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Provence Itinerary

Posted by (Darmouth, MA, USA) on

Here I go again
On a bike trip we will scourer the area between St. Remy and Avignon, this itinerary is for a road trip that must start and end in Avignon due to car rental. We have very reasonable 75 euros reservation in Vaison La Romaine for 2 nights and then 3 nights in Orange. I was thinking Gigondas in lieu of Vaison, but it seems much more expensive. Open to another town besides Vaison La Romaine for two days OR should we look for one location for all 5 days?
Here's the plan:
Before bike trip meeting in Aix 2 days early, to explore Aix, food tour and day train trip to Marseille
After bike trip rent car and travel to Vasion La Romaine, stopping at Gigondas and Serguret
Day 2 - Country ride to Roussillon through Joucas and Gordes, if time Brantes
Day 3 -move to Orange, explore
Day 4 - Road trip to Nines through Uzes or drop this day in favor of Lyon
Day 5 - Road trip to Arles
Day 6 - Drive to TVC Avignon to return car and train to Lyon - explore
Day 7 - train to CDG very late plane can spend much of day in Lyon

All comments welcomed and thanked!

Posted by
28082 posts

You have a lot of rural time on this trip and Lyon has far more attractions than you'll be able to see in the (approximately) one day you'll have there. But there's not a bad choice here.

Also, be very careful about scheduling the train from Lyon to CDG. Although not subject to highway tie-ups, trains can run into delays. How much of a disaster would it be if you missed that flight? I recall that someone on has mentioned on this forum that she was on a TGV heading toward Paris that was delayed for multiple hours; I think is was due to a suicide on the tracks. Many tourists on that train missed transatlantic flights that day. I'm guessing that your flight is intra-European, so perhaps not all that big a deal.

Posted by
4132 posts

We've done train-to-deGaulle and I recommend it; just leave extra time if there are strikes.

You won't regret another night in Lyon, though personally I would not leave the Pont du Gard on the margin for that.

I can't tell how locked in you are but would suggest Orange as a day trip, since you will have a car. Things may well have changed but 20 years ago Orange was a dreary place though with an amazing Roman theater.

If you have an interest in the other great Roman antiquities (Arles, Nimes) you could spend a few nights in a town in that part of Provence. Not out the question to visit them from Vaison either, but closer may be better if you plan to spend much time.

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