Best home base in Provence

Are you going to have a car?

Yes, will have a car

Depends upon what you are interested in seeing! Do you want to explore the coast around Nice or the hill towns of the Luberon? If you can give us an idea of the area(s) you'd like to explore, we can help you with figuring out a good base!

If you are staying for a week, I would suggest checking out gites-de-france.com. We rented a house in L'Isle-sur-la-sorgue and it was great experience. No AC but it did have a pool. Even though it was quite hot, we found we didn't really need AC. The house had thick stone walls with shuttered windows and if closed up good during the day, stay very comfortable without AC.

We spent the last week of June 2012 in Aix-en-Provence because we wanted to drive both to the east along the Mediterranean and to the west to the Camargue and the typically popular towns of Provence, and because we feel a bit more comfortable in larger towns due to health issues. In addition to RS's suggestions, you can find B&Bs using both Booking.com and Trip Advisor. Another option not often mentioned here is Logis. It is a way to access small independent hotel-restaurants. Click on the "More Criteria" link in the search box on the right to get to the advanced search option. There you will find many parameters to include in your search, including AC and a pool. We are a little lower on Maslow's hierarchy and concentrate on the restaurant grading (shown as number of pots) and quality of the room (shown as number of chimneys). We tend to rent apartments most of the time on our trips. We like having that kind of an independent home base with no time requirements other than our own. Another reason we rented in Aix was that the apartments I found in other towns through the usual suspects (VRBO, Homeaway, airbnb) were either too remote or too pricey or didn't fit with our schedule. We found the place we stayed, Aix Mirabeau, through VRBO, but the American owner has her own website, Provence Sejour, for her 3 properties. Wherever you are in France on June 21 be prepared for the Festival of Music. People will be performing everywhere, and they will be rehearsing in the nights leading up to it. It can be a little noisy, but it is great fun and all free.