Hello
We will go to the Provence area in June after a bike trip in the Dordogne. We are thinking of renting a car and using Arles as a base. WE have 5 days. Initially we thought we might split trip Arles and Cassis but thought we could go to Cassis for a day. Is that possible and how is driving in that area?
Thanks, Karen
If you stayed overnight and got to experience the tiny town after many visitors leave in the late afternoon and before everyone arrives in the morning: yes. Cassis is on a hillside and at the bottom of the hill on three sides all leading to the sea. It's bowl-shaped. It's very beautiful, but this beautiful setting creates traffic and parking problems. June is tourist season but before the French school year finishes. So, like Mont Saint Michel, the best time is early and late. There's good hiking up Cap Canaille and into the Calanques (unless under fire warning). You'll have sunlight until after 10 pm.
We stayed there for 6 months many years ago.
There will be no shortage of places to visit within western Provence. If you only have 5 days, I would not spend most of one day driving to visit Cassis. It is a wonderful destination but so are a dozen other places much closer to Arles. You could easily spend a week just around western Provence with Arles as a base, and not see everything. Going to Cassis means you will miss something equally as interesting nearer Arles. You could just as well driver to Collioure which I like even better and I believe would be closer.
@Tocaard, I’m sorry to say that when I was in Collioure in June two years ago it was a crowded zoo, shoulder-to-shoulder people, all restaurants full, beachfront full, music blaring in the middle of the day. A friend, who regularly went to Collioure, rented a property for a week in June. She said never again. I no longer recommend it from June-September.
However, I agree about all the places to go from Arles, including the Camargue where visitors can visit a manade (horse and bull ranch). There are excursions with skill horse and bull demonstrations, lunch with local music included.
Not in Provence but across the river in Occitanie: Nîmes, Uzès, and the Pont du Gard have a lot to offer.
I agree with some prior respondents but would like to add a condition.
If you'd like to see the calanques, for example from a boat, doing so from Cassis is very easy and they're a beautiful scene to see; unlike what one might see from Arles.
There are some geographic features one can see in France that are near-unique in the world. The glaciers of the Mont Blanc Massif from a téléphérique are one. The calanques around Cassis and Marseille are another.
