3 days in Provence itinerary

I love Aix and hope you do too, I have a suggestion for Sunday that you might consider.

You don’t specify why you’ve chosen the places you plan to visit. Chateauneuf is not actually that interesting unless your plan is to visit the tasting rooms. If you’re just looking for a lovely place to stroll, you could substitute Uzes, a beautiful town a bit to the west of the Pont du Gard. I’m not sure whether things would be open on Sunday, though, which certainly could affect your decision whether to visit.

The drive from Cassis to Arles is about an hour and a half. Again, I don’t know whether you have a particular interest in seeing Arles ; if not, you could substitute a visit to the beautiful coastal town of Sanary sur Mer, east of Cassis, after driving the Route des Cretes, outside Cassis, which offers spectacular views. If time permits, you could continue east to Bormes-Les-Mimosas, too.

There are so many beautiful places to visit, it’s hard to pick.

For CNDP I think unless you are on a wine tour for that day (and I can recommend a very good one wine-uncovered.com) you might enjoy more as a companion with PDG to go to Nimes for the Roman museum and the area there. And whatever you pair PDG with consider to invert the order. We went to PDG in August after spending the day in Nime but in the late afternoon there were hardly any other people there and the light was beautiful on the architecture.

Thank you both for your recommendations! You have given me ideas on how to improve my itinerary.

I picked CNDP because I have not included the Cote du Rhône region on my tour and would do the wine tastings. However, I prefer a good wine tour to go on. I was focused on finding half day wine tours from my home base, Aix, but it looks like from your suggestion, Laurie-Ann, that I may find one in the Cote du Rhône region from the wine-uncovered site.
If I don’t visit CNDP then I can visit a town like Uzes or Nimes along with Avignon and the PDG (late afternoon for bridge a good suggestion).

I am rethinking Cassis and Arles in one day. Arles sounds interesting, but doing 2 cities in the 3 days (along with traffic and parking) may not be the best use of my time. Points east of Cassis look beautiful and I may be able to find a wine estate to visit where a can taste rosé wines.

One can do a lot of research but there’s nothing like hearing from travelers who have been there! Thank you.

A little piece of history. During WW ll, Sanary became a refuge for German writers fleeing the Nazis. Among them were Thomas Mann and Bertold Brecht, but there were a number of others.

Thank you. Lots of history to learn.

I would choose Sanary and/or Bandol over Cassis. There are lots of Vin eyards and wineries in that area and the roses are wonderful.

Thank you, Judy. I'm looking forward to exploring the coast.

Are you taking the train to Aix from Paris, by any chance? I ask because I want to arrive in Aix on Saturday, July 11, from greater Paris (actually Versailles). I've found the train tickets aren't available yet for that date. I'm guessing they come out 3 months ahead, but am not sure. I did sign up to get an email alert when they're available.

Yes, we are planning on taking the tgv train from Gare de Lyon but are waiting for direct trains to be available. Signed up for alerts also.

Just a heads up on Cassis. We had alloted 2 days there so that we could do a boat trip into the .Calanques. 1st day it was raining. 2nd was sunny, but windy, so the boat’s didn’t go. Think out a Plan B.
BTW, we did one of those tourist train rides around the town, which I strongly don’t recommend. Uncomfortably overcrowded, expensive, and the taped English commentary was out of sync with the sights we were passing. We would have done better to hike the path that goes along the top of one of the calanques.

Thanks for the tour information.