, Carpentras, Avignon and Orange; <b>Bouche du Rhone</b> with the towns of St. Remy, Aix-en-Provence, and Marseille, <b>Var</b> with the towns of Hyeres and Draguignan, <b>Alpes Maritime</b> with the towns of Grasse, Antibes, and Menton, and lastly, <b>Alpes de Haute Provence</b> with the towns of Sisteron, Digne-les-Bains, and Manosque.

Two websites I like are www.avignon-et-provence.com, which is mostly info on accomodations, though it does have other items, and www.provencebeyond.com for looks at all the towns. I would also suggest Fodor's excellent book &quot;Exploring Provence.&quot; It has walks, maps, great photography, and plenty of descriptions. It's a very useful guidebook to have on hand. We took it with us when we went to Provence.

Here you go, Jeanne better than our words.

http://goeurope.about.com/cs/provenc...ovence_map.htm

Good, Mimi, I forgot about goeurope! That's an excellent website for info.

Here's another good one that can show jeanne and lois a more overall look.
http://www.voyagesilena.co.uk/holidays/provence/map.htm

Y'all are fabulous~! Having a map and knowing the names of the regions is a big step to better research!

I'll spend tonight looking through all those sites. Many things we want to see are in Bouche du Rhone and Vaucluse.

Avignon: I guess we can rent the car upon arrival so we can store our bags while we see the sites there.

Then on to St. Remy for 3 nights seeing Arles, Gordes &amp; countryside. After that, I'm thinking move down to Aix for the last 3 nights closer to the Marseille airport. I saw on one sight there's a good bus from Aix to the airport, but it will probably be just as easy to drive. Haven't done much research on Aix yet.

Pronunciations:
Aix = A's - like plural of the letter &quot;A&quot;?
Gordes = GOR-day?
Arles = Ar-LAY?

Aix - ex
Gordes - Gord
Arles - Arl

Aix-en-Provence History]. For pronunciation, you pronounce the &quot;x&quot;, so Aix sounds like aches, as in aches and pains. On road signs, the name is shortened into Aix-en-Pce.

The center of Aix is the old town (vieille ville), ringed by a circle of boulevards and squares.

I would pronounce Gordes= Gorduh, accent on first syllable
Arles= Arl-uh, once again accent on first syllable.

The second part of the word is a bona fide syllable in French

Robyn, how is your painting coming along?

I should have added a disclaimer on my post: &quot;at least that's how I say it!&quot; :D

I would say St Remy, pronouncing it like it's spelled. Back then, my Proven&ccedil;al friend was working there and when I said I'd meet him for lunch. He didn't know where I meant :)
I pronouce the towns now as Robyn.