Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Stu Dudley's Provence and French Riviera Itinerary

d’Azur & Provence Itinerary

I’ve put together several options. You can “pick and choose” to customize your own itinerary based on how much driving & lingering you want to do. I’ve started in the Riviera, then on to Provence. This is intended to be about a 12-16 day trip if you do most of the things on this “basic” itinerary. If you want to include St Tropez, Aix en Provence, Cassis, or more time in the Nice Hinterland - then add extra days. However, don’t make a “mad dash” through southeast France. This is an area where you’ll want to slow down and spend a day at the beach in St Tropez or Nice, or discover a small remote village that “grabs you” (like Brantes or Seguret) and spend more time than you anticipated exploring a village. “People watching” at the Cours Saleya in Nice and on the Cours Mirabeau in Aix is as much of a part of exploring this region as are sites like the Pont du Gard or the Palais des Papes. If you’ll be in Provence when the lavender is blooming, then I would add an extra day to the itinerary just to see this.

Since ’82, we’ve spent well over 150 weeks vacationing in France. What we’ve discovered via “mistakes” is that there is much, much more stuff to do & see in a single region in France than we ever anticipated – especially if you really want to “soak up” what an area can offer. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area - which probably has more “places of interest” than any area in the US. But even with our Bay Area experiences, in the past we’ve “underestimated” the amount of time it takes to adequately explore a region in France. France has more castles, medieval/historic cities, cute villages, majestic cathedrals, pre-historic caves, Roman ruins, large & small museums, beautiful coastline, volcanoes, wonderful gorges, wineries, outdoor markets, and breathtaking mountains than we normally find in a concentrated region in the USA – and France is actually smaller than Texas. A piece of advice I suggest to almost everyone is to slow down and don’t try to “see it all” on a short visit. Keep travel time between sites to a minimum – spend more time “being there” and less time “getting there”.

We’ve vacationed in the Cote d’Azur & Provence for about 40 weeks since ’99, when we retired early so we could travel more. All of our visits have been in the months of May, June, early July, September, and early October.

Itinerary Overview

Cote d’Azur (Riviera) 6-8 days
Stay 3-4 days in Nice, then 3-4 days in St Paul de Vence. You could spend the entire 6-8 days in either place, but you’ll be driving in/out of Nice more than you would like, and it is not especially easy or scenic. If you stay in Nice for your only base in the Riviera, do not rent a car for the first 3 days – visit the coastal towns by train or bus then. On the 4th day, pick up a car at the train station or downtown to visit the Nice Hinterland (backcountry) and some of the coastal towns you can’t get to by train/bus (Biot, Mougins).

Provence 5-7 days
If you choose to stay in Provence for more than 5 days, perhaps stay 3 nights in the Luberon near Gordes then 2-3 nights in St Remy. This will reduce the day trip driving.

Best time of year to visit the Cote d’Azur & Provence
The Lavender blooms in late June & July in Provence – depending on the weather. It was blooming in mid-June in ’03 & '14, but really didn’t get going till the second week in July in ’10. Red poppies bloom in mid-May through June – but there were still some around in early July of ’10. The best time to visit Provence (in my opinion) is in late June & early July when the lavender & yellow mimosas are in bloom and the vineyards are at their best and the daylight hours are long. We’ve been in Provence as late as July 16 and the crowds were tolerable. I would not visit in late July or August because of the crowds at sites and also traffic on the road. September is pleasant, but if France has a dry & hot year, vegetation will start to dry up a tad. In early October, we encountered chilly nights (ice on windshield) but sunny & somewhat warm days. The first 2 weeks of June in ’03 were extremely hot (too hot). The first 2 weeks of June in ’07 and the 3rd week in ‘10 were chilly & too cold to dine outside in the evening. In '14 the high temperatures the first week of June in Nice was a very pleasent 21. By the second week it was in the mid to low 30s - too hot. It was even hotter in Provence - 40. By the start of the third week of June '14, the hight temps had dropped to 24 and there was some cloudy days and even some rain, but overall not particularly hymid. The last week of June was perfect. Net-net: weather will vary from year to year so there are no guarantees.

Something to be aware of when visiting the cities, towns, & villages of Provence
In many towns & villages, shops are closed on Sunday & Monday. Some shops open on Monday afternoon. We never plan to visit a town (for shopping) on a Sunday or Monday unless we know in advance that the stores will be open. Most non-food stores in Aix, Nimes, and Avignon are closed all day Sunday, and Monday morning. While in Aix in mid June ’10, I did a “survey” of about 30 shops that had opening & closing days & times posted on their storefronts. Of these 30 shops, 5 were open all day Monday (including a Gap and Monoprix – chain-type stores), 10 were closed all day Monday, and 15 were open Monday afternoon only. Only 1 shop was open on Sunday. Shops in very “touristy” towns like St Paul, St Tropez, and Gordes are always open. We were recently in St Remy on a Sunday. My wife visited 11 shops that interested her (she likes housewares – no clothes or souvenirs). Two other shops looked interesting from the outside, but were closed on Sunday. Of these 11 shops, 5 were closed all day on Monday, 2 were only open Monday afternoon (around 2:30), and 4 were open all day Monday. The very touristy shops that are prevalent in almost every tourist destination village in Provence (Olivades, Souleiado, Terre de Provence), are usually open on Sunday & Monday.

http://about-france.com/holidays-sundays.htm

Most shops & sites close for lunch – usually from 12:30 to 2:00, or 3:00, or 3:30, or 4:00. If you really want to “shop” a town, do so in the morning as soon as the stores open (usually at 10:00). If you roll in at 2:30, the shops might be closed for another hour. I’ve had numerous people tell me how disappointed they were when they drove to a town to shop, only to find almost all the shops closed – something that doesn’t happen in the US.

When stores are closed on a Sunday/Monday or for lunch, they will often pull down ugly aluminum louvered shutters over their beautiful storefronts – so you can’t even window shop. In some towns, these louvered shutters might be covered with graffiti, and the town will look like a war zone. Also, as you drive through a town around lunch time, it might seem deserted, unfriendly, & very uninviting. They’re actually closed for lunch and all the pretty storefronts will seem like abandoned buildings. These closings make it much harder to pack as much into a day as you might expect. Stores stay open late (around 8:00 or so), but most vacationers usually stop their sightseeing by then and are settling into their hotels or getting ready for dinner.