rethinking our driving in Nice, Avignon.. help please.
 

HI.. ok so we will be in Nice for three days then picking up our car.
driving to Avignon. fine. staying three days
driving to Montpellier staying two nights
driving to Toulouse

I am now thinking of dropping the car off in Montpellier before we get to our B and B and taking the train to Toulouse... although I see I have pegged Carcassonne as a place to stop. Are there other places to stop or is the train just the easiest?
I gather will will not use our car in Montpellier. and driving there looks a bit scary. So possibly our car would be in a car park for two days. thank you!! any ideas much appreciated.

It's true that you do not need to drive in Montpellier unless you want to go to the beach from there.

You might consider making two different car rentals rather than keeping the same car all the time. All you need to do is to compare the rate for the full number of days to the rate for separate rentals on a site like www.autoeurope.com

HI Im replying to myself! I see I already asked this and yes the answers were why I did this in the first place.

But it now looks like we should stop maybe in Nimes or Arles on the way to Montpellier?

Other stops other than Carcassonne? thank you again!!

It's true that you do not need to drive in Montpellier unless you want to go to the beach from there.

You might consider making two different car rentals rather than keeping the same car all the time. All you need to do is to compare the rate for the full number of days to the rate for separate rentals on a site like www.autoeurope.com

It seems a lot of people like Arles better than Nimes. But you don't have any time anyway to do all that if you are only in Montpellier 2 days (visit 2 other cities). You could do one of those as a day trip from Avignon, actually, I would think 2 days seeing Avignon would be enough. Some people say half a day, but I don't agree with that, at least one full day for Avignon. What are your plans for those 3 days?

Or, you could spend only 2 days in Avignon and then visit Arles or Nimes on the way to Montpellier, your choice. I think that would make sense.

If it is scary to get to Montpellier, why are you driving there in the first place. YOu haven't mentioned any reason for even having a car between Avignon and Montpellier. YOu can easily get there by train, and you can get to Nimes and Arles by train , also. I could see maybe wanting a car if you want to visit Pont du Gard from Avignon, as bus schedules may not be convenient, but otherwise, not sure why you want it unless you are visiting the Luberon or elsewhere, of course, that would make sense.

I'll echo Cristina - why are you even renting a car at all? You are only staying in & visiting big cities - where a car is a hindrance. Depending on your hotel - I don't think you can even enter the center of Montpellier by personal/rented car (in about '05, our taxi could not even enter the city).

Big cities are not the main reason we return to Provence & the Cote d'Azur frequently. We prefer exploring the countryside & small villages - which you have not mentioned at all.

Stu Dudley

Ok I think Ive go it.
Leaving Nice am around 10am going to Aix-en-Provence..for a few hours.. off to Avignon arrive 4pm ish. spend night there

next day Avignon

next day(still in Avignon) train to Arles for the day

next day leave 10 am for Nimes for a few hours.. arrive Montpellier mid afternoon

next day Montpellier

next day leave 10 am for Carcassonne for a few hours, and then to Toulouse.

We do want to drive to see these smaller spots, and of course we'll have luggage. Its just where we are staying the directions are a bit wild. But it can't be worse than driving in Madrid! so we'll be fine. we always have a good laugh.

hmm I guess I didn't think of these cities as big.. Well we need to get from Nice to Toulouse.. what am I missing? We don't have to do Montpellier at all.

We drove from The Luberon to Montpelier. The drive was fine until we got to the outskirts of Montpelier. It was awful once we got to the city and tried to find out hotel [Marriott Courtyard]. We actually happened to spot a sign for it by accident and that was the only way we found it!

We then tried to exchange the car at train station [ours had been broken into] and they told us we had to go to airport as they had no cars. Another expedition! We got lost as soon as we left the parking lot! We managed to find the airport; exchange the car and get back to hotel - barely.

We did drive the car to the beach for the day and that was lovely. By this time, we were getting pretty good at finding the hotel!

We also drove to Millau Viaduct, that was amazing.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...and-report.cfm

We really liked Montpellier; the driving around part - meh, not so much~

It seems that you have 5 nights available between Nice and Toulouse. The drive to Toulouse with a stop in Carcassonne will consume an entire day - so you have only 4 days available and you want to visit:

Aix - with the 2 1/2 hr drive from Nice to Avignon - Aix will consume an entire day.

You now have 3 days to visit:
Countryside & small villages
Arles
Avignon
Nimes
Montpellier

That's about 4-5 days worth of events, IMO, assuming:
1-2 days for countryside & small villages (Luberon?)
1 day for Avignon
1/2 day for Arles plus 1/2 day for Nimes
1 day for Montpellier (including 2 hrs to drive there & check out & in hotels)

If you include Nice & Toulouse, that's a lot of "big cities" & not much countryside & small villages.

I would:

- leave Nice by car & visit Aix along the way. Stay in St Remy (smallish village/city) or Avignon

- Visit the area around St Remy - les Baux, St Remy, Alpillies (pretty countryside), Roman sites, etc

- visit (Arles + Nimes) or Avignon (not both). Sleep in St Remy or Avignon

- visit the villages in the Luberon. Sleep in St Remy or Avignon

- visit the Pont du Gard and Uzes. sleep in St Remy or Avignon

- off to Carcassonne/Toulouse

This gives you a good mix of large cities & countryside/small villages. Also remember that lots of people like to "relax & do nothing" in Provence.

Stu Dudley

thank you all especially Stu, you have me rethinking. I do have one extra day in there. this is what I have now. well ok now looking at this we are staying three nights in Nice. mostly to get over the jet lag and we don't like to move around too much. It will really only be two days by the time we get in etc.

We leave Nice on Friday the 4th for Aix-en -Provence and then to Avignon to stay
Saturday 5th Pont du Gard and Uzes stay Avignon
Sunday 6th Visit Luberon towns stay Avignon
Monday the 7th St Remy area les Baux, stay there. St Remy? I gather
Tuesday the 8th Arles..stay St Remy
Wed the 9th leave for Carcassonne and Toulouse.

I think thats it. ok???

I am now thinking of maybe staying in Maussane les Alpilles .... yes???

can we do Nimes and Arles in one day? sorry Stu I didnt understand your comment.

Stu that is funny. I just saw one of your earlier posts re SF. .. I live next to Canada college in Woodside. Out of all the places!!! small world.

>>I am now thinking of maybe staying in Maussane les Alpilles .... yes???

St Remy !!! - but Maussane is fine.

>>can we do Nimes and Arles in one day? sorry Stu I didnt understand your comment.<<

You can do them both in one very full day. But personally, I would not want to do that. There are many similarities between the two cities. You seemed to be intent on seeing them both - that's why I suggested that you try to do both in one day.. I'm not a big fan of Nimes, so I would only visit Arles to see the Roman stuff plus the city.

Do you have my 27 page Cote d'Azur/Provence itinerary?? We've spent 34 weeks in these regions - and are returning for 4 more this June. If you would like a copy, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach one to the rely e-mail.

Go Niners!!! - they're on a roll!!!

Stu Dudley