Avignon/Arles/Nimes -- two days, how to divide

The Papal Palace is probably skipable for most of us, but maybe not for someone interested in Roman History. And although I didn’t spend time in Nimes, I found Arles to be a lot more interesting and quaint than Avignon and definitely deserving of more time.

Stay in Nimes over Avignon. If you are not driving there is bus to see Pont du Gard roman aqueduct

https://www.pontdugard.fr/en/ancient-work-art

right outside the Nimes train station. That would be a shame to miss if you don't get to that area often.

Avignon is skippable the Papal Palace is just the same medieval architecture plentiful to see anywhere and ok to see from the outside but it is no where unique like Pont du Garde.

Possibly I am doing this wrong, but we are taking the train from Nice to Avignon and then eventually on to Paris. There are direct, high speed trains for both of those trips, whereas there is no such thing from Nice to either Nimes or Arles, so it will kill more of the day. Also, not dying to switch trains with all of our stuff. Going on to Paris is a little better, though Arles has a better time than Nimes. This is super hard to figure out!

edit: just looked carefully, and if I go from Nice to Arles, I don't get there until 11:45, thus killing half the day anyway, and the options for going to Paris are also bad. We would get to Avignon at 10:15. Nimes is a bit better: we can get up at the crack of dawn for a 6:30 train and get there at 10:30 and there are direct high speed trains to Paris, although not at the very best times.

Rent a car then.

Renting a car would make everything easier, but also harder, and I'm just not up for it. I just find the idea a bit stressful.

Well that is the way it goes sometimes we can't see everything sometimes. I've been all over France but as a non retiree it took ten different trips to see most of all I wanted. I still have a couple of places left. The Pont du Garde the arena in Nimes https://www.arenes-nimes.com/ and the Maison Carree in Nimes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maison_carr%C3%A9e all must sees in roman history.

Sounds like you’re using public transport exclusively, though connections are good this is a limitation. Trying to squeeze some time for Nimes is not really worth the effort imo. I’m not a fan of Avignon, but it’s fine and enjoyable enough for a day. You’re really only there for a few hours of sightseeing. Don’t bother going inside the Papal Palace or paying the fee to get onto the bridge. A couple of the biggest tourist traps I’ve come across. Better to splurge on a drink at the cafe across from the Palace and enjoy the view.

Nimes is on a different rail line than Avignon-Arles, so getting there and back requires going through Avignon again. I just see time lost trying to do this. The big draw in Nimes is the amphitheater, there’s also one in Arles.

Arles has a lot to offer, and you can spend a full day there easily. If it’s a market day it gets even better. Arles’ amphitheater is awesome, and the forum ruins are pretty good compared to other places. The Roman Museum is also well worth a visit. I suspect you might enjoy Arles more than Avignon as well (I sure did.) If you’re capable of adjusting plans, you might want to consider staying in Arles the two nights. Arles has its own TGV station to Paris (same line as Avignon.) So, heading directly there and skipping Avignon might be the simpler option. You could also arrange to grab the TGV to Paris from Arles and (Im assuming) you can leave your luggage at the station while you explore that day.

I spent time in all three cities this past summer.

Since you are staying in Avignon I would suggest you do do Avignon the first day and one of the others either Arles or Nimes the second day but not try and do all three.

And the contrast between Avignon and one of the others is greater than the contrast between Arles and Nimes.

In either Arles or Nimes you can see one of the "big" Roman sites and the related museum.

@awrzesinski -- thank you, very helpful. Weirdly, though, Nimes has better trains both from Nice and to Paris than Arles. With respect to Paris, we are moving on to stay there, so we wouldn't need to store our luggage. We just have the one night/two days in Provence, and I am clearly having a hard time figuring it out. I already bought my trains to and from Avignon, but they are changeable ... ONCE. So I need to make up my mind!

EDIT: Oh, I get what you are saying, store lugging while exploring Arles. Sorry, my head is spinning.

Staying in Avignon the night before the opening of one of the biggest festivals in France is not going to be a relaxed stay. I'm actually a little surprised that you were able to get a hotel room.

The train from Nice to Avignon is not high-speed for most of the trip; it goes the same speed as the local train and stops in the same places. The tracks along the coast cannot handle high-speed, so the train doesn't speed up until it turns north. With this in mind, it does not take that much longer to reach Marseille and switch to the train to Arles. If your son likes Roman history, Arlès and Nîmes are where you'll see some ruins. (You do have the the Roman theater, north of Avignon in Orange one of my favorites, but being the middle of summer, it's probably set up for theater and musical productions. )

In Nîmes, you have the Maison Carée, a former temple, the Roman arena still used today for musical productions and bull fights, and a new Roman museum. The list is short compared to Arlès.

