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Being vague about S of France…April

michele29

10+ Posts
Planning a two week or so trip in late April..thinking of a few days in Nice and a few in Marseilles…like to have a base and explore from it. Prefer cities..
Any suggestions for day trips from the above?
oh, I am also looking into cooking classes in Marseilles. Suggestions?
 
We spent two weeks in Antibes, near Nice, a few years ago. And a week in Nice several years ago. The train runs along that coast.

Going east you could visit Menton on the border with Italy (beautiful town, good hike on Cap Martin).

Heading west you could visit Antibes (Picasso Museum, beautiful old town, good hike on Cap d’Antibes) and Cannes.

By bus you could go up into the mountains above Nice to St Paul de Vence. There is a famous Art Gallery there (we didn’t visit it but a friend did and loved it) and a church painted by Jean Cocteau (haven’t seen it but tried to get there by car and parking and traffic were insane).

Those would be good day trips. There is much to see in Nice also.

Do a search here for Nice. There are some good threads.

I was thinking of going to that area again next spring.
 
You might consider including Aix-en-Provence, about 30 minutes from Marseille and a lovely city.

In Aix, I can recommend this cooking class: Tastes of Provence . Mathilde is a fun, Frenchwoman who speaks excellent English. I participated in her food market tour/cooking class. I spend a lot of time in Provence, but I still learned a lot... and had a fun time too.
 
If you stay in Marseille then by train /station St Charles, you have a convenient regional train to (almost) downtown Avignon which is just through the wall up the rue de la République. It’s a nice, walkable City & also benefits from being on the east side of the Rhône. And you can also reach just about downtown Arles which is walkable, too,and has both Roman ruins, shady squares and whiffs of Van Gogh. It too is sited on the Rhône but not in the same dramatic way as Avignon. I second a visit to Aix en Provence and personally would prefer it for the stay. If you plan to drive around I think you might regret being in a bigger city. I live in the Luberon just east of Avignon, so please message me if you have more pointed questions.
 
If you stay in Marseille then by train /station St Charles, you have a convenient regional train to (almost) downtown Avignon which is just through the wall up the rue de la République. It’s a nice, walkable City & also benefits from being on the east side of the Rhône. And you can also reach just about downtown Arles which is walkable, too,and has both Roman ruins, shady squares and whiffs of Van Gogh. It too is sited on the Rhône but not in the same dramatic way as Avignon. I second a visit to Aix en Provence and personally would prefer it for the stay. If you plan to drive around I think you might regret being in a bigger city. I live in the Luberon just east of Avignon, so please message me if you have more pointed questions.
I love Avignon! I spent four solo days there in 2019. I found more than enough to do, and also took the short train rides to other locations, such as Arles (maybe 15 minutes by train); and then for a few days in Nîmes, it was easy. There are two train stations in Avignon -- the TGV, and the in-town station mentioned by MaisonRose.
 
Will you have a car? You could stay in/near Saint Paul de Vence and do some exploring... I did that last April (as well as Cassis afterwards) and it was really nice. I also had one night in Avignon and one night in Aix en Provence to see some friends there.
 
I found Eze Village (up on the hill) to be an afternoon thing. Not sure about being based there. Maybe others had better impressions.

This is a very old blog post of mine from 2008, but it gives you a glimpse into many of the locations. French Riviera 2008

It was on other trips that I went to Eze (when we based in Antibes--two trips as that base).
 
If you stay in Marseille then by train /station St Charles, you have a convenient regional train to (almost) downtown Avignon which is just through the wall up the rue de la République. It’s a nice, walkable City & also benefits from being on the east side of the Rhône. And you can also reach just about downtown Arles which is walkable, too,and has both Roman ruins, shady squares and whiffs of Van Gogh. It too is sited on the Rhône but not in the same dramatic way as Avignon. I second a visit to Aix en Provence and personally would prefer it for the stay. If you plan to drive around I think you might regret being in a bigger city. I live in the Luberon just east of Avignon, so please message me if you have more pointed questions.
I will be in Marseille in about 2 weeks. Will be there for 5 days. I thought of doing a day trip to Cassis. Your comments?
 
Planning a two week or so trip in late April..thinking of a few days in Nice and a few in Marseilles…like to have a base and explore from it. Prefer cities..
Any suggestions for day trips from the above?
oh, I am also looking into cooking classes in Marseilles. Suggestions?
Yes, you can do that. There is a regional eastbound train from Marseille St Charles that stops at Cassis (not all trains stop there) & note that from the Cassis station is a long walk downhill into the village. I’ll bet there is a local bus, too: you can check that on line.
 
I’m not up on cooking classes there but DO visit Maison Empeurer, the oldest hardware/kitchen store in France. It is in downtown in Marseille.
 

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