Getting Around

First, get Rick Steves Provence And The French Riviera; it has much more detail on this region than his general France book, and much more information about public transportation in this region than other books do. From Avignon, bus is the best way to Aix-en-Provence, and the only way to Pont de Gard. Train works well for Arles, Marseille, Nimes, and Orange. I saw all of these except Pont de Gard, but I had 10 days and split my nights among Marseille, Arles, Avignon, and Aix. In 3 days you'll have to be very selec-tive. I can say that my favorite place in the whole region was Nimes, and that while Orange is nothing special as a town, their intact Roman theatre was thrilling (and I didn't even see a performance). I also liked Arles a lot (less fond of Avignon or Aix). A lowlight was the Palace of the Popes. The palace is just bare stone - nothing original left - and the audio had exhaustive details about how much silver was in each fork, and how many pounds of apples were used for each dinner, but nothing about the history and intrigues of the place. The audioguide for the arena in Nimes, by contrast, was wonderful.

Thank you so much, Harold. I may re-think where we base ourselves. I actually did download the books you suggested to my Kindle, but I still like to hear from travelers. It sounds like staying at Arles might be a better choice. We will definitely make it to Nimes. Thanks, again, for your reply.

It's a bit tricky - I preferred Arles as a town, but Avignon has somewhat better transit connections, so if you plan to use it just as a place to sleep while you take lots of daytrips, Avignon is probably better. And, my preference of Arles is just that - my opinion, not some universal truth.

With only three days and without a car, I think you should focus primarily on seeing the town where you are staying depending on the size of the town with perhaps a day trip to a nearby town. I seem to recall that train connections are quite good in Provence, though we had a car when we were there. Arles is a nice place to stay - we were there on our 2003 France trip. It is well connected to Avignon and Nimes easily by train. Les Baux is a very nice visit, not far from Arles but may cost you a lot in taxi fares. The Pont du Gard was fantastic, but without a car that would be hard to get to. I also strongly recommend Rick's books for travel in Provence.

Thank you for your response. Good information, and yes, I have the books, but travelers' info is greatly appreciated as well. Thanks!