And I quote He Who Gives Us Travel:
With more than 300 days of sunshine per year, Provence and the Riviera enjoy France's sunniest weather. Spring and fall are best, with generally comfortable weather — though crowds can be a problem, particularly during holiday weekends and major events (May is worst).
The Book of Steves, Chapter Provence
Anyone know whyfor May is such a catastrophic time to visit?
-- Mike Beebe
People who live in Paris and northerer like to go to Provence for their own spring breaks, adding to the hordes of other Europeans and Brits headed there. I also wonder what the timing of vacation time off is in Germany and similar.
Probably because France has so many holidays in May when the French people go away for the weekend. And Provence is a popular destination.
To me the worst time is mid-July through the end of August. But there are a lot of folks who go just for the lavender bloom. May is also one of the rainier months.
May just has so many holidays built in that it means French from all over northern France may we'll be headed south, taking advantage of one holiday, or two put together, meaning that there aren't many "off" times that one could target for a visit to Provence. (I.e. the likelihood is rather high that the dates that a random visitor would choose in May will coincide with French visitors' built-in holidays, that they will have had etched in in their agendas -- and train tickets, and rental cars, and lodging -- for months).
I think he meant something like this “ of the spring months, May crowds can be a problem during holiday weekends “.
I can’t think of many “events “ in Provence at this time. Festivals begin in summer. There are visitors but nothing like July and August.
He’s referring to the holidays in May. However, in 2025, the 1st, 8th, 29th holidays all fall on…EDIT thanks to JoLui’s correction: Thursday in 2025, so people will take the long weekends. …
FYI: To me, late April is wonderful. The mountain are green and flowers are in bloom, shops and activities are open for the season,.
One caveat is the French school spring vacations that are l spread out by zone from April 5 to May 5. The Paris zone is on vacation from April 12-28 and some are heading south. But the south isn’t on vacation those two weeks, except Montpellier and Toulouse in Occitanie, so all should be functioning in Provence.
LOL. We discovered the May holidays years ago when we got caught up in long long traffic jams that we had not anticipated not b eing aware of all those long weekends.
Blockquote
With more than 300 days of sunshine per year, Provence and the Riviera enjoy France's sunniest weather. Spring and fall are best, with generally comfortable weather — though crowds can be a problem, particularly during holiday weekends and major events (May is worst).
Blockquote
To complete the full context of the quote, he is isolating it Spring and Fall, with May being the worst due to holiday weekends and major events. I'll not that the context includes the Riviera, which has two large major events in May --- the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix. The overlap weekend is bad.
That said, I've been surprised with the amount of traffic in May in Western Provence, with not only the French but Americans as well.
My personal worst time to visit would be January, where things are closed down, the Mistral has a chance of blowing, and holidays have passed by. Late June/Early July is another bad time due to the lavendar seeking crowds and the heat.
I think Elizabeth made a slight mistake, in 2025 May 1st, May 8th and May 29th are Thursdays.
Which means that by taking 5 days off early May you can have 11 days of vacation.
Even by taking only one day off (Friday) you can enjoy a 4-day weekend
So this is the typical year during which there can be a lot of French people on vacation early May.
Fortunately not all of them go to Provence, no need to panic too much, it is incomparable with August when the crowds invade the seaside
I have only been to Provence once, obviously another visit is necessary. That was in 1999.
That time in Provence was in July, visiting Avignon and a few other villages.
My current plan is to drag my wife and some friends to Lyon, Marseilles, Montpelier and Paris during the first three weeks of May, 2026 (nothing like planning a trip ~500 days in advance). Have some side trips planned to Annecy, Chartes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Arles.
Instead, I think I'll shift it to the last three weeks in April of 2026; should be late enough to miss Easter.
Thanks all for the excellent replies!
-- Mike Beebe
About 10 years ago we were in Arles on May 1. I was expecting to see some worker's parade or protests. Instead, it was the annual blessing of the cowboys/horses for the bull fighting. The locals walked through town in their traditional garb to the main square. There they crowned a "rodeo" Queen and the wooden St. George statue was paraded around the square. Lots of dignitaries and clergy were on the stage. The horsemen with their staffs were astride their white horses and the women and children circled them around the perimeter.
Except for businesses being closed, I don't remember it being exceptional crowded in town.
Mike,
You have listed 9 locations to visit in 21 days. Even though some are days trips, your plans still seem a bit overly ambitious. Have you figured out your travel/transfer times? And do your 21 days include your arrival and departure days?
Hi Judy,
Oh yeah! I have an absolutely lovely spreadsheet that tracks everything for me.
The main stays are Lyon (arrival; 5 nights), Montpelier (4 nights), Marseilles (4 nights), and Paris (8 nights, departure). The rest are day trips.
If anyone wants a template for a trip-planning spreadsheet that calculates days and costs in Euros or USD, you can find one here:
Multi-destination Googlesheet Spreadsheet
Happy travels, as our man Rick likes to say!
-- Mike Beebe
Great planning. Amusez-vous bien!
