What Would You Do - Provence
 

Bonjour Travelers,

I hope this doesn't sound like a broken record. We were planning to go to Provence next September, 2025. Unfortunately, we just found out we have airline tickets that are expiring in February of 2025 so we need to begin our trip no later than Feb. 20th. Yikes, it has forced us into quick planning. Good news is that it will be low season and we won't have to deal with the crowds. Bad news, it's probably not the best time of year to visit Provence. I've overloaded my brain and hope that all the experienced and savvy travelers out there can lend a helping hand.

We enjoy beautiful towns, soaking up the local culture (art, people, food, shops, wine,etc.) We are not huge history buffs or hikers.

We are thinking of basing ourselves in Aix, Gordes, St. Remy (see below). I have to do more research but we would like to visit Lourmarin, Bonnieux, Gordes, Roussilon, Menerbes, L'Isle sur la sorgne, Uzes, ?

Are we missing any of your favorite towns? Do you think we are allocating enough days to the locations below?

Do you think this is too little time in each of these base locations?
We will rent a car but my husband is not fond of driving in the city, i.e. Paris, etc. One big question I have is, should we fly in and out of Paris, train to St. Remy and rent a car there? Hopefully Hertz. Or, should we fly in and out of Niece or Marseilles, rent a car, drive to Aix followed by the Luberon St. Remy. I would welcome any and all comments, questions or suggestions you have. MERCI!!!

--2 nights in Aix
--3 nights in the Luberon (near Gordes from what Stu and others have said)
--3 nights in St. Remy

Hi, ciaociao, DH and I sandwiched a trip in September to Aix from Paris:

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...ndwich-446896/

Scroll down to #4 to get to Aix to see how our hotel folks helped us with tours and how much we were able to see via public transportation. For us, A base was best.

Hi TDudette,

Thanks for sharing. I will definitely check out your trip report!

FWIW:
Two nights would not have been enough for me in Aix, particularly when daylight hours are limited.

If you are crossing multiple time zones, renting a car less than a day or two after landing is a terrible idea. Driving with jet lag -- even if you aren't aware of the effects -- is FAR more dangerous to yourselves and to ANYONE else on the road than most people recognize.

Check rome2rio, but I think you can get to Aix from Marseille by public transportation, so one option would be to fly into Marseille, take a bus to Aix, enjoy it for a day or two (or three) and then rent a car for your further experiences.

You might find some useful information in my trip report:
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...rance-1669406/

Visiting Provence in February can still be a lovely experience with fewer crowds. Flying into Marseille, renting a car, and exploring Aix and the Luberon seems like a good plan to minimize city driving.

You do not have much time and short days, possibly with rain. Fly to Paris, TGV to Avignon. One night in Avignon then rent a car and move to St Remy. Day trips to the Luberon, Arles, Aix etc. Return car TGV Avignon then train back to Paris and home. I would probably spend the night in Paris before your flight home, possibly at the airport depending on your flight times.

Great trip reports TDudette and kja. I wish I had more time to plan and that it wasn't Feb. I looked at flying in and out of Marseilles which seems like it would be the easiest in terms of proximity and navigating to get a car, etc. However, we are flying from Las Vegas so the options are not the best (3 stops, etc.). I haven't looked at flights in and out of Paris but I'm sure the options will be better. We have been to Paris a few times and have no problem flying and then driving for 3-4 hours. We prefer to get to our first destination as quickly as possible and then settle in.

Based on your comments above, I think I will look at adding a day to each base location (shorter days and weather). mjs, you mentioned flying in to Paris and taking the TGV to Avignon. That's a great idea.

What if we took the TGV to St. Remy instead? Do you see any drawbacks there? Also, has anyone had experience renting a car in St. Remy.

If we did spend a night in Paris only to leave the next morning, any suggestions on hotels, etc.? How is the driving from CDG into say St. Remy if we got a car at the airport. Sorry, I think I'm freaking out because of the short planning cycle.

We prefer to go with the major rental agencies like Hertz. Do you know what is available in St. Remy and how readily automatic cars are available? I know I have more questions but look forward to you input. Thank you all.

That you've been OK in the past with flying across multiple time zones and then driving does not make it safe. It is NOT safe, for you or anyone else.

