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Travel between Arles and Aix en Provence- questions

Bonjour! My partner and I are planning a trip to France for three weeks in late November to early December. We will arrive at CDG and we will be flying out of Nice. We have the first week planned in Paris, then three nights in Lyon and we have the last five or so days in Nice planned. We plan on traveling by train/public transportation.

We have five or six days in between Lyon and Nice in which we would like to go to Arles(because of Van Gogh) and Aix en Provence(because of Cezanne), but we’re having trouble figuring out how best to do this. Stay in one and visit the other for the day? It appears that it takes two hours by train between the two, so maybe we should stay in one a night or two and then stay in the other a night or two? Or is there a better place to stay in the area from which we could do day trips?

I know a lot of readers here have a lot knowledge about these areas, but we have never been to the south of France- so we’re hoping you all can hep us out. Merci bien!

Posted by
22855 posts

You could stay in Marseille and be 45 minutes by train from both.

Posted by
60 posts

Arles seems to be a popular choice on this platform.
We stayed in Aix and did a day trip by train to Arles.
The food writer M.F.K Fisher wrote about Aix in her 'Two Towns in Provence'.
Things we liked about Aix:
renting bikes and riding along the Cezanne Route to the little town of Le Tholonet for lunch (though Chez Tome was closed that day).
Fontane (fountain) des Quatre-Dauphins.
Books In Bar bookstore.
Musee Granet.

Things we like in Arles:
we attended a bullfight in the historic coliseum (in France the bull is not killed)
Saint-Trophime
the Van Gogh placards around town.

Posted by
33 posts

We stayed in both places but at that time we had a car. We like both places. After Arles, we returned the car because it was difficult to navigate around the different towns. We ended in Lyon and took trains or uber everywhere.

Posted by
28 posts

I spent a night in Aix in 2023, then moved to Arles for 3 nights. We had planned to take the train, but all the trains were cancelled that day, and we didn't feel like navigating the buses. For 3 people we took an Uber for 120 euros from Aix to Arles, took about 45 minutes. The time savings made the added cost worth it for me.