stay in Aix, Avingnon or Arles? Need your help!!

I haven't gone out to the lavender fields myself, but I think you'll be too early to see the views you're probably anticipating. Google is telling me the fields begin to bloom around the end of June, and I think the peak period is in July. For future reference, I believe you would need a car to reach the lavender fields.

Avignon, Arles and Aix-en-Provence are all attractive places with things to see. However, if you spend just two nights in Provence after traveling there from Paris and want to devote one day of your stay to a day-trip to Marseille and one of the Calanques, you will not have much time left to see the town where you're staying, so perhaps travel time will be of as much importance to you as the specific characteristics of that town. Have you considered simply staying in Marseille?

There is some variation in travel time from one departure to the next; you can look at the schedules for your specific travel date on the [Deutsche Bahn][1] website), but these are reasonably accurate, relatively speaking:

Approximate one-way travel time from Paris by train:
Aix-en-Provence: 3 hours
Arles: 3.5 hours
Avignon: 2.75 hours.
Marseille: 3 hours

Approximate one-way travel time to Marseille-St. Charles:
Aix-en-Provence: 55 min.
Arles: 55 min.
Avignon: 35 min.
Marseille: 0 min.

Approximate one-way travel time to Nice-Ville:
Aix-en-Provence: 3 hr.
Arles: 4 hr.
Avignon: 3 hr. 40 min.
Marseille: 3 hr. 10 min.

It appears you'll spend somewhat more time on the train if you choose Arles as your intermediate stop rather than Avignon or Aix-en-Provence, but the fast trains to/from Avignon and Aix-en-Provence use separate TGV stations outside of town, whereas you don't have to go so far to reach the single Arles station, which is served only by regional trains (TERs).

First off forget lavender fields in April. Doesn't bloom till July.

If you only have two nights and want to go to Marseilles then Aix is the closest. But then you won't have much time for Aix itself.

All three of those towns are lovely and could easily eat up two days without any day trips. I prefer Aix (but just slightly) as a town but it doesn't have major sights like Avignon (Palais du Popes) or Arles (Colosseum). All three of them are significant sized towns not "countryside" and with only two days and no car you won't see countryside.

Given your very short time frame I would suggest going straight to Nice and, especially if you are planning to rent a car, spend the extra two days exploring the hill towns inland from Nice. Vence, St Paul du Vence, Tourettes dur Lupe, etc.

Photos of those - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/p43619107

I suggest staying in Aix, which is closer to Marseilles and Nice. I've been to Avignon and Arles, and I personally prefer Aix. i think it's a prettier city. Cours Mirabeau is fun to walk and wander and sit at a cafe, and the old town is beautiful with all kinds of squares, cafes, and fountains. We've seen bottles of rose chilling in the fountains! You can visit Cezanne's studio; there is an interesting art museum I visited (don't remember the name); and an old church we wandered into when the choir was rehearsing.

As others have said, the lavender fields will NOT be in bloom. Their peak is July. And you definitely need a car for Provence.

We had a car in Nice once, and it was a pain in the neck. There was a scenic coastal town we couldn't visit because there wasn't any parking. I haven't spent a lot of time on the French Riviera yet, but from my research, the train and bus systems to travel along the coast is excellent, and that's the way to go.

I agree with all the above. These are cities, so no countryside. The countryside terrain in Provence resembles the countryside in Southern California.

For relaxing, I’d stay in Cassis, but you’ll have only a day and a half in Provence, and if it’s the weekend, Cassis can be a zoo. Friday and Tuesday are market days. Cute cafes are everywhere in Provence. No lavendar but wildflowers will be beginning to bloom on the hillsides. By May, they are splendid. You have plenty of outdoor walks from Cassis. Otherwise, I vote for Aix. In addition to what the above poster said, it’s also a college town. We stayed six months in Cassis, while one of our kids was at the university in Aix. Read M.F.K. Fisher’s « Two Towns in Provence. »

Otherwise, head toward Nice but stay somewhere smaller, rent the car and visit some hills and back country and add the time onto Paris and the Riviera. Three nights is too short.