I don't believe there is a train station in St. Remy.

For car rentals in Europe, I always work with gemut.com. They work with Hertz, Europcar, and other major companies. If you need an automatic, you would be best renting in a city with an international airport or at least a large city.

The Apt Saturday market is probably better than the markets in towns such as Roussillon and Bonnieux because it is a regional market and caters less to the tourists/ The same would apply to the Arles market.

Thanks again kja. argh. That probably why you recommended going into Avignon. It looks like Avignon is about a 30 min drive to St. Remy. I have to give this more thought. It seems like it might be easier to fly into Paris, spend the night, train into Avignon the next day, rent a car and drive to St. Remy for 3 nights, then perhaps Gordes 3 nights and Aix 3 nights. We would then have to drive back to Avignon, drop the car off and train into Paris. Does that sound like a decent plan or no?

I know i'm bouncing off the wall now. what if we flew to Paris, stayed a night and then took a train to Aix. Stayed 3 nights and rented a car. Do you think our options for car rental and train into to Aix would be better? OR would it be easier if we just focused on the cote towns instead of provence. I wasn't sure about the roads and weather that time of year.

Actually, it was mjs who made that suggestion. :)
Whether that plan works depends on whether you can reserve an automatic in Avignon -- you need to check on that.

gemut.com is my go-to for car rentals in Europe
great rates
as an incidental, they were also helpful navigating the intricacies of damage claim from a local person damaging our rental $5,000 worth.
put the charge on the CC, gemut helped with claim, got the credit for the 5K to offset the initial charge, and got 5000 miles in the process.

I meant to add: they're not a "name" brand, and they're based in Oregon, so a neophyte naturally assumes "better known is better".
Wrong. They are MORE qualified, and go out of their way to exceed expectations. than "name" competitors I've hired.

Anyone who goes to Provence and who does not visit Marseille is missing the whole point of Provence. Just going to those little villages which are basically all interchangeable is a waste of time. Two of the little places is more than enough.

Thanks tomboy and kja for the car rental info. I’m not familiar with them so that is a good tip! Glad to hear your experiences were GOOD.

Hi Kerouac! Well, you had to throw that in there 😉. JK. Everything is so up in the air. I’m leaning toward flying in and out of Nice. Spending a few days there and then moving to Aix for a few days and then to St. Remy and the environs. We like a mix of small towns and a few larger towns/cities, hence Aix, St. Remy, and now Nice. Our Son recently spent some time in Marseille and loved it. He brought some beautiful soaps home for me. Because Nice is easier to fly in and out of and due to limited time, I’m not sure if we will have enough time to do everything. I will have to look it up but I think Marseille is a few hrs car drive from Nice but I could be wrong.

NO, you won't have time for everything!!! You'll only scratch the surface.! But IMO, Nice + Aix + one other stop, maybe St. Remy, would work well given your interests and constraints. And I say that as someone who loved Marseille.

Nice and Aix would make a great combination for art lovers, as well as offering your best chance of decent weather, and plenty to do indoors if the weather is indecent. Very easy to move between them by train.

Arles, not a huge town, and served by train, would get my vote over St Remy.

I'd spend most of my time in villages and get out of cities. That's what Provence is all about. If you had more time, then I think the boat ride out to Chateau d'If from Marseille is a great idea.

I'm sure that is what Provence is about for some people. For me, it was art and history and food and wine. I enjoyed spending a bit of time (not much) in villages; I much preferred my time in the cities. To each his / her own!

Which villages will not be dead in February? Sincere question, never having visited in winter.

There's a lot of art, history, food and wine in villages!

Thank you all for your great feedback and insights. If you think of anything else to share, please let me know. I'm going to try and finalize the high-level itinerary and then work on filling in the the day trips, restaurants, market days, etc. I will report back once I get this into reasonable shape. Thank you again so very much!

If you do include Nice I enthusiastically recommend a day trip to the Villa Ephrussi and Villa Kerylos. Magnificent!

It seems that you are somewhat limited in your choice of flights. You could otherwise fly one stop to CDG/MRS/NCE and your best trip options change with your initial destination in France. Availability of an automatic car best at the airports or Avignon TGV.

