Month in Provence - August 2023

Aix-en-Provence is my suggestion. If there is any place that will have an English language Pilates class, it’s Aix.

August is hot in inland Provence. Highs in the mid 90s, 100 even, are common. This makes activities like hiking and road biking unadvisable, unless you set out at 7 and are back by lunchtime (and even then...). If these activities are must-dos, could you do this at another time of the year?

Malaucène, (not well-known on this particular website), at the foot of Mt. Ventoux is a huge biking center with everything you listed, along with several serious road-bike shops. You have many interesting day trips to do from there: vignobles, botanical gardens, Roman ruins, most beautiful villages.

Yes, it's hot, hot in August, but bikers usually aren't dissuaded. I'd look for a place with a pool.

Consider L'Isle-sur-le-Sorgue. Provence is hot and dry, as mentioned before, but ISLS is an oasis as the Sorgue river flows out of the Fontaine de Vaucluse spring, down a valley (which you can float down on a tubing excursion), and breaks into many rivulets that spread through the town, making it "the Venice of Provence." There is a watermill and lots of riverside restaurants. The market is famous. We rented a villa just out of town and loved it there. We stayed 5 days.

Thank you, everyone, for the suggestions and addt'l considerations.
@JHK I'll check it out. Apparently my local instructor has some type of instructor website w/global info.
@balso an excellent point about the weather, though from Nashville, we are used to that kind of heat PLUS humidity!
@Bets nailed it. As an avid biker and runner, my husband isn't dissuaded by much, weather-wise. Mt. Ventoux may be a great destination for my husband to ride, perhaps finding a group (?) but is a bit further north than I was thinking for other day trips.
@darrenblois Yes, I will consider ISLS
Since posting my initial question, I've read on other threads about home-basing in
• Avignon
• St. Remy
• Arles
• Vaison-la-Romaine
• Roussillon
Though I would imagine most of these, other than Avignon, might mean I'll be doing virtual mat Pilates instead of classes. Thoughts as to any of these, particularly as an enjoyable home base? While we'll be doing a lot of day trips, and a few multi-day trips, I doubt we'll keep up the touring everyday. Sometimes you just have to take a moment and "live life" where you are. On another note, I wonder how hard it will be to find a place for just 2 people (1 bdrm, 2 max) that has a pool?!

Another vote for Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue. We stayed there for a week in May, 2014, and then went back in 2015 for 3 weeks. With a car, it's the perfect home base for exploring Provence.

Now I'll give the rest of the story. It's hot, but worse is the traffic in August on those two-lane roads. I've stayed in several parts of Provence at different times and noticed a big difference in congestion between August and September.
Second, it's polluted. As you get closer and closer to the Rhone. Driving down the autoroute from Paris, after Valence, you can see the brown hanging in the air, just like in LA. Peter Mayle didn't mention this in his books.
You mentioned Vaison above. If you stay there, it's only 10k to Malaucène to take off on rides.

Regarding the places that you list, there are no interesting hikes or bike rides around Avignon (getting out of the city by bike sounds like a nightmare). Arles has access to the Camargue but that's a bit boring/flat IMO and mosquitos are vicious in August. Places east of the Rhone valley are a better bet, Vaison would be very good, Malaucène was a great suggestion, and so is l'Isle sur La Sorgue. Roussillon would be too small for me for a month-long stay. I like Forcalquier further east, but you might find it too far east for visits to Avignon, Arles etc.

Forcalquier is a must for the Salagon botanical gardens and the Monastery of Ganagobie. The drive up to the Monastery is impressive.

I've been remiss in responding. Thank you for the additional feedback and suggestions. As a result of your advice, we've shifted our month in France to 8/15-9/15. Hopefully, that will strike a happier-medium with weather, crowds, etc. We're also shifting our focus to the area outside of Avignon for a home base, and looking into some of the other smaller towns everyone has suggested. I was a little concerned with the additional driving time to Nice and environs from further west or north than Aix, but we may spend a few days on the front end on the coast before making our way inland to a home base. Any thoughts re flying into Lyon and driving to the coast vs flying into Nice? Will also have to do some homework comparing rental car prices from each.

[Edited for clarity]
Unless there are places you want to visit between Lyon and Avignon, the drive isn't great - busy highway!
If you want to visit the Nice area, I would fly into Nice, spend a couple of days there, then rent a car (you won't need a car in Nice) and spend the remaining time in Provence proper. Even from Aix, visiting the Nice area for the day is not convenient.

Alternatively, if you want visit Nice & area for a few days and don’t feel like renting a car (driving around can be very stressful in the summer there, believe me – most of my rellies live them, it can be chock-a-block all along the coast), public transport is excellent and cheap in the Alpes-Maritimes département (numbered 06, of which Nice is the préfecture, the capital if you will, the admin hub and stuff).

