Provence and French Riviera ~ Please Help with Itinerary Suggestions

I would advise staying 1 night in Paris to get over the jet lag. The TGV (gare de Lyon) from Paris to Avignon, Aix en Provence, Nice is not exhausting. It' s wonderful and fast. I would stop in Avignon, visit the town and the famous Château des Papes, rent a car and drive on to St Remy, Les Baux de Provence, Aix, Saint Paul de Vence, whatever .... Avoid Marseille.
Lyon to Saint Michel does not make sense for just one night .... Take the TGV to Brittany. It' s so beautiful, it' s worth spending a few days there. Explore the region Saint Malo, Pont Aven, etc .. and then drive down to La Rochelle, etc ....
Going all over the place in just one week will be exhausting.

If you haven't booked already, you could fly into Marseille. Then go to Aix for a few days, then to Nice, then up to Lyon, then to MSM and Paris.

But train ride south doesn't seem to exhausting to me. You could take that to Avignon, for example, to tour Provence first, then to your other locales.

Good luck! Have fun! Relax and enjoy!

Thank you both so much for taking the time to reply and for being so helpful.

My family and I discussed whether or not we should stay the first night in Paris. We decided that we'll probably be fine after all. Hopefully, we would have gotten some sleep on the flight. We have taken trains to Paris and to Amsterdam all on the same day before when flying into London and that went well. Yes, we were tired, but it wasn't unmanageable.

Nicole, would you suggest that we take the train to Avignon and rent a car from there, possibly staying there for the Provence part? And to then head to the Riviera part of the trip, possibly staying in Nice?
I appreciate your tip to avoid Marseille. I had the same feeling also from my limited research.
We're not particularly attached to Lyon. We've just heard that it's a nice city and might be a good halfway point on the way back up towards MSM and Paris. Now we're looking into Britanny. Thank you!

Shawn, we haven't booked yet. We thought of the train since it's our first time and we've heard that the train may be nice for first-timers. Thank you for a wonderful suggested itinerary! I wonder if it's easy to get from Paris to Marseille and then to Aix all on the same day.

Again, thank you both so much.

If anyone else here has suggestions or tips, please share.

We took the TGV from Paris to Avignon where we picked up a rental car for a couple of weeks. We stayed in a small town just outside Avignon and did day trips to Pont du Gard, Arles, Nimes and Orange mainly to see the Roman ruins. From there we drove down to Vence and visited all of the French Riviera towns from Monaco (not strictly French) to St. Tropez.

We chose small towns for our hotels as we did not want to wrestle with parking overnight in a place like Nice or Avignon. We returned the car in Avignon and took the TGV back to Paris. But, for you, it may make sense to drop the car in the Riviera and take the TGV from there - or the plane back to Paris from Nice.

We had a very enjoyable trip.

Your basic idea, to do this trip in two parts, is sound:

• Base yourself in the Rhone Valley to see the Provencal towns, the roman antiquities, the Luberon hills, and other sights
• Base yourself in Nice to see highlights of the Riviera.

The region is too large to visit from a central home base. You need two.

Below I will describe some general logistical things to know to make your south-of-France itinerary work well. But I'd like to note two things. First, you'd be much better off flying open jaw, with Paris at one end and Nice at the other. See Nice first and MSM/Paris last, or the other way around.

Second, if you do not fly open jaw, this is a very awkward itinerary. You have two outliers that will consume a lot of extra travel time. They are Mont St. Michel and the Riviera. I strongly suspect from what you've said that you will have a better trip if you leave one or both of these for another time. There is plenty to see and do in the other wonderful places on your itinerary.

Please excuse that digression. To address your actual questions:

It's unfortunate that you are flying into Paris if that's not where you want to be. Take the train to Avignon or Aix, or else fly to Nice, to get to the places you do want to visit as quickly as possible. Do not take the train to Nice, it's a six hour ride.

If you are going to stick to your whole itinerary, flying to Nice the morning you land would be the best option, I think.

About Aix. It's a charming town but would make a poor base for you, unless you are into exploring Marseilles (sounds like you are not). It's too far from things. You can get there pretty easily from Paris however.

To get the most from this itinerary, rent a car. It will let you see more and go farther. The Luberon is nearly impossible without a car.

Lyon is a brilliant stop. If you take my advice and postpone the outliers, you should spend more time there.

It looks as though there is a direct train from Lyon to Rennes that is only about 4 hours. From there you could rent a car or make a connection that would probably get you to Mont St. Michel by somewhere between 3:30 and 4:30 in the afternoon.

Again, thank you both so much for your incredibly helpful replies.

Trinitony, we may do something very similar to what you did.

Adam, your tips are greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. We're likely knocking out MSM and will save that for hopefully another trip. We are also looking into flying into Nice and making a few other changes as well. We have been reading and re-reading your post.

I love these forums and just want to thank everyone so much.