Central Provence Coastal destinations for a week

[bmckenney]

My family is looking to spend a week in Provence. I'd like to avoid the expensive, busy and trendy destinations like Monaco, Nice etc and I suppose what is called the French Riviera.

I was thinking of spending time in Aix initially but I have decided my family should locate ourselves in a coastal village or town.

I was thinking of somewhere south of Aix. Perhaps Cassis or Bandol, but only because they are the only towns I've managed to learn about. But I'm interested in any village on the coast on the coast that is quainter, less trendy, and affordable.

We'll be there July 2011. We will have a car. And we will be heading up the Rhone valley to Lyon next.

I would be very grateful for recommendations.

Thank you,
Bryan

[btrflyrfree]

Hi Bryan, what a great trip you have to look forward to. I can suggest a couple of coastal towns. The first is Cavaliere sur Mer (sp?), where I have twice stayed and is 17km south of St Tropez. The beaches are great, but in the middle of summer will be busy as other posters have mentioned. Also if going to St. Tropez, leave very early and try not to go on Market Day. It's also near Hyeres and the Iles of Hyeres unspoiled offshore islands. The other town is Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer with sandy beaches in the Carmague region. This could be used as a base to see Arles, Les Baux & St Remy de Provence, Nimes, Tarascon and many other villages and towns. I don't know the distance from these places to Lyon, I'm sure other posters will be able to help you more. If Lyon is not a must on your itinerary you could take the train (59E) or Air France has daily flights to Paris from Toulon (about 70E last year) since you will not need a car in Paris and would save you a day or more of driving. I can recommend Fodor's Provence and the cote d'azur guide as very helpful.
On the Italy note, I liked Siena as a base and would recommend taking the train or bus to Florence as suggested by others. For our stays both France and Italy we used VRBO, homeaway.fr and have no complaints. Happy Planning
Di

[Katharine]

I love the coast in the south. We ventured around for a day, settling in at Cassis for some amazing bouillabaisse and a short ride to explore the calanques. You can't go wrong here.

My only concern is that you will be so far from so much of the substance of Provence for reasonable day trips. Perhaps an indland locale like St. Remy is a better choice. This gives you a 360 degree option for travelling around Provence, rather than a coastal towns 180 degrees.

That being said, if your familyu is really in for a coastal vacation, then Cassis would be a good choice. Since we did not stay there, I am unable to offer you any suggestions for a rental. Surely there are others on the board who can assist.

Have fun plan

KHning.

[sistereurope]

Bryan,
Here are two websites that should give you some sense of the various towns and villages:
www.beyond.fr/villages/index.html

www.provenceweb.fr/e/provpil.htm

They're touristy but I have found that reading about the villages helped me to get some sense of whether a certain place was what I was looking for...

I also spent a short amount of time in Cassis, It's lovely but it was March...I have no idea what it would be like in the height of the summer.
Happy planning!!!