Saint Remy or Uzès?

I am biased as I love St. Remy and have stayed there a number of times. I like the markets, shopping, restaurants and overall ambiance of the town. It is big enough to have a ton of choices, but not a big city. I also love the drive in to the town with the trees arching over the street. I have not been to Uzes, nor stayed there so I cannot compare, but I don't think I have really heard many complaints about St. Remy... everyone I know loves it.

A couple of thoughts . . . in my opinion, the Pont du Gard is not a whole day excursion. Perhaps you could combine it with a visit to Uzes. Orange has one big attraction, the Roman theater. The rest of it is not all that compelling. I suggest leaving it for another time. You might want to check out the towns of the Vaucluse rather than the Luberon. Vaison la Romaine, L'Isle sur la Sorgue, Fontaine de Vaucluse, and Carpentras are all very interesting and charming. It's been so long since we were in St. Remy that our car experience there is probably out of date. I'm pretty sure that the historic center of Arles is a pedestrian zone. On our last visit, we parked at a pay lot and walked in. Not a long walk, but don't expect to be able to drive through the town.

Take a look at Gordes, Le Baux, and Rouissilon. We took a half day tour from Avignon with a tour guide and saw all three villages and the Pont du Gard. Again 1/2 day. The Pont du Gard is awesome., but only an hour is needed. We walked all the way across. But we also saw the 3 villages easily and we passed through St. Remy on our way to ( I think) Le Baux. St Remy was high on my list too. It was lovely and will probably make a great base, but it can be done in one day easily combined with the others I mentioned. We were based in Avignon and took an 8 person tour from there. Avignon is also wonderful and if you like history there is a ton. And the town is beautiful. See the Palace of the Popes, more specifically the art museum associated with it and of course the bridge. I would choose Avignon over St Remy. But I love art and history. Best of luck with all of your decisions. It will be wonderful no matter what you decide. Arles deserves a good day. We loved it. No idea about Uzes. Best wishes for a great trip.

I've stayed in both St. Remy and Uzes, and I would give a slight nod to Uzes. Except that I think St. Remy is probably more convenient to sights you might want to see.

Thanks for all the feedback. St. Remy it is.

You'd probably only need a few hours tops at Pont du Gard - unless you want to do some of the hiking in the area (or canoeing on the river) - we've been twice - first time was with a tour that went to Uzes/Arles/PdG - and we only had about 45 min at the Pont - so it was very quick. We returned last year and spent - actually - looking at the time stamps on my photos - an hour. We got there after the info center was closed, so if we had wanted to see that maybe add another 20 min. We walked all around, stopping to take photos and walked a steep path thru the woods to see it from the top.

I really didn't get much of an impression of Uzes in 2012 - it was part of the guided day trip and we only had 45 min to walk around. We didn't get back last year. I remember we arrived - must have been about the time everyone was heading home - and the traffic was backed up, and the parking was almost non-existent - the driver parked to let us off (in a no parking spot - he was going to try and find somewhere to park) and got told to move pretty quick by some business owners.

I second Rousillon - such a gorgeous place - even to walk around for an hour. The colours are beautiful. But I love taking photos, so maybe I'm biased towards picturesque.

We enjoyed Les Baux (if you like historical stuff) and spent about 45 min at the ruins at Glanum (on the way to Les Baux).

We got lost in St Remy (via a GPS that kept trying to send us down a one way street the wrong way - I think there was construction going on and route changes) and after spending a frustrating amount of time trying to find our way out (we were heading for Les Baux) and driving around in circles - hubby vowed not to return ;)

When we went last year, we did Arles and Nimes in one day - the arena at Arles and wandering around the city for an hour, then to Nimes for mid-afternoon meal, the arena, Maison carree and a walk thru the park. So unless you really want to get into Arles, you could spend a half day somewhere else...

My only comment on car rental - next time we rent, we will avoid indoor parking garages. You may have more luck with a Fiat tho - we had a Citroen Cactus - a little larger vehicle - and we ended up getting a huge scratch down the side of the car (on an otherwise new, non-damaged car with only 10,000 km on it) trying to get around a very tight corner in the garage. Ugh.