We are going for 4 nights to the Festival of Lights in Lyon. After we WERE planning to go via train to Montreux, Interlaken, Bern but decided to do that leg in the spring or fall. So now looking at southwestern France and flying home via Marseille. Taking the trains (we like a few hours in a train here and there), and have been to Nice, Eze, and that area of the Riveria. So thinking of Toulouse (that is about as far a train ride as we want) for 2-3 days, a day trip from there to Albi (maybe, if we stay 3 days), then on to Arles and then Aix-en-Provence. We can take a car or some other easy transport from Marseille to Aix, stay a couple nights, and then back to M to fly home. I know it seems a lot but we have a couple weeks and are happy enough with 3 days in Toulouse, a night or so in Arles, and a couple in Aix.
The alternative would be to go from Lyon to Marseille first then go opposite of above and fly home from Toulouse?
Any alternative towns/cities? Thanks!
Posted by
Bay Area SF & Uppsala Sweden 🇸🇪
1854 posts
Hi there, I know this isn't exactly the route you described, but they've done an excellent job on a TR in & around Avignon, including Arles. Hope it's helpful! https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-speaking-french-in-provence-solo-with-public-transit
Posted by
36 posts
Hmm. Having just visited Toulouse, Albi, and Bordeaux, I can vouch for all three places as being worth the trip. Marseille is not near them, however, so I question the wisdom of backtracking from Lyon to Marseille to Toulouse and then back to Marseille. Aix is close enough to M to make an easy day-trip or two-day trip by train. Ditto Arles. But to to get from Marseille to Toulouse, you need pass through Montpellier and Narbonne and Carcassonne (all worth seeing), easily 3+ hours. I recommend using either the SNCF app or Trainline website to plug in itineraries to give you a sense of how long train journeys are. I agree that 2-3 hrs on a TGV is great. But 5-6 hrs is not.
Posted by
OP
38 posts
So we could go from Lyon to AIx then on to Arles or whereever on the way to Toulouse and fly out of Toulouse? Or would you recommend skipping Aix-en-Provence entirely?
Posted by
36 posts
I think Aix and Arles are both worth doing, especially since you are traveling during cool months; maybe Aix offers more, since there is the Cezanne museum. (The Van Gogh museum in Arles has very few of his canvases, alas.) But if you are taking the train from Lyon, it will require a change a Marseille, which is already a two hour trip from Lyon. I used this website for rough calculation:
https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us
Bear in mind also that Aix has two train stations, one just for the TGV and another, local station, which is the one you will want coming from Marseille, since it is actually in town. (The TGV Aix station would require a separate 30 min bus trip to town.) From Aix centre Ville, you would take the TER (not TGV) to Arles, about 1hr45, and from Arles you could take a fast train to Toulouse. That itinerary--Lyon--Marseille--Aix, center Ville--Arles--Toulouse--would avoid backtracking and any onerously long single leg of the journey.
Good luck. Also worth downloading to your phone is the SNCF app, which allows you to check schedules and buy tickets from anywhere with wifi. That way you avoid having to wait on line at the station or using the monstrously cumbersome machines to buy tickets. It's nice have the bar code on your phone instead of worrying about where you put the paper ticket.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
11849 posts
Two tiny clarifications: the train from Arles to Toulouse is an Intercity train, like a local but with fewer stops. Second there’s no Cezanne museum in Aix, but the fine arts museum, Musée Granet, has some of his works, and his studio is open to visit as is the family home. The recent large Cezanne exhibit was at the Caumont Center for the Arts, an exhibition space with about two wonderful special exhibits a year.