Where to stay in Provence?

If you buy your TGV ticket on the internet long enough in advance, you can get quite good deals on railway travel. SNCF are modelling themselves on low-budget airlines in this respect. If you buy at least a month or so before, you can probably get a decent reduction by TGV. Bear in mind the cheapest tickets are generally non-refundable so you have to be sure of your connexions. So if flying into Paris is cheaper than flying into Marseille it may be worth looking into. BTW I belive you can get a TGV Paris - Arles, although if not, TGV Paris - Avignon then connexion Arles should work.

Regarding where to fly into, you'll have to research flight costs to Marseilles or Nice vs flight to Paris and train to Provence. When comparing take into account the time/cost involved in getting from and to Paris, sometimes the higher airfare for a more convenient airport is definitely worth it. I started my France trip in Nice but flew into Paris and took the train the next day. It cost me an add'l day in travel time but the cost difference between r/t to Paris and open-jaw to Nice with return from Paris was huge and since I had planned on ending up in Paris anyway it worked for me. Do you plan on having a car or using public transportation? I spent 3 nights in Nice, one in Avignon, and 5 in Roussillon, in the Luberon region of Provence, I did have a car for my stay in Roussillon. It's a beautiful area and was centrally located for trips to lots of the small villages in the area. That part of Provence has wonderful markets, is amazingly scenic with the lavender and sunflowers, and very easy to drive around. This is a good website to get an idea of the area: http://www.theluberon.com/

This will be a 2 part trip. I am going for a photo tour to photograph lavender fields and sunflowers and such and my partner will be with me for the other portion of the trip for self drive tour. We plan to rent a car from Sixt. I started looking into flights, it seems there are no direct flights to Marseille even from NYC and even through Paris Air France is over $2000. It looks like the best deal I can find now is Air Lingus through Dublin.

No, there are no nonstops to MRS from the US, but there are lots of flights from other European cities. So, check http://www.kayak.com for all the options. And do remember that taking a flight and changing to a train involves money and/or risk. If you buy an advance TGV ticket and save money, you have to guess the time right to avoid too long a wait at the station or a missed train (advance discount tickets are non-changeable and non-refundable). On the other hand, if you buy your ticket upon arrival so you don't have schedule issues, you'll pay full fare. Of course, you could buy two discount tickets (one earlier, one later) and just discard the unused one; this may still be cheaper than one last-minute fare. If your other non-Arles destination is the Riviera, you would use Nice Airport, which does have one daily nonstop to JFK, as well as lots of connections to other European hubs.

Lisa, how helpful this will be I don't know, but Air Transat has some direct flights from Montreal to Marseilles in the summer.

Thanks Norma, but flying up to Montreal first will take more time and cost more than flying through Dublin I think. I have always wanted to see a stage of the Tour de France ride by so I am waiting to do real date planning until they announce the French Stages for 2014 (first 3 stages are in England next year) and only those have been announced so far.

Our Provence adventure started in Arles and this worked for us: we flew Air France from SFO to Montpelier, changing at CDG. Montpelier is a small airport, with an easy car rental, less than
an hour from Arles. Good wishes!

So I have decided we should go to Arles for the first 4 nights followed by 4 in Aix en Provence then my photo tour which is based in Bonnieux for 7 nights. I was going to wait to see the Tour de France schedule but as I started investigating it seemed hotels were filling up already for next July. Any recommendations for hotels or nice B&Bs these areas for around €200 or so a night or less?

This b&b, right outside of Aix, is lovely in every way. Check it out:
Les Clos des Freres Gris.

we stayed in mas pereal, and the lodging and food were superb, kevin and his french wife were very accomodating. nick barthel