Travel to St Remy-de-Provence from SF in late September

We are going to visit Provence in June and staying in St Remy. . We are taking the train from Paris (Gare de Lyon) to Avignon. The trip is 2hours 40 mins on a direct train. The drive to St Remy from the Avignon TGV train station is about 30 mimnutes. We have reserved a car rental at the train station. Have you considered renting a car? I believe public transportation in St Remy is limited.

You can connect to the TGV and get out in Avignon, about 3hr away from CDG. It's about 30 minutes to St. Remy by car. That's a long day and you might not want to be driving with extreme jet lag. Consider staying the night. A car is really the best way to get around Provence and to St. Remy -- the public transport is infrequent, sparse and oriented around the work day, except for the major towns.

(Note you can also fly with one stop from Marseilles -- an hour by car from St. Remy - to the Bay Area and vice versa).

Assuming by "SF" you mean San Francisco, look into flights to Marseille. These will all require at least one change, but may not be any more expensive than flights to Paris.

Alternatively, look at flying Air France to airport code XZN, which is actually Avignon TGV train station. This is part of Air France's Air&Rail program, where you fly to Paris CDG and then get on a train at the airport for your final destination https://www.airfrance.us/US/en/common/resainfovol/avion_train/reservation_avion_train_tgvair_airfrance.htm. Your train is given a "flight number" and so you are all on one ticket; this means you are "protected," in that if your incoming flight is late, you will be put on the next available train at no charge. (If you book separate flights and train tickets, you're on the hook if there's any problem).

From either Marseille airport or Avignon TGV station, you would then make your way to St. Remy. There's no way I'd want to drive after such a long flight, and I don't know if there is bus service; you'll want a car in any case if you're basing in St. Remy. So, I'd spend a night in Avignon or Marseille, then pick up a car the next day to explore Provence.

Harold's list of options is comprehensive for most people's budgets. In your place, I would be strongly biased towards whichever route got me to Provence the soonest, even if it cost a bit more (and that is probably Marseilles). Here is wjy.

Your experience may vary, but the possibly for jet lag on such a long trip is profound. From that point of view, a 3-hour train ride after a flight is a disaster that will prolong jet lag.

If you must go to Gare Lyon to catch a train, you have the difficulty of buying your ticket, unless you are willing to pay premium prices for day-of ticket. The difficulty when buying in advance is that the prudent thing is to build in time for delays, which almost always leads to extra time waiting around with your bags at the station (again, not great for jet lag). The alternative is to gamble that there will be no major delays and risk missing an earlier train.

A good transit connection from deGaulle to Lyon is Le Bus Direct. It will get you there as fast as any cab or uber, except that it only leaves every half hour or so.

I have a strong preference for non-stop flights so I would fly from SFO (Air France) or Oakland (Norwegian) to Paris and take the train to Avignon. As to whether Uber or Lyft is an option, Uber is a theoretical option but I would not plan on cars being available in St-Remy. You could probably get from Avignon or Marseilles to St-Remy using Uber although many times drivers will cancel when they realize that they will have to leave the more densely populated area to drop you off. To see if Uber serves any area, just go to https://www.uber.com/cities/ although even after you see the theoretical possibilities, you still have to figure out there are actual cars available in the area. Unless you plan to just hang out in St-Remy, you should rent a car. If you absolutely do not want to drive, consider staying in Avignon which has much better mass transit connections and tours.

We are headed to Provence in June via Barcelona. It’s only 3.5 hours by TGV to Nimes. We also are flying from SFO. Cheaper air to Barcelona than Paris. We are renting a car in Nimes for a week. Staying in the Cote du Rhône. Plus three nights in Nimes before returning to Barcelona.

Now that is lateral thinking. Are you flying directly to Barcelona and which airline are you using? The thing about Barcelona and trains it that we have found it very difficult to buy a tickets for trains in Spain. Were you able to buy your tickets ahead of time? Which car rental agency did you decide on?
THanks,
THad

If you are looking for the lowest cost method of travel and don't need to go to Paris, we usually route through London (or BCN or Geneva) for the lowest fares. We end up buying a separate ticket to transfer to our final destination in the south (needless to say, many times a year). There is risk there because you need to allow enough time for delays and transfers, and on the return we generally stay a night at the connecting hub (the airfare savings generally pay for this and more). The train connections are easiest from CDG but the schedules don't always align on the direct run from the airport.

I can't contribute to the how-to-get-there discussion but wanted to say that St. Remy has good public-bus service to at least Arles and Avignon. However, I agree with the recommendation to have a car for at least part of your stay. Without your own wheels, you will be somewhat limited in the places you can reach easily. Car-less works rather well along the Riviera, but not so well in Provence. If Arles and Avignon are on your target list, you could do without a car for part of your trip and visit those two towns before or after your car-rental period.

We are flying on American going and British on the return. We change planes in Chicago going and London returning. Bought plane tickets on Expedia. We paid 180 for two r/t from Barcelona to Nimes. Bought tickets on Trainline. Great app, very easy to use. No markup. We rented our car through Autoeurope. Hertz is the provider. Private message me if more info is needed. Happy travels