I will be in the South of France next week and I have bough my tickets from Lyon to Avignon and Aix-en-Provence to Paris but what about Avignon to Arles, Pont Du Gard, and Nimes, and from Avignon to Aix-en-Provence? Can I wait till I get to the south to get those tickets?
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
The trains you list are almost certainly local trains, not TGV's. In which case buy them on the day.
Pont du Gard is nowhere near a station, this is presumably a local bus. You cannot buy bus tickets in advance.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Chris has you on the right track.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Yes, these are local trains, which you can buy locally. In addition, from Avignon to Aix, the direct bus is easier and faster, as the train requires connecting to buses and/or takes longer.
Posted by
Boston, MA
138 posts
To add to previous replies-
to get to Pont Du Gard from Avignon you need to go to the central bus station, called Gare Routiere. As you are facing the train station, the bus station is located to the left of it, under the tunnel, near the Ibis hotel.
When asking for directions, ask for Gare Routiere as locals didn't understand me when I asked for a bus station.
You need a bus A15, it leaves at 8:44am; buy the ticket from the driver.
Tourist Information office in Avignon has the booklet with this bus schedules, ask them also to circle return schedules for you.
As for trains, buy tickets on the same day, I bought them from the desk agents, they all speak good english, and will explain the platform, etc. Don't forget to validate your tickets in the yellow stamp machines on the platform before boarding trains. Also note that when going to Arles, look for the train to Marseille, Arles is the next stop from Avignon, takes about 20 minutes.
Posted by
12 posts
Hi Dylan - Just yesterday I did an Avignon-Pont du Gard-Nimes-Avignon route buying all tickets day-of. As a previous poster mentioned, you have to catch the Edgard A15 bus from Gare Routiere. For 10€ you can buy tickets from Edgard that include two bus tickets (to/from) and admission to Pont du Gard. Instead of using my 2nd ticket to return to Avignon, I used it to go to Nimes (B21 bus). Then I took the train from Nimes back to Avignon.
Today I went to and from Arles buying tickets right before I stepped on the train. My idea had been to attempt to connect St Remy, Les Baux and Arles, but the bus between St Remy and Les Baux has stopped service for the season.
In the Avignon tourism office, there are a number of brochures for companies that do various Provence/Luberon/Alpille tours for reasonable prices. That may be something to consider to better connect different sites.