Difference between Dordogne and Provence

They are very, very different areas. Dordogne is lush and hilly, with pretty rivers flowing in shallow gorges. Villages have the rustic charm of places that don't seem to have changed much in a century (minus the advent of cars and tourism of course), and some of them are really impressive (Google La Roque Gageac for instance). There are few large monuments of note beyond Sarlat, and no large towns. There is a famous prehistoric site at Lascaux.

Provence is much more densely populated, has more "layers" of history and far more monuments. In terms of 'cute villages" I think it's a draw. The Rhône plains (Avignon, Orange, Arles...) isn't particularly scenic but the hilly regions to the east (Lubéron, Verdon, Var uplands) are just as stunning as the Dordogne. To the west as well (Gard, Cevennes, Ardèche) but that's not "Provence" anymore.
For market towns, I love Uzès. Isle sur la Sorgue has a great market too (famous and popular antiques section), so does Carpentrzs on Friday (but Carpentras is a bit humdrum otherwise). Never been to the market in St Rémy so cannot judge it, but St Rémy itself is an excellent, though popular, home base.

If you've been to Provence already I would try Dordogne (do mind that a car is helpful there!), otherwise Provence has the edge for me - easier to travel to/in, a bit more to do, better weather, and (personal note), more edible food for this vegetarian.

I much prefer the Dordogne which is lush with beautiful chateaux, the canoeing on the rivers, the prehistoric caves and plenty of charming villages. I find Provence arid and much less beautiful but generations of artists don't agree with me. It is very much a matter of personal taste.

Thank you both so much!

We were in Villefranche, Eze and Cagnes Sur Mer 15 years ago, and only there for a couple days so I am starting from scratch!

This won’t be a sight-seeing trip per se, more of an experiential trip to just live for a month. We (age 60) both still work and I, particularly, will have to stay connected to my clients in California during the week.
I would probably just stay in Paris (St Germain or Marais) but my husband is looking for something smaller and more quaint so we are looking for a compromise.

We hope to enjoy local coffee shops in the mornings, cook, read, walk in the afternoons, enjoy cafe life and people watch in the evenings. We love art so Picasso, Cezanne, Renoir and Monet are all draws to Provence. We also love gardens and Châteaus.... and I’m not sure Provence has any.

We won’t rent a car for the month but would rent one on weekends to explore and see sights if trains and buses done suffice.

I just came across Saint Paul de Vence which sounds attractive to us with the many are galleries and castle nearby. I see Aix has a castle as well. St Remy was also recommended in Provence.

In Dordogne, Sarlat sounds like the best town for us since we won’t have a car during the week and don’t want to feel too remote or rural.

I loved St Paul de Vence, but without a car it's pretty isolated and quite small although well and quickly connected to the larger town of Vence (about 10 min on the bus). It's also easy to get to Nice by bus for an evening dinner and stroll on the waterfront. I'm not sure I'd see myself there for a month but that's a personal choice.

Thank you Nancy. I’ve also read a couple times about the “ugly” of Provence and I’m not quite sure what that means....

St-Paul-de-Vence is drop-dead gorgeous; think Taormina-level beauty, but smaller--truly minute. It was absolutely overrun with tourists during my 2017 visit. It would definitely not be my choice. It's a fairly significant bus ride (50 minutes) to get to Nice, which would be your lifeline to the outside world. Any time you have to take a bus to a different town to reach a train station, your options for convenient day-trips by public transportation shrink. A month is a long, long time in a tiny village.

The Fondation Maeght in St-Paul-de-Vence is definitely a must for lovers of modern art, but otherwise there seemed to be very little in the village other than tourist shops and touristy restaurants. And the visitor load means you most likely wouldn't be able to casually wander over to a local restaurant and get a table for lunch; I think you'd need a reservation or would have to wait. Mind you, the bus tours may all disappear before dinner time, for all I know. I had no interest in hanging around to find out. Did I mention that the place is tiny? Go to Google Maps, zoom in, and look at the key to see the distance across town.

The nearby town of Vence is larger and more real-world but is a bit farther from Nice (on the same bus line, so accessible from St-Paul-de-Vence); no train station there, either. Vence lacks SPdV's magnificient hillside setting but is definitely worth a visit or two if you're in the area. It has a very pretty historic district and I saw not one other tourist during my visit (during the afternoon siesta period). I liked Vence much more than SPdV, but tiny little touristy villages push all the wrong buttons for me.

Lignes d'Azur runs most of the buses in that part of France. You can look for schedules here. I consider most of the Riviera hill towns awfully isolated.

St-Remy is much larger than SPdV but it, too, lacks rail service. It has bus service to Arles and Avignon, making trips to those towns relatively easy. For most of the commonly-mentioned small-town destinations in Provence, I think you'd have to start with a bus trip to Arles or Avignon and connect to another bus or a train. Again, not really convenient for a bunch of day-trips if you don't have a car. But St-Remy is large enough that you probably wouldn't need to leave it all that often.

Gardens: The three I remember are all in the eastern part of the Riviera. Menton is the warmest place in France. It has two very nice hillside gardens that are worth day-tripping to. Menton also has a good-sized historic district, but it's a coastal town, so that area is hyper-touristy. None of those tourists seem to find their way up to the gardens. There are also some attractive public green spaces in Menton with flowers. That's not unique to Menton since the Riviera climate is so mild.

