Some basics on Paris/Provence trip
 

I am in the very earliest stages of planning a trip to Paris and Provence, which will be my "I finished my Ph.D." for myself (and my husband, of course).

How much time would you consider to be the minimum for this trip? And what would you consider to be the ideal (I know, a lifetime, right?)?

To give an idea of the kind of travelers we are...When we went to Italy last summer, we did 3 nights in Venice, 4 nights in Tuscany (outside Pienza), 3 nights in Positano, and 4 nights in Rome. This was okay, but we would have loved an additional week to split among Rome and Tuscany. It worked for us though, because we wanted to experience as much of Italy as possible with the time we had. Now we know that we have done Positano and Pompeii don't need to go back, that we would love to do a trip just to Tuscany and Rome, and that Venice would be a great end to any trip (maybe a Prague, Vienna, Venice trip?).

We love to eat. We love visiting small towns and villages. We love visiting churches and cathedrals. I love to shop (especially for pottery and kitchen stuff). We aren't huge museum people, although of course the Louvre is a must. We are get-up-and-go kind of people and don't do well with too much downtime!

I'd also be interested in some suggestions on where we should stay in Provence. Which villages, for instance, or is there something like the agriturismos in Italy that would be an interesting experience?

I like to budget around $250/night on lodging, if possible. Is this reasonable? Maybe more in Paris, less in Provence?

Thanks for any and all suggestions. The information and suggestions I got on here last year when planning our honeymoon in Italy made it such an incredible experience for us - much better than I could have done without all the great advice!

Elizabeth

One week in Paris and rent an apartment. Take the TGV to Avignon, and rent a Gite in the Luneron area for 1 week. Gites rent Saturday to Saturday. Pick up a car. If you don't want to rent a Gite, stay 4 days in the Luberon area, and 3 days in St Remy. Do this in late June so the lavender will be in bloom in Provence. After Provence, take the TGV to Dijon for an afternoon visit & overnight stay. Early next morning, take the TGV directly to the Paris airport for your return. Adding a few more days in Provence would be nice.

Here is a description of two Gites where we've stayed in Provence. I don't divulge specifics about them - they are getting harder & harder to book each year.

Provence – near Gordes in Peter Mayle territory. Two bedroom stand alone gite with a very large private swimming pool with cabana and nice views of the Luberon mountains. Extensive grounds & ideal location in the Luberon. We paid 900E per week (cleaning & linens included) in ’03 and we’ve stayed there 2 weeks in both ’99 and ’03 (the Luberon is expensive).

Provence – just outside of St Remy. An old Mas, which has been turned into about 5 stand-alone Gites. Two bedrooms, enclosed grounds (no view), and a shared pool. We paid 460E per week in ’99 & we stayed there 2 weeks.

We have vacationed for 21 weeks in Provence & Cote d'Azur since '99. I have a 20 page itinerary that I've been sending to people on this board. E-mail me at [email protected] if you want a copy.

Stu Dudley

$250 a night should be fine, even in Paris. Depends what you're expecting to get for your money. But you can find a very nice hotel in a good location for anywhere between $175 and $225, as long as you're not thinking about the George V.

Are you flying into and out of Paris? If so, you might want to consider bookending your Provence trip with two mini-stays in Paris. You could chose two hotels and get to know two different parts of the city.

This would be my ideal Paris/Provence trip: 3-4 days in Paris, a week in Provence, return to Paris for 2-3 nights. So that's somewhere between 12 and 14 days. I'm actually one of those people who don't like being away from home for more than 2 weeks.

I can recommend one of the Provence villages that we stayed in and loved--Vaison la Romaine. It's in the Vauclause, which is the more northern part of Provence (it's pretty far from the Mediterranean). It has both Roman and medieval ruins, some good restaurants, a nice market, cute shops, and is in a good location if you want to visit the Southern Rhone wine villages at all. We stayed in the walled, Medieval part of town and it was magical.

Sounds like a great gift to yourself (and your husband, of course!)

Whoops--that should be spelled "Vaucluse".

A 2-week itinerary that worked well for us a couple of years ago was:

Fly to Paris, get on the TGV at Charles De Gaulle, and train to Avignon. Pick up a rental car there at the train station, then spend several days touring Provence. We were based in Bonnieux and took day trips mostly around the Luberon, but if you wanted to spend more time in Provence, you could consider two different locales.

Then we drove to Burgundy and spent a couple of days in Beaune, before returning to Paris, where we dropped the car, and stayed for a week.

We found hotel prices were generally lower in Provence than in Tuscany, by the way. $250 a night would be very luxurious. We spent about 100 euro for a beautiful B&B in Bonnieux.

Our itinerary if you're interested, with a lot of planning resources, is here:
http://www.aultdesign.com/FrancePGA/index.htm

Elizabeth, congratulations on completing your Ph.D. You deserve a holiday!

We've made five trips to Provence over the last few years. Our pattern is to fly to Paris and immediately take the TGV from CDG to Avignon, where we spend one night in a hotel. Next day, we rent a car back out at the TGV station, and move into a house we have rented. All our rented houses have been within a reasonable drive from Avignon. (They're like the gîtes that Stu mentions, except we book ours through holiday-rentals.com or frenchconnections.com.)

We generally stay for two weeks and typically rent two different places each vacation, making the middle Saturday a moving day. We return the car to the Avignon TGV and spend a few days in Paris before returning to Canada.

As far as I know, most gîtes and houses rent by the week, so if you want to be a bit more nomadic, you'll probably end up in hotels. I'd say you will have plenty of choice at the price range you are considering. If you wanted to, you could certainly get by on less. (We've rented very nice houses for less than €450 a week.)

If you do stay in one place for a week, you can cover a great deal of territory through day-long excursions. The joy of staying for a week is that you get to know people in the bakery and the butcher and begin to feel like you're right at home.

You asked about specific villages in Provence. Our favourite is Uzès (technically in the Gard, but you can still call it Provence), but we have also been to Saignon and Lacoste in the Luberon and twice to Nyons (just north of Vaison-la-Romaine that elle spoke of), and once to a small town near St-Tropez.

If I were to recommend any part of Provence to a first-timer, I'd suggest you start in the Luberon, but there are many delightful places in other areas, too.

Anselm