Four Days in Provence – Part One

Now that I’m writing my travel blog, I realize I love reliving my trips as much as I love planning them and almost as much as I love being on them. Looking back through my pictures of Provence, I’m happy just remembering the beautiful places we saw during our brief visit. Provence is filled with historic sights and striking landscapes, and if I ever do the trip again, I’ll stay longer and see more. But if like me, you only have four days to get your first taste of Provence, rest assured that the following itinerary will give you a great introduction to the beauty and history of southern France.

Day 1 – Historic Center of Avignon and the Pont du Gard

We began and ended our family vacation to France in Paris, so on the first day of our Provence excursion, we boarded an early morning train at Paris’s Gare de Lyon and headed to Avignon. The TGV train ride is less than three hours long, so we arrived at our destination before lunchtime. We then picked up a rental car from the train station’s Hertz location and were on our way into the city.

Avignon

The historic city center of Avignon is just 10 minutes from the train station and has three spectacular sights––the Palais des Papes (the Palace of the Popes), the Pont Saint-Bénézet (Saint-Bénézet Bridge), and the Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Doms d’Avignon (Avignon Cathedral). All of these structures date from medieval times and together are considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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The Palace of the Popes was the seat of papal power for 70 years, with seven popes residing there between 1309 and 1376. It’s the largest Gothic palace ever built and one of the 10 most visited monuments in France. The Pont Saint-Bénézet, also known as the Pont d’Avignon, is a short walk from the palace and is remarkable for its longevity. Construction of the Pont Saint-Bénézet began in 1177, and the four arches and gatehouse that remain over the Rhone River have survived since the rebuilding of the bridge in 1234. If you’re visiting both the palace and the bridge, you can purchase a combination ticket for 14,50 euros, available onsite or online.

We spent a couple of hours touring the palace and ate lunch in its rooftop café, which was convenient, as we were packing a lot of activity into the day. The lunch apparently made an impression on my children because when I asked my youngest son if he remembered visiting the palace, he said, “Was that the place with paninis?” They were baguettes, but yes, it was. As for the bridge, it only takes about 20 minutes to walk to the end, marvel at its age, and take in the view.

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Pont du Gard

We didn’t spend time touring the inside of Avignon Cathedral, but instead drove a half-hour west to the ancient Pont du Gard, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Pont du Gard is a three-story Roman aqueduct built in the first century. If you’re already feeling impressed with the history of the Pont Saint-Bénézet, visiting the Pont du Gard is sure to blow your mind.

You could easily spend all day touring the aqueduct, the site’s museum, and the surrounding grounds. Guided tours of the aqueduct are available, and you can view a 13-minute film about the area’s history. And perhaps best of all, you can swim in the Gardon River, which flows beneath the aqueduct.

During our visit, although we knew about the swimming, we forgot the kids’ bathing suits in the car, so rather than schlepping to the parking lot, we let them strip down to their shorts and wade in. Their shorts were never quite the same after that—there were mud stains I could never get out—but their joy at splashing around under an almost two-thousand-year-old aqueduct in France was worth it. And I admit that I continued to make them wear the shorts all summer, joking that the French mud stains had a certain je ne sais quoi.

Hotel Benvengudo

After the kids’ swim and a short hike to view the top of the aqueduct, we headed to our hotel, the Hotel Benvengudo, in nearby Les Baux-de-Provence. I absolutely adored this hotel, with its charming country-style buildings and lavender plants lining the front drive. The hotel also has an exceptional fine-dining restaurant where they welcomed us as a family, making sure that not only that my husband and I had a great experience, but that our children did too. I appreciated the outstanding service at the time and have remembered it ever since.

Day 2 – Chateau des Baux and Carrières de Lumières

On our second morning in Provence, we were treated to a wonderful Provenҫal-style breakfast at the Hotel Benvengudo, where the eggs were made to order and I marveled at the perfect, fluffy omelets. We then set off for our day at Chateau des Baux-de-Provence.

Chateau des Baux

Chateau des Baux is the ruins of a 10th-century fortress on a rocky outcropping perched over the small village of Les Baux. The views from the fortress’s ramparts are breathtaking, and historically, it was these views, along with the remoteness of the fortress, that gave the inhabitants a tactical advantage. They could both observe the surrounding countryside for intruders and successfully defend against attacks.

What I took away from our tour was that the lords of Les Baux were not necessarily the “good guys.” They were the well-positioned guys who could be pretty ruthless to the surrounding villages and towns. Fearing rebellion after the Baux dynasty joined France, the fortress was destroyed in 1481 by King Louis XI, and was demolished a second time, after being partially rebuilt, in 1632 on the orders of Cardinal Richelieu.

The Chateau des Baux is a good place to bring children, especially on weekends in the summer when it has demonstrations of the catapult and activities such as archery and medieval crafts. But it is not such a great place to bring visitors with mobility issues. Touring the grounds requires going up and down worn, steep steps, with no alternative access.

Les Baux-de-Provence

There are no food concessions at Chateau des Baux, but you can enjoy lunch or dinner in the charming village of Les Baux just down the hillside. We walked around and shopped in the boutiques before settling in for salads and crepes at the outdoor café, Une Table Au Soleil. The waitress knew as little English as we did French, but we figured things out through smiles, nods, and hand gestures. It was there we realized the attitude toward tourists in southern France is different than in Paris, where bilingual Parisians can get a little exasperated with you. In Provence, if you’re not fluent in another language, you tend to be on the same page as everyone else, which makes for more empathetic interactions all around.

Carrières de Lumières

After lunch, we walked a short way to Carrières de Lumières, a sound and light show projected onto the underground walls, ceiling, and floor of a limestone quarry. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s an immersive experience, with projections of famous artworks lighting the space while music echoes around you.

The quarry is large, and you can spend an hour or more wandering through the space or watching the repeating loop of projections play in front of you. Although it would be interesting just to walk through the limestone quarry, the colorful show makes it a truly unique experience, and I guarantee it will be different than any other sightseeing you do in France. If you’re seeing both the Chateau des Baux and Carrières de Lumières in the same day, you can purchase a combination ticket.

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In the late afternoon, we returned to our hotel for a swim, a glass of wine, and a rest before venturing out again. For dinner, we drove to the small village of Saint Remy-de-Provence and stumbled upon an Italian restaurant with sidewalk seating called La Roma. Saint Remy-de-Provence is a town of 10,000 people that has numerous shops and restaurants along the small streets of its quaint city center. My husband tells me that exploring Saint Remy-de-Provence that evening and seeing modern Provenҫal life was one of his favorite activities of the trip.

Interested in how we spent our last two days in Provence? Click here for Part Deux of Four Days in Provence!