Please critique my Provence itinerary

I haven't spent enough time in the region to comment, however we spent a day in Marseille a couple of weeks ago and have our it on the list for a 2 or 3 night stay in the future. If you're flying out of Marseille I'd recommend one or two days there as well.

Dear YoPhilly

This is my experience about Provance be very careful in Marseille Chatue d'if is nice with notre dame de La Garde

Eze is one of the most beautiful in Provance, Cannes is full of with hotels and shops festival town,
Grasse is interesting the Parfümerie Fragonard and the Grass town is also very interesting place.
Les Baux de Provance is nice the area and after a good lunch You can continuie in Avignon and the end of the day you can finish with Pont du Gard.
Arles - Gordes Rousillon
Antibes -Monaco Monte Carlo

This is My idea

I wish You enjoy your holiday

Best Wishes Virag Toth

Couple comments;

There are some things the US does much better than Europe, and I put cliffy things like the calanques in this category. It's a detour to go this far east for what I consider marginal scenery, it's up to you. Cassis is a scenic town.

Market days mean crowds and more difficult parking, for basically a flea market, again up to you.

This is a wonderful itinerary - the Mayle Trail! Peter Mayle's Book - A Year in Provence. Try to read it before you go if you haven't.
Haven't been to Marseille or Cassis. We would generally fly in to Nice, and spend that first night in Villefrance-sur-Mer. We love that town and wonderful to have dinner on the waterfront!
LOVE the markets! You will find parking and for one, you are staying there so perfect! Perhaps get to Avignon as suggested.
WONDERFUL!

@Allan, thanks for your reply. We’re trying to keep it under 10 days.

@Virag, thanks for replying. Yes, I agree. Eze is lovely; I’ve been there before. All great places to consider but we have to narrow our focus. Sticking to areas of Alpilles and Luberon for the most part. Have you been to the towns on my list?

MRS airport is a good choice. Easy access to rental cars and easy exit and entrance. For St Remy don’t dismiss the Glanum Roman ruins a whole city just south of town. Just next to Glanum is VanGogh asylum which is great to visit. There and on the walkway to St Remy they have placards about his paintings and you are standing looking at the same view. Also for Les Baux consider

1. castle https://chateau-baux-provence.com/en/home/ The castle has scheduled demonstrations at some times like catapult and crossbow.

2. the Yves Brayer museum https://www.yvesbrayer.com/fr/ He’s great and they have good special exhibits.

and 3. the church. https://www.lesbauxdeprovence.com/en/activites/patrimoine/saint-vincent-church/
The church is 12th century but the stained glass is contemporary so a striking complement

@Toby, your comment about calanques is worth considering, especially since I’ve seen similar scenery in the Algarve. Have you been to Villefranche as well as Cassis? Could you compare the two?

Basically I think you’ve laid out a relaxing and well-planned itinerary. I do have a couple of suggestions.

I’d recommend cutting one day from your time in St Rémy and adding it to your stay in Cassis. You can easily combine the St Remy market and a visit to Les Baux in one day.

With the extra day in Cassis you could drive the Route des Cretes, just outside Cassis, for some glorious views and also visit a couple of nearby villages that are less touristy than Cassis. One is Sanary sur Mer, which has no sights you must visit but is just plain beautiful; two others worth your time are Bandol and especially the small and relatively undiscovered Le Castellet.

As for the calanques, we have taken the cruise a couple of times and always loved it. A chacun son goût !

Parenthetically, and I see how you’ve laid out your itinerary, but I think you’re giving short shift to Aix. Even if you can’t spend a lot of time, I’d try to give it a few hours just for strolling what I think is one of the most beautiful towns I’ve ever been to (we have stayed there for a couple of weeks at a time and find it irresistible. I know other people don’t agree and think it’s dull. Again, a chacun . . .).

Have a great trip.

Marnam, yes, I’ve read several of Peter Mayles’ books…..how could I NOT want to visit?! 😁. I’m leaning toward Villefranche over Cassis. Thanks for your input.

