Southern France recommendations please

No suggestions but I’d plan to be in Barcelona a day or 2 before the tour starts. It seems like the French “strike” season has started so you want to allow some flex time in case there is a rail strike.

That is part of the plan. Thanks. Tour starts on Sunday at 4pm. We plan to arrive Saturday morning but can be flexible if "conditions" warrant.

Oh, excellent! That sounds like a great plan!

Both of those options offer more than five days' worth of sightseeing. I haven't compared the travel times by rail, but I think the northern route would perhaps feel less rushed, so I might favor it. If you won't have visited any of the Italian lakes, you might enjoy some time on Lake Annecy. The town of Annecy is very, very touristy, at least during day-tripping hours, but the lake is lovely. There are boat trips on the lake, and I think bike rentals must surely be available. Lyon is a very interesting large city with varied sights and attractive historic architecture. I'd spend more nights in Lyon than in Annecy.

If you decide to head south, I really wouldn't try for stops in Nice, Marseilles, Arles and Carcassonne in five days. Nice is the gateway to the Riviera, an area that can easily fill more than five days by itself. Maybe drop Nice and include Cassis near Marseilles, or Avignon, or Montpellier. To go to Nice when you don't have time to explore Menton, Cap Ferrat, Antibes, Villefranche-sur-Mer, St-Paul-de-Vence, etc., seems a shame to me.

Since we can't predict May, stay flexible. Stay south for easier access to the Spanish border. Don't plan too much until you see how the retirement reform situation is going. Watch for all the 3-day holiday weekends in May. I would wait to make plans crossing France. If strikes drag on, you could end up flying Milan to Barcelona.

FYI: I listed the cities just to identify the two general routes we could take. We won't necessarily spend time in each one. But I was hoping someone could chime in about some of the cities there. For example, given a choice, would you rather spend your time in Annecy/Lyon or Nice/Arles? Thanks

Nice is an attractive city with at least six art museums (a big deal for me). When I recommend it to others, it's often for the convenience factor--right on the coastal rail line and a hub for buses to cute hill towns like Eze and St-Paul-de-Vence. Take the art museums and side trips (which you wouldn't have a lot of time for) out of the equation, and I think Lyon is more interesting than Nice. It's 50% larger in terms of population. From the standpoint of the big picture (including quite a few of the high-quality side-trips), the area around Nice certainly holds its own.

The packed canal-side walkways in Annecy set my teeth on edge, so it's not a town I'd want to spend much time in, but the surroundings are stunning, and those packed sidewalks run alongside gorgeous architecture. Arles is less scenic but more historic. It was a lot less touristy at the time of my visit. There are many good side-trips possible from Arles via train or bus.

Decisions such as this depend to a great degree on the interests of the individual traveler and the rest of the itinerary. Madrid and Barcelona are both large cities. Perhaps you'd like some small-town time prior to the tour?

We spent 5 weeks last May/June train travelling through France, starting in Lyon (which we did not visit, and I have since regretted it) . Now saving that for 2024.
I will share a few thoughts:
- Arles- We took the train from Lyon airport to Arles. We selected that area because of the size and number of historical features. We LOVED Arles. I didn't think I would, because RS has referred to it as "gritty", and that is not what I wanted on this trip. But we found it a great town, fun to walk around, memorable historic sites, great restaurants.
- Carcassonne- Very lovely, but even too touristy for me ( a tourist). We stayed at Hotel de la Cite Carcassonne, with a terrace, and that was very pretty.
-Annecy- So beautiful! My daughter said the pictures I sent her looked like a fairytale. And it does. But,
not on holiday weekends. Then it's impossible to get a table for dinner without a reservation. We left dinner one evening earlier than we might of, because we were aware of the people waiting to get a table. It was hard to move through the crowds, and hard to see over them to the other side, as in looking for restaurants. Other than very busy times, I think this would be a nice pick.
We never made it out to Nice, even though we had it in our plans. There were 2 separate train 'issues' on the 2 different days we tried. Our schedule at that point could not accommodate the uncertainty, and Marseilles does not draw us. We found French trains a bit more difficult to navigate than Italian or Swiss, our only other comparisons. Your choices will give you such different experiences... almost like apples to oranges. Based on my preferences, I would pick Milan-Annecy-Lyon. But chances are, we don't share all preferences, so your pick may differ. In any case, I can't imagine know how to do it in 5 days.

I don't plan to do it all. We have a 6 week European vacation planned/booked for May. It just so happens that 5 days have opened up between Milan and Barcelona. Just trying to fill up those days best I can. We obviously can't do everything, but we will get 1-3 places in there. Just looking at options. Thanks for the input! Mike

Carcassonne is like all the “big sites” for tourism…the earlier you get there in the day, the better. Carcassonne is crazy busy between about 11:00am and 5:00pm. We stayed at The BW Le Donjon. One of the best hotel experiences of our lives, and well worth the (not too bad!) price! Super service, and an excellent breakfast. We were right in the old city, so our vending and morning touring was extraordinary. If you have time, a day or two in Albi is lovely: the Toulouse Lautrec museum is excellent! Another highlight of the area was the Grotte de Niaux: one of the few remaining prehistoric cave sites that one can actually tour.