Recommended Villages in Provence

Here's another apartment rental website: http://www.homelidays.com/EN-Holidays-Rental/100_Home/Home.aspYou say "Southern France", which includes both Provence and the Riviera. Your post makes it sound as if you have Provence in mind and want to stay in one place the entire time--but then you mention beach time, which sounds like the Riviera? If you can clarify that, we can give better advice.

Look at the Slow Talk forums and the vacation rental reviews of the Slow Travel website. There have been a number of discussions in the France forum about the best Provence base, and it's a popular spot for board members, so there are villa reviews too (the SLow Travel site is more focused on longer vacations, rental homes, etc so it's a great place to look for this type of question).

Forums: http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a/cfrm/f/869607521

Reviews: http://www.slowtrav.com/france/vr/index.htm

We absolutely love staying in Sablet. It is in the middle of the Rhone Wine area, near Chatanuef de Pape, Orange, Nimes, Vaison La ROmaine and its lovely market, etc. Here is the home we always rent:

http://www.gites.com/maison-lavande

The village is great. It has several restaurants, a small grocery, a butcher, chacuterie, etc. All are within walking distance of the house. And the local cave is one door down.

We have traveled all over Provence from this location, and have never driven more than one hour. One things, though, it is not close to a beach.

We loved Villefranche (sp?)- it is an ancient and quaint little town right on the beach between Monte Carlo and Cannes/Nice but less touristy. We joined the topless women - of ALL ages - on the beach every morning, and then explored the area by foot, bus & train for the rest of the days. Also enjoyed the small Provence market town of Isle Sur la Sorgue from Rick's book - the river and waterwheel are pretty, the Sunday? market is great fun, and you can day trip to Avignon and, with a car, visit Peter Mayles haunts. Be sure and have a kir before dinner - it's very popular in this area.

We stayed right outside of Isle sur le Sorgue in the fall of 2007. The town had everything needed, but was not too terribly crowded (except on Thursdays). We even rented a gite that Rick recommends in his book on France. The rental is Le Pigionnier. I posted a review on the Slow Travel website. I also recommend that website for rentals all over Provence.

There are so many nice villages in Provence, and all quite diff from one another. I like tranquility of Isle sur la sorgue. But beaches are a fair distance away and few are with sand. most are pebbly or cobbled. Consider Antibes, less touristy than rest of French Rivera.

Thank you all so much for all the helpful information!This is such a good starting point and now we can start looking into all the great suggestions.

Hi Kelly,

We just got back from a 16-day trip to France (7 in Paris, 7 in Provence and 2 on the Riviera).

In Provence, we rented a gîte, Mas de la Poule in Cabannes (www.gite-de-la-poule.com/anglais/tourisme.htm), minutes away from Avignon. Loved it. It is run by Anke Tikhomiroff, a German married to a former French-Russian newsagency photographer. Both have had a very interesting life. The gîte itself is 2 bedrooms, living-room, kitchen and bathroom. And Anke is the picture of hospitality. We chose this one over a very large number that were available because, IMO, Avignon was central to discovering Provence.

Some of the places we visited that week that we would recommend are Roussillon, Gordes, Côtes du Rhône Villages (which include Sablet and more particularly, Seguret), Avignon itself, Île-sur-la-Sorgue, Saint-Rémy and Glanum, Baux-de-Provence and the little known by interesting Château de Barbentane. We also visited Arles but in a torrential downpour so cannot evaluate it. We also did a quick trip to the coast and visited Cassis and the Calanques—very worthwhile.

With more time we would have done Nîmes, Orange, Vaison-la-Romaine, Aix-en-Provence and many, many others. Enjoyed the outdoor markets.

A tip if you are driving, get a good map. There are scores of roundabouts/rotaries/traffic circles and you should always follow the directions to the largest town past your destination, until you come to one where your destination is expressly indicated. We are convinced that traffic circles would be the way to go for North America—easy to use and reduces the speed of the traffic. I know there are some in Massachusetts, but hardly any here in Québec. But as Martha Stewart says, "It's a good thing".

Have a nice trip!

PS: We also enjoyed following the coast from St-Tropez to Nice, and then by bus to Villefranche and Monaco.

Maureen

If you are a fan of outdoor markets, don't miss the Tuesday market in Vaison la Romaine, it is the best I've ever been to.

I lived in Nice for a year and took the bus to many wonderful small villages around the Riviera...Eze (there are two, one at sea level, one up the cliff...need a bus for that...)La Turbie, Beaulieu, and especially Monte Carlo. You might run into Sean Connery, or Elton John or Prince Phillip...we did...such color!
Antibes is great and Le Marche (the market) in Nice is one of the best I have found. The one in Sarlat in the Dordogne is another great one...)
Enjoy your trip!

You may want to check out a wonderful article I just read in the November 2008 issue of Travel & Leisure magazine, entitled, "The heart of French Country Village Life." It discusses small villages, small town cafes and bistros and "Bistrot de Pays" program in So. France that supports the preservation of small village bistros and the village way of life.