Isle Sur la Sorgue, Bonnieux or Lourmarin for base?

L'Isle Sur la Sorgue is about 45 minutes from MRS Marseille, can you fly there instead? The car rentals are adjacent to the terminal, it couldn't be easier. Then you don't have to worry about the timing of the plane to train connection and have to change accommodations the second night. You also don't have to make the transition from hotel to car rental which could be geographically messy. Look at AMS as well as CDG for flight connection, one RT ticket multi-city into MRS return from CDG. The AIX TGV station is an easy bus ride from MRS when returning the car, or return it to a TGV station.

We could but there are no direct flights to Marseilles and the choice if airlines is also much smaller (and it may be more expensive). I like the idea of a first night in Avignon because we want to visit there anyway and I’d like to not have to have a night to rest before getting in the road. Actually I think Isle Sur la Sorgue is also pretty close to Avignon, Marseilles is probably closer to Lourmarin.

I’d agree with trying to fly to Marsielle if you can. As for Provence: we spent a lovely week there after a RS tour. We rented a flat in Lourmarin and used it as our base for day trips. It is flat, so walking around is much easier after a lot of up and down when visiting other hill towns. Bonnieux is really nice, it is a hill town. Of all the towns we visited we liked it the most. But Lourmarin was special, so well located. We’d return in a heartbeat. I’sle-you can’t beat the crowds, everyone has the same idea. We found it overwhelmingly crowded after visiting small towns and villages. Lots of bric-a-brac which did not interest us. But we did get some nice soap and a tablecloth. It felt more like a small city and we were glad we did not stay there. The Friday market in Lourmarin much more to our liking as were the almost daily markets we’d stumble across on our travels-mostly food oriented. We rented our car in Nice and returned it at the airport in Marsielle. Very easy. Oh, and watch the movie, A Good Year. You’ll see many of the places you will visit. The real house and winery is a short drive from Lourmarin!

I recommend Loumarin as a base. We stayed in Bonnieux and would not stay there again, very small.

We spent a week in L'Isle and it's not busy except market day and even then just in a small section of the town.

Frankly, markets are not my thing so we spent little time dealing with the market.

There's free parking on the island (walking distance or shuttle) in Avignon near the Palace of Popes.

Before writing off MRS Marseille add up the the bother of waiting hours @ CDG for a train (can't cut it too close) and figure out what is involved with getting to a car rental place in Avignon, it may be way out at the TGV station in a sprawling and modern (not in a good way) area. The southern end of Avignon feels more like a decaying city in Africa than a city in Europe. Also checking SkyTeam airlines (Air France, Delta, KLM, Hop!), there is not a price increase for adding on MRS one leg. Again, be sure to check Amsterdam because there are multiple airlines that fly AMS>>MRS.

I do enjoy markets, and I had fun wandering around L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue on market day. However, I was aware that the mass of vendors' booths significantly blocked my view of the nice architecture, so I ended up making a second trip to the town (from Avignon) in order to see it on a non-market day. I thought that was worthwhile.

Thanks, it sounds like Isle maybe isn’t so bad crowd wise. However it maybe lacks the Provençal charm of Bonnieux or Lourmarin? Not sure how much of a difference that makes, frankly, if we are just spending the nights in these places and roaming far and wide during the day. We will consider flying into Marseilles, I will look at the flights again and the possibility of picking up the vehicle in Marseilles and returning it in Avignon assuming that’s where we’ll catch the train to Paris on the way out. Frankly the b&bs in Lourmarin don’t call out to me, whereas I really like the look of a couple hotels in Bonnieux and I have a place in Isle that I like (where we originally had booked for our trip last year).

Bonnieux is my least favorite as a place to stay, because I find that the through traffic in the village is intrusive. It is not a lot of traffic, but there is none in the middle of Lourmarin and almost none in l'Isle sur la Sorgue.

Lourmarin is beautiful but the road from there to the main Lubéron area is tiresome. Scenic to drive once, not great to drive at the start and end of every day (if Lubéron is your focus).

My preference thus goes to l'Isle sur la Sorgue.

Those observations make sense. Well I guess we will go back to Plan A then!

I think the sheer size of a place has quite a lot to do with whether it matches up with our imagination. L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue isn't a huge place, but I wouldn't call it a "village". It's 2-1/2 times the size of Lourmarin--population 19,483 vs. 7,792. Bonnieux's population is just 1,378.

Right. I don’t love the idea of being in a place that’s crowded with other tourists, but it sounds like that’s not the case other than on Sunday. If we are staying there we can get up early, walk around and then get out of town before the hordes descend. Meanwhile we’ll have plenty of nice restaurants and shops close by. Doesn’t sound too bad. That’s what I’m thinking anyway.

Hi Jay,
Below is a link to our unusual TR from my wife and mine's last trip to Provence. Readers will find a reference to Lourmarin and its unmissable market (some foods there are worth crossing an ocean for). Our choice of rental there also worked out well. Note that lovely Bonnieux is a bit steep in places, no biggie but something to consider.
Hope your trip goes well.
cheers
I am done. The end.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-provencal-echo