pfarahi

My husband and I will be in Provence for 4 days. We plan to stay in Avignon as the "home base" and travel around Provence from there. After speaking with a French travel agent, she suggested renting a car to explore the area. Our original intention was to travel via train. Any recommendations? <BR> <BR>Also, any suggestions on hotels (around $75-$110) in the area would be great. <BR> <BR>Thanks!

elvira

We've done the Cote d'Azur without a car, and had plenty to see and do by taking the train and bus. There are lots of places we couldn't visit, but there's so much in the region that we weren't standing around with nothing to do!

guy

I wanted train, my wife wanted car, so we ended up with a car. And I have to say, I loved the freedom. Driving route 100 from Briancon to Avignon was memorable, complete with sheep herds and ancient towns. From Av we zipped around to Orange and Chateuneuf du Pape and Nimes and Arles and Camargue and Stes. Marie. Stress: minor. Exhilaration: major.

Abe

Guy, <BR> <BR>How long was your road trip? Where did you stay overnight? <BR> <BR>Planning a similar one this July. Want as much info as possible. <BR> <BR>Thanks.

PB

From Avignon, your trips via train will be pretty much limited to l'Isle sur la Sorgue,Arles, Nimes, Montpellier (if you want to go that far)... <BR> <BR>To see the smaller villages in this area - like Les Baux, St Remy de Provence, Rousillon, Menerbes, etc. you would really need a car. I believe there are bus tours arranged from the Avignon tourist office to some of these, but you wouldn't have the same freedom to wander. <BR> <BR>PBProvence

Joanne

pfarahi: <BR> <BR>Just returned from Paris & Provence yesterday. We spent two days in Paris (had been there before), rented a car and drove as far south as Lyon the first day, using toll roads. Great rest areas and ability to get from Point A to Point B quickly. <BR> <BR>Spent the night in Lyon and continued south off the toll roads through wonderful old towns and villages, visited Vaison-Romaine (we're Roman ruins nuts) and on down to Arles where we based. Day tripped to Pont du Gard, Nimes, Carmague, etc. On our return we drove to Avignon where we dropped off the car and trained back to Paris. Worked great for us. We too loved the freedom of the car and our ability to stop when we saw something interesting or wanted to take some pictures.

steve

we spent 2 weeks in provence last October. You can find a description of our trip on my home page - <BR>http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/5733 <BR> <BR>