How to get to Provence from Lyon

Lyon Saint-Exupery TGV station is adjacent to the Lyon Airport. It is iterally withing a few minutes walk.

This is a bit complicated because there are alternative station possibilities at both ends. At Lyon most TGV services use the Part-Dieu station in central Lyon which is linked to the airport by a 25-minute light rail service (http://www.rhonexpress.fr/). However, there are a few TGV trains per day that call at the railway station at the airport. I don't know if any of these call at either of the two Avignon stations. At Avignon there is the "old" Avignon Centre station, which as its name suggests is in the city centre and is used by non-TGV trains but also a few TGVs, mostly ones that terminate at Avignon. Most TGVs use the Avignon TGV station which is a 10-minute bus ride to the city centre. So I would do some careful searching of trains at www.bahn.de to see if there are any direct trains from Lyon airport (search for Lyon Saint Exupery) to Avignon, or from Lyon Part-Dieu to Avignon Centre. There may be non-TGB trains entirely on the traditional line from Lyon to Avignon, but they will obviously be slower.

Not really an answer to your question but just a thought...Lyon is an interesting city. It might be worth it to spend your first night there and wake up fresh to make your way to Provence either by train or rental car. You could stay at a hotel near the train station. Lyon has some great restaurants!

Annie, if you catch the right TGVs, you can get a non-stop from Lyon Part Dieu train station to the Avignon TGV station. But, the Avignon TGV station is about 15 minutes by shuttle from the Gare de Avignon train station which is in the center of town. Note, however, that all of the best rental car agencies are at the Avignon TGV train station. There is a very nice multi-story underground garage very near the Avignon train station. About 24Euro/day but nice. Been there done that. Great drives throughout Provence. PM me and I can give you more instructions about the parking garage.

You can go from the Lyon Saint Exupery airport station directly to Avignon TGV station in about an hour. Rental cars are available at the station in Avignon.

I guess it's just a personal preference but if you're flying in and out of Lyon, why not just p/u and return a rental car at the Lyon airport. It's only about a 3 hour drive to Avignon, why bother with a train if it's not needed. You could either go for the drive when you land or spend the night around Lyon and drive the next morning.

I'd much rather let the efficient and comfortable French TGV whisk me from Lyon to Avignon in an hour than spend probably the same amount of time getting my rental and figuring out my way out of the parking lot and then having a three-hour drive still to go. And in fact I'd recommend spending your first night in Avignon and then heading out in the rental the next morning. That would be about what I could handle!

Will your "free" flight allow you to fly into or out of Marseille or Nice airports? A multi-city itinerary will save lots of time and be worth whatever extra you might have to pay.

I agree wholeheartedly with Kim. And especially if you arrive in Lyon after an overnight flight, but your stamina may vary. I can say this...we drove from Arles to Lyon last April, and the toll alone could almost eat one free ticket. I don't recall the actual cost because I passed out when it popped up on the toll booth screen.

Turns out we can take the free flight to Marseille, which is much closer to Avignon. These are frequent flyer miles flights from London, and the flights we can get for free are limited. So, maybe I should start a new thread about flying into Marseille and going from there to Avignon. My new questions are: 1) Is there a train station at the Marseille airport so we can hop on a train to Avignon? Or do we have to take a bus/shuttle to Avignon. 2) We would like to eventually rent a car in Provence, but I'm wondering if we should rent the car at the airport and travel around Provence or get the car after we're done touring Avignon. Thanks!

OK, I started a new thread titled "Landing in Marseille and touring Provence."