If I can hijack your question about Villefranche vs Cassis, they’re very different in style but both beautiful and highly touristy. One consideration is what else you want to do and which keeps your driving time to the minimum possible. Obviously Villefranche makes more sense if you want to see the traditional Côte d’Azur towns; Cassis opens up different possibilities.

People are talking about two different areas. Saint Rémy-en-Provence is over a three hour drive to Villefranche-sur-mer, which is the one I assume you want. We have a lot of towns called Villefranche, but that gets into history lessons.

For such a short time, I wonder if it’s worth the drive if Villefranche is your only destination. The train would be longer by the time you turn in the car.

Cassis is a good choice. The calanques are only one aspect. There’s also the spectacular Cap Canaille and numerous other mountains. It’s a different terrain from the Côté d’Azur and also spectacular.

Frenchaucoeur, thanks for your input. It all sounds so beautiful, it's hard to choose. I'll be the only driver and would like to have a couple of days off from driving. Neverrtheless, I'll take a look at your suggestions for side trips from Cassis.

For a seaside end to our trip, here are my new thoughts. After looking at transportation options to Villefranche-sur-Mer, I'll drop that idea...too many train connections. Staying overnight in Cassis wouldn't get us to Marseille airport early enough in the morning for our flights; we'd need an overnight nearer the airport. After checking many options on Rome2Rio, it would make better sense to spend those couple of nights in Marseille for easy harbor views, seafood meals, and local color. Thoughts on places to stay near the water?

Why not just arrange for a taxi from Cassis to the airport? Cassis is great and should be a very relaxing end to your journey. An early morning drive is only about 45 minutes.

YoPhilly,
Good suggestions to skip Villefranche-sur-Mer this trip. Just fyi, Aix-en-Provnce has buses from its train station to Marseille airport just about every half-hour, and take only about 30 m inutes. Tickets cost about 10 euros. A taxi takes about half-hour also, and costs between 50-85 euros.
Just in case you want to end your trip in Aix, rearranging the order of your travel somewhat. (Cassis to Aix for final night. Aix is lovely.)

If you are flying in or out of Marseille, I agree with the suggestion to spend at least a day in Marseille. I also wanted to add that Uzes is a lovely town to spend a couple nights in, although, with a car, you can manage the short visit you have planned.

Thanks so much for all suggestions. My friend and I will talk about it.

@Judy, yes, I saw there are buses and trains from Marseille to Aix. If we end the trip in Marseille, we may drop the car in Avignon, take the train to Marseille for 3 nights and do a day trip by bus to Aix.

YoPhilly,
If you do spend some time in Marseille, go to Mucem, the ethnology museum. Marseille is an ancient city and the museum has so much to appreciate, from the Marseille area and the Mediterranean civilizations. A boat trip out to Chateau d'If is fun, and see Notre Dame de la Garde, with the boats hanging from the ceiling. A nice place for lunch or dinner is the Vallons Des Auffes, where fishermen depart from each day. There are some good restaurants there. We haven't been in a good while, but we always liked Chez Jeannot for pizza (and pissaladiere) and Chez Fonfon (for seafood, a bit pricier).

Thanks, Judy. We'll keep it in mind.

It will be a wonderful trip! - I agree with a few others that adding at least one more day in Marseille is a good idea. My family wished we'd had more time there a few years ago. After so many charming and lovely but highly touristy small towns and villages, it's refreshing to be in a real city where people actually live. Marseille is beautiful but also down to earth and full of Mediterranean culture and history and good food. Rick Steves' self-guided walking tour of the old city area was great too.
- For me, l'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Gordes, and Roussillon all in one day is a lot of driving and parking and not much time to explore each.

Foxerling, I agree. L'Isle, Gordes and Roussilon seems like a lot in one day, but they're so close together. Our revised itinerary doesn't have us in L'Isle on a market day, so we'll keep them pencil-ed in. My friend and I generally are extremely flexible with our plans...we go with the flow and what strikes us on any particular day.

We're planning 5 nights in St. Remy-de-Provence and 3 nights in Marseille. We're excited to go and thank all of you for your suggestions. Merci beaucoup a tous.