My boyfriend and I are heading over to Europe next October, just for 25 days to give ourselves a taste of a few places.

I want to spend 8 nights in the South of France in total. We will be beginning our trip in Paris, and then head down South before flying out of Marseille airport to Prague.

There are a few places that i really would love to see, but i am just not sure how many of them would be doable in that time frame.

We want to see:
Carcassonne
Nimes
Avignon
Montpellier
Uzes
Marseilles (maybe?)

We were thinking of spending 2 nights in Carcassonne, 5 or 6 nights in Nimes and maybe 1 night in Marseille. We would then do day trips from Nimes to Avignon and/or Montpellier and/or Uzes.

Does this make sense, or are there better cities in the area to visit? Please advise! There is so much we want to see and do, and it is soooo hard to limit it to just a few.

From the research that i have done, it seems Marseille airport is a fair way out of the city. The train from Nimes takes just over an hour, so would it be best to skip visiting Marseille altogether and just get the train to the airport the morning of departure? Or is Marseille worth a brief visit?

Aside from Marseille being THE place to eat Bouillabaisse, you train plan to Marseille hinges on trains running on that particular morning. French train workers do strike, in case you are not aware of. It is not necessary to forego your plan, but do think this possibility and have milestones on what you are going to do when as the potential strikes impacting this route get announced and have thought out acceptable worst case alternatives. On the night before flight, I try to be within a distance I am willing to pay high taxi prices if public transits are not running for whatever the reason.

Yikes...why not slow down and do half the number of cities? Then you might actually experience them in so short a time. With a schedule like the one you're planning, you'll be lucky to distinguish one from the other a year or so from now. Just saying. BTW, Carcassonne has a whole lot to offer. Don't miss it.

Provence is best explored by car, IMO. Carcassonne is a 3 hr visit, at most. It takes some "doing" to get to Carcassonne from Provence. What keeps us returning to Provence (20 weeks, so far) is the lovely countryside & small villages - not the big cities.

I developed a 32 page itinerary for Provence & the Cote d'Azur that I've sent to over 3,500 people on Fodors. If you would like a copy, e-mail me at [email protected] & I'll attach one to the reply e-mail.

Stu Dudley

Your itinerary is easily manageable - not overloaded at all.

I'm a big fan of Marseille and frankly, I'd put a Marseille visit well above going to Montpellier (OK, but nothing particularly special).

Enjoy,
Kevin

You could start by catching an early train from Paris to Avignon, then pick up a hire car from the TGV station (as Stu said, you really need a car for this area). Have a good afternoon wandering around the old centre of Avignon before heading off to Nimes for a week. From your base there you can visit other great places on day trips, like St Remy de Provence & Les Baux, Arles (worth a whole day IMO), Uzes & Pont du Gard. I too think Carcassonne is good for a half day visit only - particularly towards the end of the day, when the hordes depart, and you can actually move around. It's also beautifully floodlit by night, so you could stay for an early dinner, then walk the ramparts. Spending your last night in Marseille would be quite enjoyable, I think, especially exploring the Old Port area.

Hi Hannahmegan

That looks very doable and interesting to me.

The only tweak I would make is that I would base in Avignon as frankly Nimes doesn't have that much going for it as a base whereas Avignon does.

Best

Peter

If I had to pick between a day trip to Marseille or Montpellier, I'd opt for Marseille.

On our first trip to south of France in 2012 we spent 3 days in Marseille and 4 in Montpellier and 4 was too long ( a day the shore and a day in town would have been enough).

We did a great walking tour in Marseille which really showed us around all the different areas. The tour was free, donation only. The guide ended up spending the entire day with us (tour was just us) and we bight home lunch and a pastis at the end.

You absolutely don't need more than a half day in Carcassonne. Montpellier is a nice university city, but Marseille is far more interesting. I'd base in Avignon instead of Nîmes, though the latter is well worth a visit.

