5 days Cote d'Azure/Provence end October

"Open air food markets at Isle sur la Sorgue": The market days used to be Sunday and Thursday (in 2007); I don't know if that is still the case in 2010--but you'll probably want to try to confirm the days, so that you are there on one of the market days, otherwise you could be disappointed.

Carcassonne is substantially farther west the the two other locations you're considering. I mention this because, given your timing, you'll probably want to take into account the train travel time back to Nice, before deciding between Aix and Carcassonne. Station to station time for about 90% of the trains, from Carcassonne to Nice, is about 6.5 to 7 hours (there appears to be one faster train daily but even that one is almost 6 hours), not including the time to get to the train station, wait for the train, etc.

Thanks Kent, great info about the train travel time. Just looking at the map it doesn't seem that far. I considered returning to Vaison la Romaine but the public transportation is not great, I'll have to do that next trip!!!

You're welcome! To get an idea of train travel times, this website is useful.

June - You could try St Remy (Wed market) or Uzes (Wed and Sat markets), both are pretty towns with great markets. Aix is also a good choice. As Kent said, the famous Isle sur la Sorgue market is on Sundays.

If I were planning a break like that, after a month in Nice I'd probably look north, not west. The Alps or the Jurra or Burgundy.

I don't mean that the southern destinations aren't magnificent, but sometimes contrast is nice.

Thanks for the suggestions. St Remy is one of the places I considered. I had not thought about going to Burgundy, but I do love wine. I was just reviewing my RS Provence book last night; the problem is I want to go EVERYWHERE he lists!!! I guess if I win the 50 million dollar Lotto this week, I will be able to do that.