I'm back. I still have a lot to do but thought I needed a sanity check. What do you think about this itinerary in terms of number of days, day trips, route we are taking, etc. Since it will be low season, I feel like we have a little less to worry about regarding crowds but not sure about everything being open, etc. THANK YOU!!!!Again, this is a quickly planned trip due to American Airlines Tickets expiring on Feb. 21, 2025. We must start our trip before the 21st.

Day 0: Feb. 19th (wed) Fly out of Las Vegas

Day 1: Feb. 20 (thur) Arrive in Nice – Drive to Aix, unless we arrive in the evening – TBD??

Day 2: Feb. 21 (fri) Aix

Day 3: Feb. 22 (sat) Aix

Day 4: Feb. 23 (sun) Aix



Possible Day Trips from Aix:

Drive 1.5 hrs to Moustiers

Drive 30 min to Marseille



Day 5: Feb. 24 (mon) Drive 60 min to St. Remy

Day 6: Feb. 25 (tues) St. Remy

Day 7: Feb. 26 (wed) St. Remy

Day 8: Feb. 27 (thur) St. Remy



Possible Day Trips from St. Remy:

Drive 60 min to Le Baux

Drive 40 min to Gordes

Drive 30 min to Avignon

Drive 45 min to Bonnieux

Drive 50 min to Lourmarin



Day 9: Feb. 28 (Fri) Drive 2.5 hrs from St. Remy to Nice

Day 10: Feb. 29 (sat) Nice

Day 11: Fly to Las Vegas

As already noted, driving within 36 hours of flying across multiple time zones is a terrible idea.

IMO, your plan is overly ambitious. Of course you can always skip some things, but you might want to re-think now. For example, you are giving yourselves virtually no time in Nice -- is that intentional? It easily merits several days.

Hi kja, Our focus isn't so much on Nice this time around so just a day or two to get a feel for the city itself is good for now. Next trip we would definitely spend more time there. We are flying into to Nice because it seemed the most logical airport and easiest to navigate versus flying into CDG. Based on that, do you still think we are being too ambitious with the rest of the trip? Merci :-)

Hi mjs!! We haven't solidified our flights yet. You are probably correct. I was trying to avoid CDG because my husband doesn't like driving in the big Cities and it seemed like we would need to spend the night in Paris (we love Paris but have been many times) then I think it was a 3 hr train ride to Avignon to get a car. We weren't planning on basing in Avignon so then it was a drive to St. Remy or Aix which is closer. So flying into the CDG didn't seem as convenient. Maybe I'm overthinking, over complicating and have my time-frames wrong. What do you think? Thanks so much.

Yes.

I'm sure I'm starting to look crazy or like I have multiple personalities. I'm normally not like this but also used to having more time to plan. Based on some of your comments above, I'm rethinking our itinerary.

It looks like we can fly in on AA and arrive in CDG early in the day so we can take the train to Avignon. Avignon is one place I haven't done any research on so if any of you have advice on areas to stay, etc. that would be wonderful. Thinking we stay in Avignon for 2 nights, any comments or suggestions.

Rent a car from Hertz in Avignon and drive to St. Remy. Stay in St. Remy for 6 nights. Any hotel recommendations in St. Remy (approx $350 per night). Day trips Uzes, Gordes, Bonnieux, Lourmarin.

We would really like to stay in Aix for 2 nights (not a lot of time but would give us a taste) but this may be too much.

Maybe we should go back to Paris and stay two nights and then fly out. Any hotel recommendations and neighborhoods to stay in. We will only have 2 nights but would like to be in a nice central area with shops and restaurants nearby. Could spend slightly more than 350. if needed.

Thanks for keeping me sane and for your patience ;-)

Much better! I enjoyed Avignon … look around for the window art. 😁

Bonnieux and Lourmarin could easily be brief stopovers on a drive from St Remy to Aix. Ditch the car on arrival in Aix and take the train back to Paris from there. You’d save two days of rental and parking, which compensates for the possible one-way fee.