There are lots of bus lines radiating from Nice coach station, and a ticket to anywhere in the département is only €1.50 with the ticket d’Azur. (A few examples: Cannes, Grasse, the beautiful medieval hilltop village of Èze - there are 2 bus lines from Nice that go to Èze, only about 30 mns – Monaco, Menton, Vence, St-Paul-de-Vence, Villefranche-sur-Mer etc.)

“In the Alpes-Maritimes, visit the website www.lignedazur.com and in the Var www.varlib.fr.[…] By opting for the Ticket Azur, travel at the single fare rate of €1.50 throughout the network (bus and tramway).”

See these websites for the practicals (lines, timetables etc.).
https://cotedazurfrance.fr/en/stays/practical-information/travelling/
https://www.lignesdazur.com/en
https://www.niceazur.com/index.php/en/transportation/241-06-by-bus

Of course, the train is better for some of these destinations, such as from Nice to Cannes (only takes 25 mns, as opposed to 2 hrs by bus). Lovely line, it hugs the coastline. This is the regional train (TER) network map for that département (and beyond):

https://mmt.vsct.fr/sites/default/files/swt/CPAC/2021-10/carte-reseau-TER-2020_tcm65-18531_tcm65-248750.pdf

(there are TGVs, fast trains, in the south-east but after Avignon, for reasons I won't go into here, they're only TGVs by name, they're not your high speed 200 mile per hour TGV, So much the better I say, gives you ample time to enjoy the beautiful landscape and littoral, the coastline).

Lifted from the Net:

Inter cities
In the Maritime Alps, buses are extremely cheap. Almost all one way tickets cost 1.50€, no matter how far you go. The drawback is that journeys are quite long. Expect 2h from Nice to Cannes whereas 25mn are needed by train.
The 10 trips cards cost only 10€ with therefore a cost of 1€ per trip. For this price you'll be able to travel as much as 100km (Nice - Auron for exemple).
You will find the schedules for most of the lines on the Departement web page. They enable you to go (almost) everywhere without a car.
The main lines :
• 100 : Nice - Menton via the lower corniche (Villefranche, Beaulieu sur Mer, Eze, Cap d'Ail, Monaco, Roquebrune...)
• 200 : Nice - Cannes via St Laurent, Cagnes/Mer, Biot, Villeneuve Loubet, Antibes, Golfe Juan...
• 400 : Nice - Vence via Cagnes sur Mer and St Paul de Vence
• 500 : Nice - Grasse via Cagnes, Roquefort les Pins....
• 600 : Cannes - Grasse via Mouans Sartoux.
There are others, with fewer buses. Check the schedules (above).

Nice is a very convenient base for visiting towns along the Riviera and in the hills above. Other places along the coastal rail line could work but might well mean more time spent on trains and buses. If you have an interest in that area, you definitely should spend some time at the beginning or end of your trip based there rather than subjecting yourselves to multiple long drives from Provence.

@balso Thanks for the tip re picking up a rental car on the way outside of Nice. I see that one of the Intl Fireworks competition nights in Cannes is a couple of days after we would fly into Nice. Wondering whether it would be wise (or fun) to spend a couple of nights in Nice and then a night or two in Cannes before renting a car and heading to Provence proper.

I believe @balso or @Bets mentioned the public holiday on 8/15 for l'Assomption in response to another post. Not sure what to expect and how this would affect our stay in Nice/Cannes?
@craven Thanks for the suggestion and your other posts re gardens, sites, etc. Now for the challenge of finding someplace to stay in the area that is lovely, but won't break the bank!

Eygalières is an excellent home base for all those things you have planned. We rented a beautiful house-a villa within short walk to town. It has Sun.antitiques market and Fri. Fruit veg.market . Lots hiking, close to sights in Avignon, Le Bauex, Aix-en-Provence, Camargue, St.Remy. Wine shops, restaurants(couple Michelin starred) and cafes, boulangeries, patisserie, galleries.
Highly recommend it!
https://www.alpillesenprovence.com/en/explore-the-alpilles/the-villages-of-the-alpilles/eygalieres/

I see that one of the Intl Fireworks competition nights in Cannes is a couple of days after we would fly into Nice. Wondering whether it would be wise (or fun) to spend a couple of nights in Nice and then a night or two in Cannes before renting a car and heading to Provence proper.

No idea, sorry. I do not like fireworks very much myself. Maybe for one night? You can rent a car in Cannes, so that's not a problem.

As for 15 August: no impact on travel except that crowds start to thin out after that date.

There are other ways to see the fireworks instead of pulling up stakes to go a few kilometres down the road. I've even seen boat trips under guided tours.