I%26#39;m a francophile who has long dreamed of going to France, and this summer, I%26#39;m finally getting my chance! I will be 7 weeks in paris, and am thinking of extending my trip to visit other places. Among those other places is provence: I%26#39;ve seen hundreds of pictures of beautiful landscapes and endless fields of flowers...I would really love to see that, and I think that it would be a nice change from paris! The only trouble is...I don%26#39;t know where to go in provence! Where would be the best to see these things? I would only be there for a few days, seeing as I am a student and money is short, so preferably the locale would have some cheap, quaint accommodations (hostels, etc).
Any suggestions?
Also, I%26#39;m interested in seeing the Mediterranean, so if anyone has suggestions for cheap(er) places to go and stay and see the beach for a day or two, I%26#39;d appreciate it.
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Have you any choice about Paris? I know and love it well but a fortnight would be enough for me. You%26#39;d then have five weeks and I would spend them in the south, working my way from east to west. That may be outside your pocket though.
For fields of lavender, visit the Abbaye de Senanque in the Luberon, and the hilltop villages of Gordes and Roussillon. Cheap places to stay on the coast: Le Lavandou and Hyeres (I stay in the hotel des Orangers and have posted a review). Will you have access to a car? You%26#39;ll need it in the Lube.
This is just a start . . .
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Well, I%26#39;m actually going to be studying in paris for those weeks (taking an easy class so that i can spend the maximum time exploring). But I%26#39;m hoping to budget out some money to spend some extra time somewhere like Provence. As for the car, since money isn%26#39;t prevalent in my bank account (I%26#39;m doing this with scholarships and savings, lol)I wasn%26#39;t planning on renting one. Is it absolutely essential in the area you mentioned?
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You really can%26#39;t do the Luberon without a car, but you could do Aix-en-Provence (literally %26quot;center of Provence%26quot;). It a great small city, very walkable, beautiful, and it%26#39;s a university town so lots of young folks. I found one hostel in the old town (where you need to be without a car). Check out hostelbookers.com/hostels/…. It%26#39;s a great location, and looks to be only about a block from the tourism office. At the tourism office, they offer all kinds of bus tours to other sites in Provence so you could see a bit of the countryside without needing a car. Most of them seem to run about 25 - 50 euros, but they may have student rates. Go to http://www.aixenprovencetourism.com/, click on the British flag to see the website in English, then click on %26quot;Tours%26quot; in the left-hand column.
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That%26#39;s good advice re Aix.
You can purchase train tickets up to 90 days in advance on the SNCF web site, earlier the better for lowest fares.
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I forgot the train information! If you go to the www.voyages-sncf website, and click on the iDTGV icon, you can get really cheap fares from Paris to Aix. I think we paid about 20 euros each. There is a flag to get the website in English, but if you can navigate the French one, I find the cheap fares easier to get on that one. YOu can always copy and paste over to a free translation website if you need help with the French. If you know the date you want to travel from Paris to Aix, start checking now! I thought the fares weren%26#39;t available until 2 months ahead, but I looked at June the other day just for the heck of it, and it gave me schedules and fares for the week before my departure. So I%26#39;m checking daily for when my date drops in. These fares go fast!
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