I will arrive in Paris and plan to train to somewhere in Provence. is it possible to travel around without hiring a car? If not I am not too keen on hiring a car to drive around large cities. I%26#39;d love some ideas on where to train to, somewhere easily accessible. I%26#39;d like to see St Remy and Arles. I%26#39;m more interested in seeing picturesque village and rural life than vineyards. can anyone help please?
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Hi I%26#39;ve been to Provence many times and I can%26#39;t drive. You should base yourself in a fairly big town (Arles or Avignon would be good) and get a bus and train timetable the minute you arrive. You need to remember the following points:
- Sunday is a bad day to travel about so plan on staying put that day.
- the best connections are very early in the morning for people commuting to and from work.
- there is usually a mid morning and a mid afternoon hiatus between trains and buses. For some reason trains in France don%26#39;t run eg every 30 minutes, I well remember last year waiting two hours in the middle of the morning for a train from Avignon ville to Marseille; the next similar train was just ten minutes after the one I got. Don%26#39;t ask me why.
- people in the tourist office will be charming and speak good English but they will not necessarily know the best way to get from A to B. Ask at the bus or train station for that.
- make sure you can get not only from A to B but back to A if A is where you are spending the night.
- resign yourself to seeing one or at most two places in a day.
- public transport can be very very slow in France.
the Luberon villages are hard to do by public transport. I went to Roussillon last year by taking the bus to Apt, getting off five miles from Apt and walking three miles up the road and three miles back. It%26#39;s a pleasant walk and the road is fairly quiet but if you want to do all the Luberon in one day, you might be better off booking a coach tour for that day.
Hope this helps.
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There is virtually no place in Provence which can not be reached by public transportation. The problem is that those on vacation usually do not have the extra time exploring by bus requires. Many rural locations cannot be easily traveled to and returned from in one day.
Many use Avignon as a base because of its facilities and easy accessibility by train, particularly from Paris. From here, one may connect by either train or bus to most of Provence. Arles and Aix-en-Provence are other possible base cities.
You may be interested in several of the guided tours which allow you to see a great deal more in far less time than what bus travel allows:
filfranck.com/avignon_cruise_promenade.htm
travelpuppy.com/france/…tours-excursion.htm
caldeal.co.uk/sightseeing-tours/Avignon.html
avignonreservation.com/en_2/sightseeing_prov…
www.ventoux-decouvertes.com/Other-Links.html
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Thank you. I really appreciate your help. I was going to arrive sunday so might change that! it sounds like it would be a good idea to do at least one tour to see a bit more.
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