Burgundy/Provence Itinerary Help

Posted by beepyoyo on 01/16/20 04:44 AM

My wife and I have 10 nights following completion (in early September) of a hiking trip in the Alps, when we'll be brought back to Geneva on a Friday afternoon. We're considering renting a car and doing the following:
(1) Drive from Geneva to Beaune (arrive early evening). Spend 2 nights, with a day trip to Dijon.
(2) Drive from Beaune to Lyon, partially on the Cote de Beaune/Burgundy Wine Road (which appears to parallel the Autoroute). Spend 1-2 nights in Lyon. (If 2 nights, spend a day in Lyon.)
(3) Drive Lyon to Avignon, or Orange, or Roussillon. Spend multiple nights (3? 4?). Use that as a base to visit all 3 towns plus Arles, Pont du Gard, Nimes, St. Remy, etc. Perhaps then spend 1-2 nights staying in Aix-en- Provence.
(4) Drive back toward Geneva, perhaps spending a night in Grenoble, arriving late morning at Geneva airport for 2pm flight. (Any way to drive through Gorges du Verdun on this leg without simply turning around and retracing the route?)

Any comments on itinerary? Too ambitious? What town should we use as a base in Provence? Does Grenoble make sense on the way back?

Posted by rizell

Folsom, California

01/16/20 04:58 AM

542 posts

Sounds great! We spent 4 nights in Beaune and 4 in Lyon, 3 Arles, 2 Avignon and it was barely enough! We preferred Arles over Avignon.

I would just suggest taking train instead of driving, much more relaxing.

Posted by acraven

Washington DC

01/16/20 03:25 PM

28083 posts

I think you have unrealistic expectations of what you'll have time to see in the few nights you're thinking of spending in each place.

If you arrive in Beaune in the early evening and spend 2 nights there with a day-trip to Dijon, when will you see Beaune? Wouldn't you want to go inside the Hôtel-Dieu (Hospices de Beaune)? That would have to be done in the daytime.

Lyon is a very large city with many and varied sights. It's not a good choice at all for a one-night stop because of potential traffic issues, navigational challenges and parking expense. Even 2 nights is seriously insufficient; Lyon is sort of a mini-Paris.

Although 3-4 nights in Avignon, Orange or Roussillon may sound like a lot, I don't see how it is going to get you to all three of those places plus Arles, Pont du Gard, Nimes and St-Remy unless you are up for an extremely hectic pace.

I wouldn't want to spend my last night in Grenoble if I had a 2 PM flight out of Geneva, but I am perhaps unusually risk-averse. My philosophy is to be within an affordable taxi ride of the airport just in case of a catastrophic transportation glitch.

Posted by beepyoyo OP

01/17/20 12:46 AM

2 posts

Thx so much for the comments. We are rethinking several aspects of our proposed itinerary. In Provence I suspect we will have to choose among the places we'd like to visit, passing on some. We also may switch to using trains for several legs, only renting a car once we reach Provence (and perhaps returning it in Aix). If we drive back to Geneva, I think it is correct that Grenoble is too far to stay the night before we fly although perhaps Annecy is a possibility - only 28 miles from the airport.