One Day in Provence

I know this is not a completely new topic. We are also on a cruise that will stop in Marseille for a day. We plan to arrange a private tour (driver) to Provence. If a day was all you had, what towns would be the most beautiful or desirable to visit?

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It really depends on how much time you want to drive and how much time to visit. Closest to Marseille are Cassis, Aix-en-Provence and Marseille itself of course. Then you either:

- go east towards first Saint Tropez and the inland perched villages of the Var like Grimaud, Gassin,... then yet further Cannes, Nice, Eze,...

- go west to Avignon and all the places around: Pont du Gard, Arles, Gordes, Saint Remy de Provence, l%26#39;Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, les Baux de Provence,...

First do some research to find out what you really want to see. Then do google maps to get a feel for driving time and plan accordingly.

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Thank you, I think we will concentrate on the west. Our ship lands in Monte Carlo so we will spend a few days there and visit some of the eastern areas from there.

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Ok, so west it is as you will do east during the previous stop in MC.

Among the things that I would list to do in one day is:

- Avignon and the Pope%26#39;s Palace. The drive is about an hour and the visit of the palace can be quite long so you would need to do it at an accelerated pace or a short version.

- Pont du Gard

- Gordes and the cistercian abbey of Senanque

- Saint Remy de Provence and the roman site of Glanum

- Arles and roman architecture

Without knowing what you are interested in makes it hard to give advice. These are ideas but you will need to plan and choose as one day will be limiting. Do you want to visit places like above? Just walk through villages and towns to enjoy the atmosphere? Looking for a great place to have lunch ie dedicate time to that or just grab jambon beurre sandwiches and see the maximum possible?

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I%26#39;ve just returned from Provence and I definetely recommend Gordes, Lourmarin, Baux-en-Provence (fairy tale), St. Paul de Vence and Cassis.