We will be taking the train from Nice to Avignon on a Sunday, pick up our car rental after our arrival at 10:18 a.m. We will drive to St. Remy where we are staying in a cottage at a bed breakfast for three nights. If we can't check into the cottage by around noon, we will just ask for bags to be stored & walk the village to find a place for lunch first, then either check back in at lodging or go ahead and leave for Les Baux. I have heard that you should avoid parking to go explore with your luggage in your car. When we were in Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg & Munich two years ago, we arrived at our hotels by late morning every time & they always had our room ready. Have any posters experienced similar in France?
We plan to explore Les Baux & go to Carrieres de Lumiere at some point before heading back to St. Remy to settle in for the evening & explore St. Remy some more/dinner. I looked at the Carrieres website for Les Baux but when I went to buy tickets it was in French with no translate to EN option. I went ahead & chose the date we plan to go & looked at all of the 30 minute time slots available & all of them still had 160-170 open tickets so I am hoping we can just purchase them when we get there. Since we don't really know what time we want to go anyway, we can be flexible, maybe get the tickets on the way into Les Baux first so we are set to go.
Day 2, Monday: We are going to Pont du Gard in the morning, I just purchased tickets yesterday, & then Arles in the afternoon. One question is if anyone knows a specific parking lot that is recommended in Arles, I would be grateful. Parking et Marche or Parking du Centre looked like good possibilities but I noticed many others. Our priority will be the Roman ruin structures & the town itself & probably some of the Van Gogh. Do these two places for the day seem easily doable?
Day 3, Tuesday: We plan to drive to as many of the Luberon villages that I have chosen as possible. This is the day I am wondering about how things will turn out in that regard because of more driving/directions/parking/exploring. So I am keeping an open mind because as much as I would like to see lots of places, one day is probably not going to cut it. My plan is for us to leave no later than 8:00 & start with Loumarin since that is the longest distance from St. Remy. We would probably be willing to even hit the road earlier if it makes a difference. We will definitely take sustenances of water/food since we will be in & out of the car all day. The other towns I want to go to are: Bonnieux, Lacoste (maybe), Roussillon, Gordes (maybe not go into village, just pictures from outside), Menerbes, (optional depending on time), Goult (optional) and L'Isle sur la Sorgue. I would also like to see the Abbey de Senaque, Julien Bridge, and do a wine tasting at Chateau la Canorgue if that is open & an option. We will adjust where we go depending on how the day progresses but I figure it is better to know which of the many villages holds interest ahead of time. We don't want to miss Roussillon or L' Isle sur la Sorgue & since those would be after a few of the other towns, that is where the adjusting will be made on the fly. I would love opinions on whether most of this is possible. We won't be in any hurry to get back to St. Remy until late afternoon/early evening since we don't have any plans other than dinner or just grabbing something at a shop to take back to our cottage & relax outside to enjoy those surroundings.
Day 4, Wednesday: Wednesday is market day in St. Remy so we will definitely be going to that first thing in the morning for a couple of hours before we check out of our lodgings. Then we will drive to Avignon to return the car ( need to do that by 11:00-11:30) We have a hotel right outside city gate by train station (Accor Novetel) so we can catch early train to Paris Thursday. Explore Avignon afternoon/evening. Thanks again!
Posted by
OP
227 posts
I thought of another question. We rented our car through AutoEurope but it is Hertz company. So is there an AutoEurope rental counter for all companies that they carry that we would go to at Gare de Avignon? And is there a shuttle for that or is it walkable from the platforms? Thanks
Posted by
OP
227 posts
I think I figured my last question out because I tried looking at my auto europe paperwork. I think I was a little confused by the other rental company called Europcar and that is different. So glad I noticed before we arrived. And it looks like it is just a few minutes walk. I will try to do my research before posting next time, sorry.
Posted by
SF Bay Area
664 posts
Arles has a full day of things to do, but if you skip the excellent museum you might be able to see the ruins and central area the same day as you go to Pont du Gard. The Pont du Gard also has an excellent museum.