I haven't been to Arlès in decades but I do know it has more Roman ruins. Getting to Pont du Gard is easy by car from Nîmes. You don't have enough time to fiddle with the buses.

I've been to Avignon many times, most recently during Covid when all the restaurants and cafés were closed. Given what you want to see, you really should try to go to Arlès and Nîmes.

There's no guarantee that any station has luggage storage. You can check any station on line and also search for private luggage storage near the stations. We've learned this the hard way. In your thread asking about arriving late at the Gare du Lyon, you said that you would have a lot to carry or a lot of luggage. Unless you are moving, someone has special equipment for a medical condition that must be carried around, or one of you is disabled and unable to handle his or her own suitcase, I urge you to read Ric Steves writings and all of the Forum questions and answers on helping you enjoy your trip by packing and traveling light.

Bon voyage.

I just understood what you are trying to do: two partial days and one night. Yes, the Nîmes line has a lot more trains. This is the line that goes to Barcelona and all of the southwest.

Arlès to Nîmes is a 20 minute local trip. Your trip is doable if you are willing to forget Avignon and stay your one night in Arlès.

Take the train to Arlès. Leave your luggage at the hotel. Then take the train to NÎmes and visit. Unless you go to the museum, it's a quick visit. Next, go back to Arlès and enjoy the rest of the day, evening, and the next day there until you leave for Paris.

I checked a dummy date to see train times, July 5th. It turns out to be the day the festival starts. There's a direct train from Arlès at 5:36. As of this moment, 2nd class is 31 euros and first class is 35 euros. This may have just been loaded into the system for the price to be so inexpensive, or someone made a mistake. It is a INOUI, not a low-cost OUIGO.

This is the only direct train in the afternoon and evening. Every other train, you have to connect somewhere once or twice, like Avignon. But 5:36 is a good time.

@Bets. Thank you. I think maybe it is not the length of the journey of Nice to Avignon vs Nice to Arles, but the times trains are available. The direct TGV train for Nice to Avignon gets us there direct in about three hours, by 10:15. To get to Arles, we can choose from a 5:25 AM train (and we would need a taxi to a train station, we'd be getting up at 4 AM at the latest), or a 7 AM train, which wouldn't get us there until noon, and is nearly a 5 hour journey, at the end of which, half the day is gone.

Going Nice-Nimes, next day Nimes-Arles-Nimes-Paris seems to make the most sense. Again, trains are not available at the most convenient times, which is part of trains, I guess. Even if we packed lighter, we would need to store luggage, and I am worried about being able to know beyond doubt that we could do that. Arles also has basically only one option to Paris, and that's at 5:30. I think best we could do is Arles to Nimes, getting to Nimes at 6, and then a direct train to Paris at 8, getting us there even later than originally planned, at 11.

Based on all of the above, if we are going to skip Avignon, I guess we would spend the night at Nimes, and do Arles the next day, doubling back to Nimes to go to Paris. Not the best, but I really don't want to drive, so here we are. Or, I guess I could do a taxi from Arles back to Nimes for more flexibility.

@Bets -- posted above before I saw your most recent post. So you are saying stay in Arles, go to Nimes the first day. I think the only problem with that is, per my other post, I won't even get to Arles until noon. Do you think that would still work? Even if I took a taxi to Nimes, we aren't getting there until probably 1:30ish, it just feels like a mostly wasted day.

THANK YOU for your advice.

Ugh, maybe the thing to do is to rent a car to get to Arles. It's not that expensive, I am just very nervous about driving there. If I did that, I could even stop in Aix, which we otherwise have no way of getting to.

You'd be fine getting there in the afternoon. It's true that the time waster is waiting for the next train in Marseille. I know this route well and know how long it can take. As for time arriving in Nîmes, we got there at four last year and saw what we wanted. A 12-year old may want to explore the arena more thoroughly than we did. But still this gives you the rest of the day, evening and next day in Arlès.

In Arlès, hopefully, you'll find a hotel is near the station and you can leave your luggage there until it's time to go to the train.

The issue here is not your research and planning skills--which are perfectly fine. It's that one night is in no way two days. It's part of two days. The reason you can't arrange visits to Avignon, Arles and Nimes in a reasonable way is that you just don't have enough time. How much of the few hours you have do you want to spend carting your luggage between hotels and train stations, hanging around train stations, sitting on trains, checking in and out of hotels and getting oriented to a new place?

