I currently have a Rick Steves Portugal trip booked for October 2025, but have a couple of weeks to cancel. I was thinking of going on my own to the Provence area in March of 2025, perhaps spilling into the first week or so of April. I have read many posts on this forum and others of people going to Provence in March and they loved it, and others stating that the weather (mistral winds) is not great and they would not go. Would you go to Provence in March (mid March) or would you choose October? (I was in Nice from from March 15 to March 31 of 2023 and the weather was very pleasant). I would not be driving a car (unless I got my nerve up for a day .... will be 69, travelling solo). Would be choosing maybe one or two bases.
Thanks for your help!
Posted by
Twin Cities, Minnesota
1874 posts
I was in Provence last October and the weather was great....sunny & mid80's. I'd definitely go back that time of year. I loved Arles, Aix en Provence and Remy.
Posted by
OP
Minneapolis, MN, US
33 posts
Thank you! For those that have gone in March .. what was the availability of excursions to sights and towns that were more difficult to reach via public transportation? ?and same question for October
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10340 posts
October. Less chance of rain or of a freezing Mistral coming out of the Alps. You didn't feel the Mistral in Nice because it goes down the Rhone Valley and rarely reaches Nice. I don't know anything about excursions because we had a car when we lived there.
Posted by
OP
Minneapolis, MN, US
33 posts
I have moved my Rick Steves Portugal tour to March 2025, so will be moving ahead with planning my France trip for October of 2025. I didn't want to wait that long, but ............ also don't want to visit in the summer. Am sure will be coming back with more detailed questions as I dive deeper. I was in this area LONG ago, in my late 20's, before children, and have fond memories.
Posted by
204 posts
I only travel in March or April and then again in November.
Was in Provence the whole month of March 2024 and loved it. I only had one rainy day in the whole trip and it was in Arles. Pouring rain, blustery wind and no way could you be outside. since it was almost the halfway point of my trip I was there a week and it gave me a chance to chill out.
The weather was incredible, cool, sweater, and I find a scarf adds to the warmth of whatever I am wearing and sunny--for one whole month!
November 2021 Paris for the month-rained 3 times at night otherwise wonderful sunny weather, LS and short of a heavy sweater.
November 2023 Paris for the month-rained, drizzled, misty, sprinkles every gosh darn day except for 4 sunny days!
Seems like a crap shoot nowadays with the weather!
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10340 posts
Paris does not have the same weather patterns as Provence.
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
855 posts
Karen and Janet,
Our cousins who live in the Paris suburbs lament almost every year that the sun doesn't appear for two-three months at a time during the winter. That's just the way it is in that part of France. The Atlantic weather and skies maneuver themselves up the Seine River and hang out for the season. I like to think of it as a little bit of Normandy and Brittany making a holiday visit to the Ile de France. These same family members, of course, are happy to vacation in Brittany, notorious for Atlantic weather.
On the other hand, the family members in Provence complain of the Mistral in the winter. Neither group would trade places with the other, but each one is entitled to carp about their own weather. (Personally, I think the complaints are tinged with a bit of pride in their ability to face down the weather difficulties! And I say this as an honorary French woman, related by marriage.)
I will take Brittany, Provence, the Ile de France, Dordogne, the Cote d'Azure, Gascony, Alsace.......etc. any time of the year, be cause I really love France, with its good and bad weather, its sometimes supercilious attitudes, its variety of food, drink, cultures, its fascinating history, and its love of life that is tinged with a bit of melancholy and seasoned with hope.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10340 posts
Having lived in Cassis at the foot of the Rhône Valley, I detest the icy Mistral and moved west away from it but still far enough east that we don’t get too much of thé Tramontane wind that hits Carcassonne .
As for Paris, I remember four summers in a row that had no sun. I had to wash mold off a living room wall.
But weather varies year by year.