2 days provence suggestions

just back from a road trip through france that included four days in provence. here's my question for you: are you more interested in roman sights, medieval villages, or artists' homes/settings (as in cezanne and van gogh)?
if it's roman sights, that's simple and great (arles, nimes, pont du gard, orange and vaison la romaine). if it's medieval villages, you'll want to spend more time driving around, to include a lot of the villages on the cote du rhone and luberon routes (where you can also see some roman sights), as well as les baux. if it's artists' lives/settings, you must see the van gogh asylum setting in st remy and the wonderful cezanne tours (3 of them) facilitated by the tourists' center in aix. (and if you had time, you'd try to catch picasso's studio/museum in antibes and the renoir home in cagnes -- but both of those are on the cote d'azur, a couple of hours east of aix.)

I'm confused by your itinerary. You're landing in Marseille early in the morning. Is that from Paris? If so, I don't understand why that would make you think you need to stay close to Marseille. You could pick up your car and spend the best part of the day in Provence. St. Remy would make a good overnight base. How long do you have to get from Marseilles to Madrid? That's a lot of ground to cover, limiting the amount of time you'd have for Provence along the way.

to clarify a bit (sorry for the confusion!): we're leaving paris by train either early morning/midday and heading to somewhere in provence. 2 days later we need to leave from marseille and fly into madrid. wondering about where we should train to from paris and then travel around to end up in marseille for our early morning flight to madrid. more of an interest in the provencal vibe then medieval or roman sights. wouldn't mind to take them in, but wouldn't really want to go totally out of the way for them. looking for landscapes and going to places where we'd be able to get a good taste for provence.
hope this helps!

Okay, got it. Train to Provence (Arles or Nimes or (with a car) smaller town). A car will extend your reach, but there's plenty to see in Arles, Nimes, Avignon, and Orange to keep you busy, and these are all on the rail line. Buses to other places, including the Pont du Gard and the airport in Marseilles.

We did Aix-en-Provence, walked around the village and STUFFED ourselves with fabulous cookies and chocolates. Died and went to heaven.

We have stayed in Arles and toured Nimes, the Pont du Gard and the Camargue. If I had only one place to visit in Provence, it would be the Luberon area. Sure, some towns like Gordes have too many people and too much traffic but we love the entire Luberon area. If you can drive around, you can get into the rural areas where it is so beautiful. I would be there in a nanosecond if I could!

If you are taking the train from Paris I think the fast train to Avignon and then get your car there. Travel to St. Remy and the surrounding villages then drop your car in Marsailles when you have to fly out. One of my favorite areas in Europe. You could stay in Marsailles the night before your flight and have dinner and wander the town...we have done that and throughly enjoyed it.

thanks for all your input, very helpful indeed. any hotel suggestions along the way? like bev, i am drawn to the luberon but was worried that we wouldn't do it justice in only 2 days. will definitely look at the different logistics and see if it's feasible. cannot wait to see the beauty in person! :)