where to stay in provence for a week
 

hi!

my boyfriend and i will be visiting provence from 10 june-17 june. neither of us have been. we are hoping to stay in one central location for the entire duration, while being able to explore the region making day trips.

do we just stay in nice, where we fly into? we are hoping to rent an apartment or the like. we arent exactly looking to be pampered, just want to experience the local beauty and culture.

any insight would be much-appreciated.

cheers!

Hi!,

I think with a bit more information from you we can help.

Will you be renting a car?

What about Provence interests you?

Do you want to stay in a city, countryside, village, beach?

Budget for lodging?

Nice or Marseilles are good places to fly into, depending on your base destination. Or, sometimes people fly into Paris and train to Avignon and pick up their car or base there.

Le Baux de Provance is a wonderful place for a couple of days, assuming you will rent a car. This is a walled city built on top of a mountain where rooms are carved in rock and the views are amazing. Have stayed here and is my favorite place to stay anywhere! The name of the hotel is Le Prince Noir. Hope you have a great trip!
Suebent

You have to know that different areas in Provence differ in cuisine and landscape. Their are those of us who love different areas. fir instance I love Les Apilles, others love the Luberon. I suggest get a good guide book to point you in the direction that might feed your needs of an area.
I don't consider the Cote D'azur as the real Provence others do. The import of Palm trees is a put off to me,
BUt, it's where beaches are at and in season. my loved Mimiosas.

June 10 is 8 weeks from today. If you want to stay for 7 nights in 1 place, you should have made reservations many months ago. This may be something you'll have to work around. I suggest that you get busy and nail down a "plan" within the next day or two and then start calling or e-mailing hotels/apts, gites, B&Bs & determine what's available. Start with Nice and then also include a second location (Vence, St Paul, etc). I suspect you'll have a very hard time finding anything available in St Tropez.

Stu Dudley

If you are flying both into and out of Nice, here are two ideas:

1) The Italian idea: spend three nights on arrival in Nice; take daytrips to Antibes, Monaco, maybe another place too; then spend three nights in Italy - - it is a completely different culture, it is dense and intense - - SanRemo is a cool city with decent hotel prices, and daytrip options to rare places like the old city of Imperia, Albenga, beach havens, and even bustling Genoa.

2) The more French thang: spend three nights on arrival in Nice; some daytrips as above; then train to Arles and spend three nights there; if the market falls on your days there you are in luck; if you can rent a car, travel into the Camargue, or see the Pond du Gard, or see Les Baux and/or visit Van Gogh's haunts in St. Remy - - there are plenty other options - - it is not much more than a 3-hour drive back to Nice; if renting a car is not for you, then daytrip to Avignon and/or Nimes and/or Montpellier and/or Marseilles, and/or Aix.

thanks, all. we've booked a spot in nice. as you mentioned, better to secure a place asap, than chance it. we will do more research and explore, then head to paris for a week.

thank you again for the quick replies,
rae.