Bon voyage.

Are you flying R/T Paris or into Paris out of Nice?

You will have one day in the Rhone Valley are of Provence and expect to see:

countryside
farmers market
day trip to Calanque
cafe

You simply have not allocated enough time, even with a car.

You might do some research to determine where you will find a market on the day you will be there. Apart from that, of the three cities you have named, i would rule out Avignon.

Thanks everyone for your valuable feedback. I really appreciate it =)

It's a bummer no lavender fields. I was hoping it to tick off the "countryside" part of my wish list.

Most of you suggested Aix for our 2 nights stay in Provence so we'll definitely check it out!

Regarding renting a car or not, we prefer not to because it can be costly. However, if it'll make our travel experience better (i.e don't have to wait for buses, hard to find parking, etc) then we'll rent it. I read that others take mini road trips from Nice to nearby cities in the French Riviera so I just thought it's better to rent one while in Nice.

Clearly, I'm clueless how buses and taxis are in Nice so do you suggest we don't rent a car while in Nice?
Our 3-nights Nice wish lists so far are Promenade des Anglais, Old Town, Cours Saleya flower market, Villefranche-sur-Mer & Èze Village, Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, day trip to nearby cities like Monaco.

How about for Aix? Is it easy to go around with buses and taxis?

Thanks again in advance!

All the Riviera places you mentioned except for Eze are easily visited from Nice by train, or are actually in Nice. You can get to Eze by bus. I haven't done that myself, but there are links to the schedules here:

http://www.bestofniceblog.com/transport-in-nice/buses-in-nice/bus-from-nice-to-eze/ .

I see that one of the buses connects Eze with Monaco, so you could conceivably do a triangle trip Nice-Eze-Monaco-Nice. It will probably depend on what you want to do in Monaco, which has a lot of attractions (gardens, car collection, aquarium).

I don't think three nights in Nice is likely to provide enough time to hit everything on your list. Three nights is going to be more like 2-1/2 days, and you're going to want to eat at some point. But perhaps you move a lot faster than I do.

I did all the places you mention in/near Nice by public transportation. What you would need a car for is the hill towns inland from the coast, and you would only have time for those if you did the entire time in the Nice/Cote d'Azure region (which technically is part of Provence). The other place you would need a car for is the 'countryside' (rural small villages) in the area between Avignon, Arles, and Aix. While the big draw there is the lavender fields in summer, there are still lots of places worth visiting in April. But the issue is amount of time. Since you only have a total of five nights (plus Paris) you certainly cannot do all of it. You could easily spend the whole five days based in Nice and use nothing but public transportation and still not see everywhere you've mentioned. Or you could rent a car for just a day and see some of the smaller towns in the 'Nice Hinterland' (since you originally mentioned wanting to see 'countryside'). That's what I would do and save the Aix, Avignon, Arles region for a future trip.

Re: car rental. I recommend renting a car to visit the villages of Provence. They are charming but spread out. It would be a chore planning days out and having to stick to a bus schedule.
No car is necessary in Nice as there are frequent, inexpensive buses that drive up and down the coast and into the hills as well as the trains. We always rent cars in Europe but never in Nice.

I am doing essentially the same trip at the end of May as part of two couples. We're just doing it in reverse. Our plan is to rent a car in Nice and drive it to western Provence, since the latter is much better with a car by all accounts. We're going to dump the car at Avignon TGV before training to Paris. You could instead pick up in Avignon (or Marseille, etc.) and drop off in Nice.

Our home base in Provence is L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. It seemed to be a pretty central location for the Luberon towns, Cotes du Rhone wine villages, Les Baux de Provence, and possibly the Pont du Gard. Those places seem to fit your requirements well.