My family is going to spend almost a month in Europe this summer, concentrating our time on northern italy (well from Florence up) and southern France (not planning on Paris) We'd like to settle into a village and take day trips for about a week. Can any of you recommend your favorite towns or villages that might serve this purpose. Ideally it would have a train station, be centrally located in the region, so we could go to Lyon and Provence within a day.
Thanks
Pam
Arles or Avignon are located within a day trip distance of Lyon and other areas of "Provence."
You might get more answers if you are more specific.
I have been to Arles and it might be what you are looking for. Parking is a challenge but it is well connected by train. Avignon is ever better for day trips by train, but a bigger city. There are smaller villages that seem nice too, but much less well connected. My personal experience is limited to Arles, with day trips to Les Beaux and Pont du Gard. (My wife and I blasted through Provence in a day and a half on our 2003 France trip). But, I have researching it a lot myself because we hope to return for a more geographically focused trip to Provence and the French Riveira.
We lived in Nice last winter for 7 weeks and loved it. Very easy to navigate with train, bus, tram. Did many day trips to lovely little French villages (Eze, Grasse, etc) and Ventimiglia for the Friday market, Monte Carlo, etc.
Follow-up question for Mel B: When specifically were you there and what was the weather like? I'm curious, as thinking about winter destinations in future retirement.
Thanks,
Peter
Nimes has amazing Roman ruins (arena, temple, gardens) and the Pont du Gard is just minutes away. It is technically in Languedoc but is on the border of Provence. We easily drove to Chateauneuf du Pape and Avignon from Nimes. Lyon is about 2 1/2 hours away (we visited Lyon the same trip but stayed just outside in Viennes as we spent several days visiting the Rhone Valley before going to Nimes).
