First trip to France

There is NO benefit to buying the Paris Museum Pass in advance, you simply pay more to have to mailed and then have to worry about not losing it longer. It is easy to purchase once in Paris or airport.. Same with metro passes, there is no advantage at all. In fact with 3 days in Paris you will not need a pass. You can easily get by with a carnet of tickets ( which is 10 single one way tickets good for metro or bus, can be used by anyone , and sold at a discount, believe they are about 12-13 euros now) thats enough easily for 2.5 days,, I say 2.5 since one day you will be out of town ( Vernon for Giverny)
Train tickets however are different as discounts sell out first.

As always I am so greatful for all the wonderful advice from everyone. Lots to consider. Keep the suggestions coming. We don't leave until June, so that gives me lots of time to jot down all this wisdom and take it with me. :)

Paris to Avignon is about 2 3/4 hours. Some TGVs run to the "old" Avignon station just outside the city wall, but most call at the separate high-speed station which is a 15 minute bus from the city centre.

Also coming from Normandy you probably won't be able to get a through train but will have to cross Paris by metro. Metro Line 14 runs directly from Gare Saint-Lazare to Gare de Lyon without having any changes.

Thanks! That is very helpful train info.

Standard advice for understanding French trains (or anywhere else) is to visit www.seat61.com. Your general questions will be answered with more than enough information. Travel forums bristle with arguments about buying passes versus single admission or transport tickets. Your itinerary suggests that a rail pass won't save money over point-to-point tickets, in my opinion. The single tickets include mandatory seat reservations which are a hassle to obtain for passes. You can look up routes at www.tgv-europe.com&#59; choose a country other than the US as your location. Seat 61 will explain it all for you.
More basic advice: Buy early to get discounts. As to museum passes, Metro etc., try Googling to get all sides of the debate. By the way, your choice of an open-jaws flight itinerary suggests you are already ahead of the game.

Shawn - Will you have a car in Provence? What are your interests?

The town of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, which is very close to Avignon, has a great market on Sunday. In addition to the traditional farmer's market, there are antiques, books, linens, etc. If you don't want to shop, you can just grab a table at a cafe, sip a cup of coffee, and people watch. Plus, it's a pretty little town.

Thanks for all the great advice. Linda, your suggestion for the Sunday market sounds perfect. We were not planning to rent a car. Is there public transportation to the town of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue?

A few ideas for 3 days in Provence with no car. Wonderful Roman antiquities in Arles, Nimes, and Orange. Arles is especially charming, a good candidate for place to stay. All on rail. Spectacular Roman Pont du Gard, on a bus route that runs between Nimes and Avignon. Also by bus: the Camargue and Stes. Maries de la Mere. Dip your toe in the Med. Not as great as the above but maybe a nice change of pace. Isle sur Sorge also connected to Avignon by rail. Plenty more stuff to do but with no car these are some of the lower-hanging fruit. You can't see it all anyway.

There is NO benefit to buying the Paris Museum Pass in advance, you simply pay more to have to mailed and then have to worry about not losing it longer. It is easy to purchase once in Paris or airport.. Same with metro passes, there is no advantage at all. In fact with 3 days in Paris you will not need a pass I didn't see 3 days in Paris in the Original Post. shawn said they have 3 nights in Paris (including the day trip to Giverny) before the trip to Normandy. 3 nights yields only two days, one of which is after a transatlantic flight - presumably in the usual jetlag fogged head - and the other out of town. shawn, when will you explore Paris? It seems to me that you won't have time to use a Museum Pass, and probably won't get your way through a Carnet. Then travel to Normandy for one night with friends, and straight back all the way south the full length (northwest to southeast) of France. That will be a whole day - at least 7 hours on the train. Is that day one of the 3 nights in Avignon? And another in the wineries? So you won't have a lot of time to branch out beyond Avignon, I wouldn't have thought. I'm concerned, shawn, that you are biting off quite a lot to chew in the short time you have.

Started with 9 nights in Mallorca before flying to Barcelona .. 3 nights (not long enough) We took the AVE train to Madrid. (We went back to Barcelona last year for a further 5 nights) We spent 3 nights in Madrid before hiring a car & heading to Segovia, stopped at The Valley of the Fallen (El Valle de los Caidos (Franco's Tomb) & El Escorial en –route. loved Segovia, would go back again. Found a great place with lots of energy & atmosphere for Tapas & suckling pig. Yumm! We made a short stop in Avilla en-route to Salamanca where we spent a couple of nights. We had great hotels & locations in both Salamanca and Segovia. We then headed to Coimbra 2 nights. We drove to Tomar (If I did this again we would stay here) we felt we didn't have enough time to discover the Town (we spent a long time at the Templar Castle) We sadly had to miss Porto as I was meeting my brother in the Algarve, & we still had Lisbon & other areas to discover. We spent a couple of hours visiting Fatima then headed to Nazare in retrospect should have spent at least 1 night in Nazare, but we wanted to spend time in Sintra (rather than doing it as a day trip from Lisbon) We like being in these places after the main tourists have left for the day.
After Sintra it was to Lisbon for 3 nights, would recommend 4 nights or spending a night in Belem. We then headed down the coast to Tavira where my brother now lives. 5 nights with him visiting the Algarve before driving back into Spain. To be continued. (having problems getting this posted) :(

Giverny was a must for me. I am so anxious to see Monet's garden and home. I hope that things will be in bloom when we are there in early June. Thanks so much for your positive comments Kerry.

If you are going to Isle sur la Sorgue for the Sunday market either by train or car...go early. It is a wonderful market as someone has said, but it ends early afternoon and it is crowded because people come from all over Europe.We go for the weekend and stay in the little cute Hotel Nevons. They have their own little private parking lot and you can walk to the market.Do not forget all the little antique places all over town...you can get a map.

I'm going to be in Provence for the first time in July/Aug, and one of the places I can't wait to visit is L'isle Sur la Sorgue too! It sounds divine and a haven for shopping to boot! Shawn, my family visited France for the first time in 2009. You will love Paris, obviously; but we adored Giverney (such a serene and beautiful place. When you enter the water garden, yu will think you stepped right intoa Monet painting-and your photographs will be spectacular! We loved Normandy. I'm sure your friends will know where to take you. Have a great trip!