Days of the week matter. Check the closing days of any museums or art galleries you’d like to visit, make lunch and dinner reservations for Sunday and Monday when many restaurants close (or, in the case of Sunday lunch, are packed with local families), and don’t plan to shop on a Sunday afternoon or Monday.

haha, Yeah!!!! I'm getting closer and closer. Lots to fill in but I think I'm on a better track now. Thanks for the all the great feedback.

FTOttawa, I like the sound of that, actually. I will have to look into it a little more in terms of how long the train ride is, etc. but i like looking at all the various options. Thanks.

I think if you fly into Nice you should spend some time in the Cote as you will already be there and to rest up before driving. If you are flying into CDG I would take the TGV to Avignon and spend at least one night in Avignon before picking up your car and driving to St Remy. St Remy is a good choice from which to visit this area of Provence as it is very central to many interesting locations. Easy to visit Arles, Pont du gard, Les Beaux, Orange, Gordes, Roussillion, Chateauneuf-du pape, Cotes du Rhone, the Camargue etc. Aix is only about a 25 minute drive. St Remy is big enough to have a fair number of restaurants and even a supermarket. We once stayed at Le Vallon de Valrugues which is about a 15 minute walk into town. Has a spa and good parking. Rooms rather small but Jr suites looked nice. La Maison du Village also comes to mind but I have not stayed there. Ate at the restaurant at the Hotel et Restaurant de Tourrel which is in the center of town and it has a nice looking small hotel. Restaurant is a pretty good Michelin 1 star and there is a decent wine shop next door. Do not know about parking. I should caution however that I have never been to Provence in January or February take my advice with a little grain of salt. You will have limited daylight hours.

Oh, and if you rent a gite or Airbnb type place, make very sure they mention heating.

Late February and early March daylight is not so bad - similar to mid October.

Now it's time to muddy the water with a suggestion of going to the Camargue and Aigues-Mortes. I see no reason to settle in Saint Rémy.

OK. As another poster say's a lot "I'M DONE" (i think and hope). Thanks again to everyone for all the great feedback. Here’s the latest and final itinerary. I don’t want to make any major changes unless I’ve messed up on distances, etc., i.e., train time from CDG to Aix, etc. I would love to get your opinions on the plan below. Also, I tried to look at previous posts, etc. regarding hotels but hoping you all can weigh on my questions below. Merci, Merci, Merci!

Day 0: Feb. 20th (thurs) Fly out of Las Vegas

Day 1: Feb. 21 (fri) Arrive in Paris – Train to Aix (3 hrs). Does that sound right? I check Rome to Rio.

HOTEL: Marriott Renaissance Aix-en-Provence. We have points so thinking this will be a good choice. Any comments? Does this look like a good location for walking to main part of town, etc.? Any other recommendations?

Day 2: Feb. 22 (sat) Aix

Day 3: Feb. 23 (sun) Aix

Possible Day Trips from Aix: Without a car?

*Marseille



Day 4: Feb. 24 (mon) Pick up car at Hertz in Aix and drive to St. Remy (60 min)

HOTEL: Auberge de Saint-Remy. Anyone have any feedback. Central location, etc.? Any other recommendations?

Day 5: Feb. 25 (tues) St. Remy

Day 6: Feb. 26 (wed) St. Remy

Day 7: Feb. 27 (thurs) St. Remy

Possible Day Trips from St. Remy:

Drive 60 min to Le Baux

Drive 40 min to Gordes

Drive 45 min to Bonnieux

Drive 50 min to Lourmarin

Ile-sur-la-Sorgue


Day 8: Feb. 28 (fri) Drive to Avignon. Drop car off at Hertz and Train to Paris (3 hrs)

Day 9: Feb. 29 (sat) Paris

Day 10: Mar 1st (sun) Paris

HOTEL: Any recommendations on best location (the 4th or 6th arr) to stay (walking distance to shops, restaurants, etc.
Day 11: Mar 2nd (mon) Fly home

[QUOTE=ciaociao;17604532]

HOTEL: Marriott Renaissance Aix-en-Provence. We have points so thinking this will be a good choice. Any comments? Does this look like a good location for walking to main part of town, etc.?

I stayed there in 2015. It’s a good hotel. About a 12 minute walk to the old town.

First thing you are missing: Roussillon.

Second, Fontaine de Vaucluse.