Where to stay in Provence
 

My wife and I are planning ten nights in Provence France next April.
I need help on what cites to book for lodging.
We like nature, food and historical sites.
My first plan is to train from Paris and spend 3 nights in Aix-en-Provence, 2 nights in Avignon, 3 nights in Les Baux-de-Provence and finish with 2 nights in Nimes.
We will rent a car the second day in Provence and return it to the Nimes train station before our last night
We will be attending the Great Roman Games in Nimes before taking the train to Barcelona for five nights.

Please off advice on my city selection s and if we are moving too much.

One suggestion I might have would be to consider arriving at the Avignon TGV station versus Aix. The Avignon TGV station is set up with a very large parking lot to accommodate rental car customers and it was built outside the city core so it makes it super easy to both pick up and drop cars there. Be sure to make sure the train station is marked "Avignon TGV" since there are 2 stations there. In my experience because it is a large lot, the agencies seem to have a better choice of cars there. I personally think 3 nights in Les Baux is a lot. We actually prefer the area that is considered Languedoc over the region that is truly "Provence", so I would probably try to arrive in Avignon TGV then go straight east to Aix and use it as a base for 3 nights to explore eastern Provence, and then maybe choose a more central base like Saint Remy en Provence (or Avignon if you want a bigger city) rather than Les Baux. I would then spend the remaining 3-4 nights further west maybe in Uzes before dropping the car in Nimes. Uzes is much more charming than Nimes-much smaller as well so it might depend again on if you prefer a bigger city or a smaller town. You could spend 3 nights in Uzes and then 1 night in Nimes depending on your train time. But I think 3 bases for 3 nights each would be really nice. It looks like you have 10 nights total-so in general with the short driving distances you are talking about I think 3 bases in 10 nights would be better than 4 IMO.

Also, you might think about dropping the car closer to Barcelona like Beziers or even Perpignan only because that is a pretty stretch of coastline to visit. Nimes to Perpignan is only a 2 hour drive and they usually won't charge you much difference for returning to another city as long as you don't cross the country border. But of course you may just prefer the train.

I would add a stay in the countryside. Avignon, Aix, Nimes, and then Barcelona would be too much "city" for me. I would choose somewhere in the Luberon to provide some diversity.. Personally, I would stay in St Remy instead of Les Baux - they are close to each other.

Stu Dudley

I think Stu and I were responding at the same time. I do agree with him on the smaller places versus all cities. In Uzes BTW if you choose to stay there-we park the car in the underground pay lot and walk everywhere and many of the smaller towns have a similar set up. Also, as you decide on where to stay check the market days in some of the villages/towns. It is fun to be there on those days if your planning allows. Here is one link to the markets but there are many other sources out there as well:

https://provencedays.com/explore/activities/markets/

Here is my Cote d'Azur & Provence itinerary. Uzes would be a good place to base also. We've stayed there for 2 weeks.


Stu Dudley

Three days in Les Baux would be overkill, I think. Once you've seen the citadel and the village, there's not much left to do--and driving into and out of the valley is time-consuming. St-Rémy would offer more and is within easy reach of many other sights, such as Tarascon and Beaucaire, Daudet's windmill, and more.

I think you plan could work wonderfully! But of course, it depends on exactly what you hope to see and exeprience.
You might find some useful information in my long, but searchable, trip report. I visited all of those locations except Nimes.
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...rance-1669406/

Thanks about Karen Brown. Her "headquarters" were about 1/2 mile from where we live. I was aware that she retired - but her web site was still there. But I see now that it has "deteriorated".

Stu Dudley

Les Baux is a total ghost town when the tourist hordes have gone away. I cannot imagine wanting to spend even one night there.

I can't either, it's not like a regular town at all, even if there is a hotel there (or maybe more than one, don't know). I know it's officially a commune but it isn't really an easy place to use as a base due to topography.

Karen Brown gave away her guidebooks to anyone for free just before she retired. I downloaded all of the ones I was interested in. She obviously isn't going to maintain a website and pay for it if she's out of business.

I know that a lot of people love the idea of village life in France, pure tranquility with nothing happening, lazing away the days with a glass of rosé or whatever from time to time. For those who have already done such things and loved it, more power to them.

But over the years, I have spent far more time that I would have liked in villages all over France, generally with family but sometimes with friends. A few times, it was the non stop cocktail hour from 11am to bedtime. Sometimes it was a day full of nothing, with maybe a walk through the empty village. Actually, I had my best times in northeastern France (a bit normal since that is where most of my family was), with treks through the fields to collect mushrooms, walks through the woods for wild strawberries or hazelnuts or snails if it had rained. There might be a trip with a young cousin to pick up milk or eggs in a nearby farm -- all very exotic to me. And yet, even doing that, I was bored silly most of the time. I guess it is less of a problem now because people can spend half of the day on Facebook or Instagram.

I never get bored it cities, though.

I'm perfectly content to live in rural France and do all those things kerouac mentioned, but I'd never spend even one night in Les Baux, either.

Stay outside of the cities. Cities are great to use as a base if you don't have a car.

Kerouac paints a very odd picture of touring villages in Provence: "pure tranquility with nothing happening". When I did this, my days were filled with visiting chateaux, vineyards, an ochre quarry, scrambling around ruins, hiking, exploring grottoes, historic mills, springs, museums, rocky shoreline, canoeing, and yes, walking around gorgeous villages.

And breathtaking lavender fields also!!

Stu Dudley

Two places we loved .. Bonnieux and Uzès. Check out chapters Five - Ten of our 2016 France trip report (with photos and includes our morning in Nîmes).

https://travelswithmaitaitom.com/france-2016/

I love this pic of Bonnieux and surrounding countryside taken on the way to one of our delicious dinners in that town


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...9d35c1b017.jpg

Beautiful picture