A car allows you to rush around and see more places in a shorter space of time and get to places more off the beaten track. I won't claim to be an expert but my experience of Provence and surrounding areas is that there is an extensive network of buses but that services can be infrequent, meaning you sometimes need to plan your day carefully. If you choose to not hire a car you could possibly base yourselves somewhere like Avignon (which is a bit of a transport hub) or have 2 nights each in Avignon, Uzes, Nimes, somewhere close to Marseille. It is definitely possible to see something of the south of France without a car, especially if you only have 8 nights. Carcassonne is quite a way from Provence.

Hi
I find it well balaced itinerary
I disagree with StCirq for once, about Marseille.

We've never found Marseille interesting, we've been promised to have a visit by friends living there but not yet done. We prefer Cassis or Bandol not that far form there(much smaller too).
Airport is actually closer to Avignon than to Marseille.

Carcassonne on the other hand deserve half a day, not much more as stated.

We always have a car in Provence, for us it is a must, beauty of Provence is the scenery and the small villages that you cannot access otherwise.

In small villages it helps to speak a few words of French.

Mvg.

Yes hire a car if you can. Consider using St Remy as a base as it's easy to get in and out if visiting Avignon, Uzes etc. Arles is attractive and worth a visit if you can fit it in. See my report from earlier this month.

I agree that Carcassonne does not need 2 days. In fact I would consider dropping it - yes it's attractive and impressive, but it's largely a 19th century reconstruction, and there are so many other places to see...

Funny that we all have (almost) the same opionion here.

Take the TGV from Paris to Narbonne and rent a car there. Drive to Carcassone, stroll through town and drive to your base in Provence.

Your base should be somewhere in the triangle Nîmes, Avignon, Arles.

Nîmes has the best Roman heritage and excellent traffic connections (both TGV and motorway), so it makes sense to stay there. Nîmes is a quite large city, with boulevards like Paris.

Avignon has even better TGV connections and good motorway connections. For your last leg to Marseille, Avignon would make an ideal base. Avignon has the Papal Palace and a pretty Old Town.

Arles has, like Nîmes, many attractions in the city center. It has more small town feeling, charming but a little touristy. Train connection to Marseille (with the IC) is very good, also the motorway connections.

St. Remy is the smallest of these towns and has not so spectacular attractions IN town, but in the surroundings. Poor train connections and quite a bit of driving until you reach the motorway.

Alternatively, you can think of a base in a gîte in the countryside.

Do daytrips from your base to:

*** Nîmes with the Roman temple (the best-preserved in the world!), the arena (the best-preserved in the world!) and more Roman heritage.

*** Arles with the arena, the theatre, the cathedral.

** Avignon with the Papal Palace (and the bridge).

*** Pont du Gard with a spectacular aquaeduct.

** Uzès with a pretty market square and medieval architecture.

*** Les Antiques (Roman monuments), Les Baux (a ruined medieval village) and the scenic Alpilles mountain chain south of St. Remy.

*** Orange with another good theatre and a Roman triumph arch.

** Aigues-Mortes - a completely walled medieval city (which is, BTW, an excellent alternative to over-touristy Carcassonne).

* Montpellier - a charming city, but, frankly spoken, not in the same league as the other ones.

Return the rental car at the train station which is nearest to your base and take the train in the morning of the day before you fly home to Marseille. This way, you will have a full day in Marseille and a relaxed start to fly home.

I dont' think your itinerary is that bad, those are mostly not big cities. Uzes isn't that big, for example. But I also would never stay in Carcassonne for 2 days, not sure why you wanted to do that. half a day. But it is out of the way for the rest of your trip, so I might save it for another time, also.

I stayed in MOntpellier several days once and enjoyed it for a stay, but I also don't think I'd put it on par with Marseille for interest. And without a car, I might base in Avignon, also, not Nimes which is of minor interest comparatively IMO.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and advice

We decided that we would exclude Carcassonne from this trip, and for the time being we will instead focus our attention on Nimes and surrounding towns. The reason i want to base myself in Nimes is because i lived there for a few months when i was 16...nostalgic purposes