Need some perspective please: Provence

Peter, Our comments are based on 6 nights in Provence, May 2016. So, we can't claim to have experience with a 2-day visit. That said: (1) we used L'Isle/Sorgue as a base and can recommend it as accessible, pleasant in its own right, and convenient for the Luberon village tour. (If your itinerary includes a Thursday or Sunday, waking up in Sorgue on a market day is great fun); (2) L'Isle/Sorgue, as you probably already know, has its own attributes in addition to being central -- restaurants, shopping and the canals/waterwheels; (3) I think if I had only 2 days, I'd spend some time researching the Luberon villages that look most interesting and reduce the stops to better "smell the roses", The RS book is helpful. I'd definitely include Roussillon because of the unique geology; (4) We didn't get to Pont du Gard, partly because it looked like it would take the better part of a day for travel and enjoying all the sights, including perhaps canoes or kayaks on the water. It's high on our list for a possible return; (5) we sort of stumbled into Loumarin on a day without much of an agenda; we found it pleasant, sleepy, but not particularly 'special' in any sense. Finally, we think even 2 days in Provence is worth the effort. It was my wife's favorite part of a 3-way itinerary of Normandy, Provence and Paris. Sounds like a great trip -- good luck!

To me, trying to get to 3 different locations in a day doesn't add up to enjoyment. I would, at the least, cut Orange - - the Roman Theater was the only thing we found interesting - - and Ansouis - - the description in my Provence guidebook makes it sound missable. Remember that it will likely take longer than you expect to get to places, and that you need time to find parking and to get from there to what you came to see. What you've proposed sounds like a lot of getting there, as opposed to being there.
The drive from Antibes to Avignon is not short, and the Pont du Gard is about another half hour further west.

Your plan for Day 6 is too ambitious. I've driven the Grand Canyon de Verdon stopping in Moustiers, and it basically takes a whole day one-way. Don't try to do this as a day trip from Antibes. Frankly, after seeing the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the gorge is a real disappointment, although Moustiers is a wonderful mountain town. I'd skip it and head straight to the Luberon or Arles/Avignon/Pont du Gard myself. If you must do it, travel on the day between Antibes and your final destination in Provence.

I would say with some good planning and an early start you could cover this ground reasonably well in 2 full days. But it sounds to me (am I wrong?) that you don't have 2 full days, you have 2 part days with transit at the start of the first and the end of the second.

You'll probably have a better time if you slow down or add a day.

For what it's worth the theater on Orange is enroute and very worthwhile, if you have time.

First off, my apologies for the silence over the last few days. Too many long days at work.

Thanks for the excellent responses. The feeling I get from reading your comments is that we're trying to do too much. Adam nailed it. We have 2 part days, with about a 3 hour drive on the morning of day 7 and another 3 hour drive on the afternoon of day 8. As I type that out, I realize there just isn't time to see everything we want to.

We live in a remote area in northern British Columbia with the next major city about 4 hours to the south, and we have a hot springs about 3.5 hours north. It's not unusual for us to go to either of those in the morning and back home in the evening, so the amount of driving in a day isn't an issue. (ViaMichelin shows about 3 hours Antibes to Sorgue). But I do agree now that I've considered your replies, we wont get to see as much as we'd like.

I think we will plan for 6 days in the area at some future point, similar to what rca mentioned. "Plan to be back", right?

Thanks again to everyone for your thoughtful replies.

Peter, Good decision in view of the circumstances. Please reach out when you plan to return for a longer stay in Provence. We made mistakes, got lucky on occasion, and are happy to share the lessons learned. rca