Best Place to Make Home Base in Provence in Mid-July?

You do need a car or make arrangements for a driver. I have been to Provence three times, and was based in Aix-en-Provence each time and took day trips to Pont du Gard, Arles, St. Remy, Avignon, Loumarin, Ansouis and many other little picturesque villages throughout the region. TGV from Paris stops in Aix now as many residents commute to Paris for work. The region is so lovely that you would be shortchanging yourselves by only staying a few days.

I will offer a different opinion to the first response. My daughter and I spent 6 days in Provence without a car and had a great time. First three nights in Montpellier where she had done a summer program and second three in Avignon. Instead of Arles you might consider Nimes which is easy to reach by TGV and a charming town with several interesting Roman ruins. I'm not sure about leaving luggage at the Avignon train station to do your visit to the Popes' Palace; I hope a more knowledgable poster can address that question. But the 2013 RS France book says bags can be stored at the Avignon Centre Ville station (though not the TGV station) so you may be good to go.

Paris is glorious but so is Provence ! Consider shaving one day off the Paris part to give yourselves 4 nights - hence 3 full days - in the region, 2 in nimes and 2 in Aix.

We got around very easily by train and did one full-day tour with Provence Panorama to see the hard-to-reach sites like Pont du Gard and Orange and les Baux and St Remy and the remains of Chateauneuf des Papes - a splurge but SO worth the cost! Sounds as if you are planning something similar. Have a great trip!

Thank you for the recommendations! Sounds like you and your daughter had an amazing experience. As it is right now, we will spend 8 nights in Paris, one night in Arles, two nights in Aix en Provence, and three nights in Nice. Lots of moving around! Based on your recommendations, I will visit with my daughter to see how we may adjust our schedule. The day that we would shave off of Paris happens to be "Bastille Day." I thought the fireworks over the Eiffel Tower would be pretty spectacular, although others have offered recommendations of Avignon and Carcassonne. As always, I appreciate everyone's input!

I noted your statement that "despite recommendations, I do not plan to rent a car."
Just curious about whether there is some over-riding reason why you made that choice?

Certainly the major cities, such as Avignon - Arles - Aix are well-connected by rail. But there is the issue of the effort and time it might take to haul and storage luggage at places where you are not sleeping.
And some travelers here find that they want to see some of the parts of western-central Provence that aren't on the rail lines. But perhaps that isn't a priority for you.

Only because you said you're requesting "other suggestions" than your stated game plan--May I simply recommend that--if you haven't already--you get a range of opinions, here and perhaps on other travel forums as well, before making a final decision on the car versus no car issue for that part of the trip.
And that you ask others what their experience has been with hauling and storing luggage in the situations you would be in.
You can also ask Rick's staff for an opinion.

And then decide what will be best for you! :)

Best wishes for a great trip!

I so understand your reluctance to rent a car. After 5 trips around the British Isles, renting a car and driving on the "wrong" side of the road each time, we decided to stick to train travel on 2 trips to Italy, 1 trip to Germany and an earlier trip to France. And we were pleased, thinking that was the easiest, safest way to travel.

But in March we toured Southern France with a car and it went relatively well. Driving on the same side of the road that we're accustomed to, renting an automatic, and bringing our own GPS gave us a lot of freedom and actually required less planning ahead than train travel. And although you can do anything that you set your mind to with public transportation, I can assure you that we saw so much more than we would have with the train. That said, it is more stressful; there were days where we discovered our plans were a bit ambitious and my husband just needed some time to relax.

We picked up the car in Bordeaux and toured that region, then the Dordogne, then the Languedoc-Rousillion region, then through the Provence before dropping the car off in Arles and taking the train to Nice for a few days before flying out of the Nice Airport.

So you might want to consider using trains/buses primarily but then do a day or two of car travel where it makes sense, like in the Provence.

Have fun!

I would suggest staying in Villeneuve-les-Avignon, on the other side of the river to Avignon; accommodation is much cheaper there. Look at Airbnb or Flipkey; you can often find very reasonable accommodation including small apartments. I would definitely rent a car to get around in - driving in France is no more difficult than driving in the US - just make sure you have a GPS with you and you will get on fine!