pegprescott

We returned last week from a wonderful first visit to Provence. Here I will post our itinerary with hotels and restaurants. In my next posts I'll do a more detailed travelogue and another post on our restaurant experiences. Yes, we did relive our dinners by recording them each night in our Journal. Peg

PROVENCE TRIP REPORT MAY 2005

Day 1 Fly on Air France to Marseilles via Paris
Day 2 Pick up car from Europcar at airport.Drive to our hotel, Mas de l’Oulivie, in les Baux.
(A quiet and beautifully landscaped new hotel just a ½ mile down the road from the entrance to les Baux)
Day 3 Day in St Remy on market day and afternoon visit to the roman ruins at Glanum. Dinner at le Homard in Fontvieille
Day 4 Morning in Arles and afternoon in the Camargue. Lunch at LaChassagnette outside Sambuc. No room for dinner!
Day 5 Drive to Uzes (stay at Hotel General d’Entraigues). Saw les Baux in early morning, stopped at St Remy in the morning and lunch, stopped at a Cotes de Nimes vineyard outside Meynes and at the Pont du Gard in the afternoon. Dinner at Les Trois Salons, Uzes.
Day 6 Drive to Gigondas in the Dentelles to Hotel les Florets. Visit to morning market in Uzes, picnic lunch along the road, and stops in Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Seguret. Much wine sampling.Dinner at les Florets.
Day 7 Drive to Bonnieux in the Luberon (Hotel Clos du Buis). Stops at Sunday market in L’Isle sur la Sorgue and afternoon visit to Goult. Dinner at Le Fournil in Bonnieux.
Day 8 Lavender Route tour (see Stu Dudley’s wonderful itinerary)modified a bit
Stops included Roussillon, Sault, the Gorges of the Nesque, Venasque, and Senanque. Dinner at Bernard Mathys in le Chene outside of Apt
Day 9 Day touring Luberon villages – Gordes (yet another morning market), Oppede - le - Vieux, Menerbes for lunch, and Lacoste. Dinner again at Le Fournil in Bonnieux. Yes it was worth a second visit.
Day 10 Drive to Aix-en-Provence with a stop at Lourmarin. Stay at Hotel le Manior. Lunch at Les Deux Garcons on the Cours Mirabeau and dinner at L’Amphitryon.
Day 11 Flight home from Marseille to Paris (where we missed our connecting flight to Newark - too tight a conection and Air France arrived at a different terminal) Took later flight to JFK.

cigalechanta

Wow! you stayed and ate at my favorite places. Now i'm anxious to hear about the d'Entragues. We have booked a night there before heading for Millau.

pegprescott

Dear Cigale, it was thanks to you, Stu, PB, and all the other wonderful posters that we were able to put together such a great trip! D'Entraigues was a funky place. Location superb - which is why we picked it instead of one of the lovely hotels just outside Uzes. It is a jumble of rooms with a tiny pool area (which the pigeons used as a bird bath). The garage is handy since parking is difficult. Our room had been recently renovated but with rather mixed aesthetic results. But it was clean and functional. The breakfast buffet looked nice but we had coffee and croissant at the market. (I resent spending 11E or more for a hotel continental breakfast!)For one night it was fine but I wouldn't have wanted to stay longer. It was just around the corner from Les Trois Salons where we had a very interesting and elegant dinner.
I have a question for you as an experienced poster. I'm not sure that am posting under the correct categories. for example, I wrote this trip report under forum: Europe, topic: France and had provence and trip report both in the title. But when I search under those terms I don't get my own post or most of the provence posts. I only get them when click on my name. What am I doing wrong? Peg

cigalechanta

type in your posting name and France.

pegprescott

Yes if I type in my posting name (or click on it at top of screen i will get all my own posts. But why doesn't my trip report (and many other threads on provence) come up when i put Provence in the search text box? Now it only comes up on general Europe forum

uhoh_busted

There really isn't a separate "Provence" forum -- however if you search on Provence as a destination your post might show up. The fastest way find your posts here is to search on your username. Since Provence is such a popular area for us Fodorites, and since you've got it in the name of your thread, a search on Provence should bring it up, too.

Underhill

But did you see any lavender, or where you there too early for it?

hopingtotravel

I'm jealous. You were in many of the same spots we saw but it sounds like you had longer drives and more days. Were the poppies and iris still in bloom?
I wanted to see more of Bonnieux. If my husband didn't want to drive through some of the narrow, medieval streets in those villages, he had a tendency to make a 'wrong' turn downhill. We did have a little lunch in Lacoste however--overlooking the valley below.

Scarlett

peg, it all sounds so wonderful.
Looking through all of my back issue magazines, I just found a 2001 Town & Country that was a Provence issue. I kept it planning to go there soon. I am still planning Thanks

Underhill

Scarlett,

Plan quicker.

Scarlett

LOL, all these other plans get in the way! But I will mention this to the Yankee