The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild on Cap Ferrat has beautiful gardens, and the rich-person's villa is quite beautiful.

There's a garden in western Nice near the Asian Arts Museum. I didn't have time to visit it, but it was recommended to me by a local. My assumption is that it is not as great as the pay-to-enter spots in Menton, but that is just my guess.

Nice has at least 6 art museums. Many small Riviera and Provencal towns have art museums, often much better than you would expect to encounter outside major cities. I assume Rick's book that focuses solely on southern France does a good job of covering them, but I haven't checked. I'd recommend also skimming TripAdvisor's Things To Do listings to be sure you don't miss something you would enjoy. My two favorites in Nice are places no one else on the forum ever mentions: the Naïve Art Museum and the Asian Arts Museum.

The hill town of Biot is known for art glass (small museum and shops); the Leger Museum is on the bus route from Nice.

Provence has a marvelous Roman influence the Dordogne lacks. You will see many more Americans there than in the Dordogne (which attracts many Brits). The Dordogne is harder to get to and, realistically, requires a car. It's not worth going there for a mere overnight because of all that.

You can get by in Provence without a car, though you won't see as much and it might start to rankle after 5 days or so.

The Dordogne chateaux are stone fortresses, most from the Hundred Year's War. The traditional architecture is very different from that of Provence, as is the cuisine, which is richer and less about olive oil. Foie Gras, not fish. There are caves with neolithic art there, and visiting them all can become a pleasant and rewarding obsession. Provence has the Palace du Papes, a big snooze actually.

This description is Dordogne heavy because you say it is the region you never heard of. If you have the chance to spend time along the Dordogne you should take it.

Thanks Acraven, Andrew and Adam. Appreciate the details and opinions. We are more interested in a place to settle and live for a month then bop from town to town to see them all. Of course, on weekends, we will want to get out, go to a museum, a chateau, a different town... so we will probably rent a car on one or two weekends.

Aix and Isle Sur La Sorgue both have train stations so we could get to Marseille, and onto other places for weekend visits. But in Dordogne, we definitely need a car to see other towns or a chateau, right?

We drove and visited southern France from la Rocque gageau (sorry about spelling) through Arles to Nice 2 years ago. Nice was the only area that you could enjoy without a car. Museums, food, waterfront area were special. The city really surprised us. There is good train and bus service to surrounding area. Rental cars available by the train station. Enjoy your travel research.

I'm going to put in a few words for the Dordogne.

I visited the area once and it was way too briefly. I'd love to stay put for a month in the area, visiting some of the sights in a slow, relaxed way and just being there. Perhaps these links could provide access to more information for your decision-making.

This area is nothing like Provence. The feeling is completely different. It feels much older, even if you don't visit the caves. It's also more medieval and the main sights are more unique, in my opinion. This North of the Dordogne link has few pictures but good descriptions, especially of the towns, villages and things to see and do. You can do a Google Images search to see many more.

On this RS website: Dordogne, Sarlat specifically. There's a very nice market there on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There is a train station, but you'd have to research other towns for transportation to them.

Or you might enjoy an introduction to the area and maybe more with Philippe of Allo Philippe. His website has 2019 prices. He took us to the Font de Gaume, then to the Lascaux replica.

Then he took us to Maison Forte de Reignac, a fort/castle built into a cave and to a series of caves, La Roque Saint-Christophe, that dates back about 55,000 years. I love this stuff.

You might also enjoy this National Geographic article, Defining Beauty and Wonder in Southwestern France.

There are some attractive larger towns in the Dordogne and Lot that have rail and/or bus service-- places like Agen, Bergerac, Cahors, Perigueux and Figeac. So does Sarlat-le-Caneda. The trains can be slow, a transfer is often required, and this summer some trains were replaced with buses. As a result, you don't move around the area very fast without a car.

In general, the smaller places people find so charming (including but not limited to Domme, La Roque Gageac, Rocamadour and St Cirq Lapopie) have no public transportation. There's a company running a few tours from Sarlat, and no doubt there are private ($$$) guides working in the area. Otherwise, a lot of the places and activities people go to the Dordogne for are at least semi-inaccessible without a car. However, you can enjoy time in the area without a car (I did!) if you accept that the places on the "Most Beautiful Villages in France" list are probably not going to be on your itinerary. It's a matter of going in with the right expectations.

One thing to be considered: If you opt to stay in a place like Sarlat, how far will you have to go, and how long will it take, to reach a car-rental place that doesn't charge exorbitant rates? It strikes me that could be an issue for some potential bases in Provence as well. Can you handle a car with a manual transmission? Folks say you really should plan to rent from an airport if you need an automatic. That could make staying in the depths of the Dordogne or in an obscure corner of Provence quite problematic.

To me Provence feels almost like a desert. Much like the central valley in California. It's hot and arid. I went in September and it still felt a little too warm. If you like markets, however, Arles has a huge market that stretches across town on the main road. I can't imagine too many towns having something larger.

September is great for Dordogne. It's green with oak forests, hills and rivers. I think Sarlat is known for their market but I'm not really a market person. Also check out Domme, I liked the town. They probably have a market.