I think you have time for at most one or two other Luberon villages if you plan to see Rousillon and L'Isle sur la Sorgue. Rousillon takes a while, especially if you want to walk near the ochre cliffs--recommended. It's nice to take time and have a relaxed lunch in one of the villages. We saw Rousillon, Goult, Joucas, and drove to Gordes but could not find parking, and visited the Abbaye de Senanque. We saw Lourmarin another day (and really liked it) because of its distance from the other villages. We left at 9:15 am and didn't get back to St-Remy until after 7 pm.
Posted by
11159 posts
AutoEurope is a broker. You will go to the counter for the car company you are booked with on your contract from AutoEurope. It should have the address and contact info for them.
Hotels, BnBs need several hours between guests checking out and in to clean the rooms. It is totally random whether your rooms will be ready anywhere you travel. As you mention, just check your bags at your hotel.
Your schedule is very full and you will need to tweak as you go.
Liked Menerbes, Loumarin, Les Baux, Bonnieux, Lacoste, Roussillon.
I understand Gordes has gotten very crowded though, a shame. L’Isle sur la Sorgue was a meh to us.
Posted by
Paris
6901 posts
Day 4 is not "optimal" for me, do you need that one night stay in Avignon? ST Rémy is so close to Avignon TGV that it is very easy to make it for an early train. And car rental drop offs are 24 hour (take full insurance to avoid liability when there's nobody around to check the car you return). Also, does your train leave from Avignon Centre or Avignon TGV? There aren't any hotels at Avignon TGV, and there are few good trains to Paris from Avignon Centre.
Posted by
OP
227 posts
Balso, our train leaves from Avignon TVG but our hotel is near Avignon Centre. Since our train reservation from Avignon TVG to Paris is at 7:38 a.m. on Thursday morning, we will still need to be up and ready to go early, check out of hotel, take Avignon Centre train to the TVG ( five minutes I think). I will sleep much better knowing that we are so close to where we need to catch the train. I guess the only change we could still make is to just hold on to the car rental longer if we decided we wanted to do some things we missed before getting to Avignon.
Thanks to everyone for the advice, very helpful.
Posted by
OP
227 posts
Suki, can you elaborate on why you didn't care much for L' Isle sur la Sorgue? Maybe their market day is the biggest draw and we can't make that anyway so it would just be sightseeing and that was going to be our last stop of the day IF we could even make it there.
Posted by
Paris
6901 posts
I would still stay in St Rémy, as it's only 15 miles / 30 min drive from Avignon TGV with zero chance of traffic jam, but I understand your concern!
Also, regarding Isle sur la Sorgue, indeed I wouldn't go there outside of market day. It is pretty enough, the branching river through town is charming, but the "wow" factor is limited. No scenery, and little of architeural note besides the church.
Posted by
Folsom
2707 posts
I cannot imagine a day like that in The Luberon. Provence is a place that needs to be savored. You are on a mission to “tag” as many villages as you can, at least that is what it sounds like. May I suggest you slow down? We spent a week in Lourmarin making trips to maybe two places per day. It’s flat, there are a few cafe’s, shops, a nice castle. Albert Camus is buried in the cemetery outside of town if you are a fan. Maybe good for a coffee then to Bonnieux. It’s charming and worth more time. Lacoste is a skip it. The Marquis De Sade’s place is at the top and is partially restored with some unusual sculpture. Not worth your limited time. Roussillon has great views. L’Isle sur la Sorgue-I’m in the minority but I did not find it all that worthwhile. (I’d substitute Gordes or Cuceron). We were there on market day (Sunday) and it was very hot and crowded and other than water wheels not very scenic. Chateau la Canorgue is interesting to see if you liked the movie A Good Year. Take a picture of the “secret wine” maybe buy a bottle for dinner. That would be a very full day. Don’t skip dinner, you’re in France!
Posted by
OP
227 posts
Alan, I will take your advice as well as some of the other posters' advice and par things down significantly. Ah, I feel better already. If we want to see more, we will just have to go back!