Please pick two cities.

OK, another option, which actually saves money bc my Nice hotel is $$$, is leaving Nice the night before. I'd still have that day in Nice. Then I could wake up in Arles, do Arles on the 4th, and on the 5th go to Nimes and back and then go to Paris.

This is definitely a less frenetic thing to do.

Good idea.

Well, it won't save money. Arles is mostly sold out. I found one lovely room available, nonrefundable, that will end up costing more overall. I'm trying to find out what the special event is, which is the reason for the nonrefundability. It looks like there is some event at the arena on the 3rd, but I want to find out if it, like the Avignon festival, is enough to make life in Arles difficult! It's always something ...

Arles and Avignon are close enough that a big deal in one city could affect room availability and rates in the other. That happened to me when a major event in Arles drove up rates in Avignon.

Leaving Nice in the evening so you have the next full day in Arles is a good idea.

Well, you all were very kind internet strangers today. I had to take a break from insane levels of planning to do a work event, and then went back to insane levels of planning. I think this is going to work out a bit oddly, but maybe OK?

Bottom line, I think it is going to be: leaving the night before I planned, but still going to Avignon. It works out best with train times, hotel cost and location, and tour availability. So, I leave Nice on the 3rd and arrive at Avignon at night. My hotel is available -- only 15 Euros more per night than my original room. I'm a little worried about why this is, given that Arles is completely sold out, other than this one expensive nonrefundable room I found, but reviews are OK. It is the Mercure Palais des Papes, which at least is well-located.

The main difference is I probably won't spend any time during the day in Avignon, except to the extent that we get back from somewhere else early. I will, however, get to keep my dinner reservation at Pollen, which is good!

I will have the 4th and the 5th -- one of these will be Arles, and the other will be Nimes. One other advantage of Avignon is that a lot of tours leave from there, so I am looking at a half day tour to Nimes that will include the arena, Uzes, and Pont du Gard. One of the kind posters here made me look into Pont du Gard and I decided both that we had to see it and that we had no great way of getting there with our constraints, hence the tour. We will leave the night of the 5th for Paris.

This leaves the complication of being in Avignon during the festival. If we had more time, I'd love to see a play. As it is, I'm hoping we can just enjoy the festive atmosphere? The main issue will be getting to and from the TGV station when we arrive and leave. Going to Arles, we won't have luggage and we can walk to the in-town station.

If anyone can poke any holes in this, please do, before I go and cancel the 97 extra hotel reservations and rebook my train tickets. Merci beaucoup!

There is a non-tour option for doing a day trip Avignon-Pont de Gard-Nimes-Avignon. We (family of four) did this during our stay in Avignon in summer 2013: Take regional bus to Pont de Gard, and then another bus from Pont de Gard to Nimes, and then train from Nimes to Avignon. Below are our times, and we didn't feel rushed:

8:45am: bus departed Avignon. (bus station is next to the non-TGV train station, at least it was when we were there)
9:30am: bus arrived Pont de Gard
9:30am-1:52pm: Pont de Gard (including the excellent museum)
1:52pm: bus departed Pont de Gard
2:45pm: bus arrived Nimes
2:45-6:24pm: Nimes: lunch, Maison Carrée, Temple of Diana, outside of Arena (didn't enter the Nimes Arena as we had spent time on another day inside the Arena in Arles), etc.
6:24pm: Train departed Nimes
6:56pm: Train arrived Avignon

By chance we arrived in Avignon (via TGV from CDG, taking taxi from Avignon TGV station to our lodging) the last day of the music festival. It was unexpected surprise, with a free concert and light show in the square in front of le Palais des Papes -- a 30 second walk from our rental apt.

@GeoffB, wow, this is so helpful. The downside of the tours is not really getting to roam around Nimes on our own very much. I was also looking at a taxi tour that would take us to Pont du Gard and then drop us in Nimes. My main concern with the bus is that the times are a bit unforgiving. However, I can tell from your itinerary that you are my kind of traveler/planner!

The tour sounds good because it takes you to Uzès, too. There's less roaming to do in Nîmes than elsewhere. Uzès is extremely interesting. We stayed there, in the center, for five months during the pandemic.

Adding the extra night makes a big difference. Glad you were able to do that at the Mercure.

If you decide to drive be VERY careful. I got a speeding ticket for one (yes 1) kilometer over the posted speed limit. To make matters worse, the ticket was mailed to me in the US by ship with fines rising by calendar days after issue. Enjoy your trip.