Scheduling an off-peak trip to South of France

We were in Provence in early March this year and it was great. When you ask if it would be as nice as September we have nothing to compare to. Suffice to say there were few crowds and pleasant weather. We had heard that some restaurants would not be open but that did not impact us. All the sights we wanted to see were open and the hill towns were great to wander through with few tourists in the streets.

That is great to hear, Carol. Did you feel like it was warm enough to swim?

The popular Mediterranean swimming beaches are warm enough for swimming in September, when they've spent the summer heating up, more so than in spring.

I visited Avignon (with day-trips) and Nice (with day-trips) for Christmas break in 2008. It was rainy and chilly in Avignon (I made the mistake of not bringing my winter coat), but the weather was nice in Nice (I just needed a fleece). Other than pictures of me in the rain with Avignon's Christmas lights in the background, the rainy/chilly weather didn't slow me down, and I still saw everything I planned to see (and more!). Crowds were not a problem either place--I took the great Nice-area public transportation all over! (And I'm a high school teacher and would never encourage parents to take kids out of school for vacations.)

Definitely not warm enough to swim! Sorry!!

Thanks, glad I asked!