I have already sorted out our Paris (3 nights) & London (7 nights) sectors. Any advise on the best way to travel to Provence. I'm a little nervous about booking the ticket in advance just in case we mess up somewhere in our itinerary. Any suggestion as to where we can stay in Provence. We are 2 ladies and will not be having a car, so somewhere central with easy access to transport is important. We are planning 2 day trips. 1) to visit the lavender fields and the other is Marseille. Any other suggestions? We'll be in Provence for 5 nights.. could be longer if we don't go to Lyon. Would staying on longer in Provence better vs. visiting Lyon for 3 days before we head back to Paris? Thank you!
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Your message title says London-Provence. Your post says that you will be in Paris and London. Not sure if you are traveling to Provence from Paris or London. If you are traveling from Paris, there's a very nice high-speed TGV train to either Marseille or Avignon TGV. 2hrs40min. Very few stops. If you are traveling from London, I would suggest flying to Marseille or Lyon and taking the train to other locations.
Posted by
OP
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
38 posts
"Hi Larry, it's nice to 'meet' you again! I was most surprised I could log in after all these years. Rick Steves' website is the best! Anyway, we land in Paris (me from Asia & my daughter from the US) staying 3 nights in Paris and then off to London for 7 nights and from there, go to Provence. I checked some flights just now.. flying seems cheaper! but not sure about the other cost eg getting from Kingscross to the airport etc. I'll go do more homework on the flights. Any advice on Provence?
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Clare, nice to have you back on the website. As a suggestion, you can fly from London to Marseille. www.easyjet.com can do this for a low as 59GBP. They fly out of London-Gatwick. 2 flights daily. www.ryanair.com makes the flight out of London-Stanstead for about 92GBP. Both the Easyjet and Ryanair flights seem to be non-stop and take 3hrs. From Marseille, one thought is to take the train to Avignon-Centre. By TGV, the trip takes 27 minutes. By regional train, the journey takes just over an hour. You can buy non-refundable 18Euro (regular 32Euro) tickets online and you can print the tickets at home (you can print TGV tickets at home). I then have the following suggestions. 1) Stay at the nice and reasonable Hotel Le Colbert. It's 3 blocks from the train station. 2) Have a wonderful French provincial dinner at Piedoie Restaurant which is 2 blocks from the hotel. We've done both and it was really great. Finally, here's a link to a map of lavender fields in Provence. http://www.beyond.fr/map/lav_map.html. Note the Viator one-day tour advertisement of the lavender fields from Avignon in the lower right of the page. We haven't done this but it looks great. Just a few suggestions. Hope these thoughts are useful.
Posted by
OP
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
38 posts
Am still checking on flight vs. train. I am still undecided whether we should spend a night or two in Marseille before moving on to Aix-en-Provence. I should have mentioned Aix and not just Provence in my initial post as Provence is the entire region. Reading some of the other posts on transportation, we will most likely be taking the bus from Marseille. Are there buses from the airport? I have not made any hotel bookings yet for this sector and where would be the best place to base ourselves in Aix.. close to transportation, attractions & amenties. My plan was to base ourselves in Aix (5-6 nights) and then make 4 day trips to the 1) lavender fields 2) Arles 3) Avignon 4) Marseille 5) St Remy?. Would that be possible esp. in terms of transport. I remember one of them (Arles?) only have afternoon trains from Aix and that would not be possible for a day trip. Any there any buses going there? Am not too sure about St Remy even though everyone raves about it. My motto is.. don't try to do too much.. you can't expect to see everything in one trip and also to enjoy the holiday/places vs. stressing over it. Sorry if I seem to be rambling on.. right now, seems like a little overwhelming with all the planning. Thank you!