stokebailey

We'll be there a week in September. I'd think at most two days with a car. One of us will want to tour the Camargue. Three really want to get to the sea. (Cue Charles Trénet singing La Mer.)

If up to me, I'd take public transportation to Arles, maybe nearby towns, see whether there's a bus to a beach, book bus tour of Camargue.

Beach recommendations accessible by bus?

stokebailey

I guess there's no way around it. Even by train to Aigues-Mortes it's 2.5 hrs each way, and you'd still have a ways to get to the sea.

Rental cars are so pricey, and then you have to get in them and drive around. My navigation caused marital discord last time we tried it.

My fancy credit card claims it covers car rental insurance. Can we count on this?

tomboy

1) the beach in September? don't they have water where you live? the Mediteranean doesn't look any different than any other water/lake/ocean, and Sept's a little late for warm.... Offfhand, I'd guess Avignon is about 2 hours drive from the Med...at least More to the Camarague

stokebailey

We have the Mississippi, but it's muddy. The Mediterranean is wine-dark.

Our other daughter surprised us yesterday by saying she was going to fly out and meet us. Delighted, but she wants to see the sea. She lives by the Mississippi also, but 9 hours drive upstream.

I'm extra dis-car-aged today because i found my car unresponsive, a few weeks after buying it a new battery. Give me a nice solid bus or train.

kerouac

Aigues Mortes is just salt flats. And the beaches of the Camargue are nothing to write home about. Only Les Saintes-Maries-de-La-Mer has (let's say) reasonable beaches but that's only if you don't mind gray sand and dingy water.

If you rent a car for two days, you will find very nice places to go to the beach, but not in the Camargue.

Oh, but Aigues Mortes is still a beautiful place to visit.

stokebailey

Thanks, kerouac. I think you understand the lure of the sea.

We drove from Sčte to Aigues-Mortes ages ago, and made a right past la Grande-Motte, found a lovely beach there. I remember hot sand in early September. After that, as you say,, stinky flamingo flocks and sea salt evaporation beds. We did love Aigues-Mortes.

It turns out to be only slightly more expensive to rent a car for a week than for two days, so we'll do that, hope to find parking.

I appreciate your insights. We'll ask about beaches at tourist office,, or maybe settle for the view from
Saintes-Maries-de-La-Mer.

dfourh

The beaches on the coast between Montpellier and Aigue Mortes (inc. La Grande Motte and Grau du Roi) are perfectly good for a swim. Le Grau du Roi is actually kind of a sweet little beach town, with lots of beachy shops and eateries. And you can get there by train (from Avignon you change in Nimes - - or, hey, stop and visit Nimes too). And there is a stop in Aigues Mortes too! : > Swimming at Ste. Maries de la Mere works, but the beach isn't that special.

stokebailey

Ah, thank you, dfourh. Great information. Sounds as if we can get an early start and make a day of it.

Sassafrass

Guess you already have the itinerary mostly in place, but if not, a couple of days in Aix would allow beach time near Marseilles and, IMHO, Aix is so much prettier than Avignon.
For other things you want, might not Arles be a better base than Avignon?
If your group goes to Aigues-Mortes, but is not staying overnight, do stay late and have dinner in St Louis Square. That is when Aigues-Mortes is most magical, at night, with few people and the quiet so intense, you can hear footsteps and a fountain rather than voices.
It is funny how different people see things, and likely depends on weather, etc., but I thought the salt flats and flocks of flamingos were beautiful, not grand and impressive like the Alps or the sea, but quiet and romantic, almost ethereal.
We were evidently lucky too, not to have mosquitos.

stokebailey

But the mosquitoes.

So glad for your tips, Sass!

When i started planning, there was only the one daughter who was more interested in our London part of the trip, and my husband who I am betting would love the Camargue. His policy is never to research in advance. Our other daughter, who lived in France for 1.5 years, is a surprise bonus. Planning for three other adults is tricky; easier when two of us were kids.

We don't have a real itinerary yet, except my own desire to spend a day in Arles and a Saturday at the Nîmes Feria des Vendanges. We'll drive one daughter early Sunday morning to her flight home from Marseille, now that we've decided we need a car, and stop in Aix on the way back. The girls want to visit a winery or so. I'm picking up other ideas from valued fodorites like yourself.

Our Avignon house seems perfect for us, away from the hubub but within the wall, and I like that almost all of the neighborhood restaurant and boulangerie reviews online are in French. Also, when I was a child we had a record with Sur le Pont song.

We thought the unexpected flamingos were amazing and beautiful, memorable and dreamlike. The salt flats were interesting, of course. Not something we'd drive again to see. My husband is the only birder in the group.

Give me a place to stay put for at least a week, a bakery, a market and a café down the street, and some people to watch.

Sassafrass

Stokebailey,
Boy are you right. Planning for other adults is so much harder. We are getting old and slow, so do a lot day by day, as we feel up to it. With family or friends, who still like to be on the go, I become very anxious. At least, you have been there and you all are more familiar with France.
Agree about the bakery, market and cafe. We are the same. We had a little house in Arles for a few days, went to the big Sat market for food and the same wonderful bakery every day, sometimes two or three times, for fruit tarts in the morning and savory vegetable tarts in the evening.
I am glad you will have a car. We managed without, but missed out on so much.
Did you go to Aix when you were there before?
I hope your trip is perfect!

stokebailey

Aw, thank you, Sassafrass. Your Arles stay sounds just right.

I hope I can stay put at least one day in Avignon while my family dashes around. I'm not particularly interested in wineries, for instance, having no palate for the good stuff.

Our one southern France trip was mostly Languedoc, driving straight north from Aigues-Mortes to the Dordogne, promising ourselves we'd come back. I'm looking forward to visiting Aix.

Our older daughter spent a semester in Paris, French major. Then thanks to a fodors post I heard about the wonderful program where French schoolchildren learn foreign languages from young native speakers. She got to spend a transformative year after college in Gap, near the Alps. She ended up not traveling around as she had expected, because having so much fun in that smallish town.

kerouac

I remember watching the Gap municipal webcam on snowy days.

stokebailey

Yes!

stokebailey

So, here we are in Avignon. Ahhh. Patio with olive tree and jacuzzi, and wonderful bakery 2 blocks away.

Daughter and I were just having my birthday lunch on the 9th in Hampstead when I got a text from my husband, fresh off the plane in Paris, saying he'd had his pocket picked on the RER from CDG. Dommage. Credit cards, euros, driver's license. Annoyance and expense ensued.

Only Bob had bothered to get an international driver's license, but he lost his home one. I brought neither.. Daughter 1 had her home one, but no international. Neither daughter drives standard. So, I canceled rental car, and was glad to take a cab from the TGV yesterday.

Too imprudent to rent without IDL? Just for 1 day?

kerouac

I am one of those people who says that the IDP is not necessary. On top of that, if your licence is one of those in the international format with numbered boxes, no IDP is necessary. (1. Last name 2. First name 3. Date of birth etc....)

Sarastro

The train takes you past Aigues Mortes to le Grau du Roi, which has sandy beaches within a 10 minute walk of the station. One of the largest and most majestic beaches of sand anywhere along the Mediterranean is just next to le Grau du Roi, the Plage de l'Espiguette.

stokebailey

Satastro, I wonder whether it was you who tipped me to the Plage de l'Espiguette several years ago for our drive up from Sete. Now that is a beach!

Kerouac, I believe pretty much everything you say, and was pushing for two days' car rental after reading above. Partly to get our oldest to her plane at Marseille. More prudent heads prevailed. Today daughters are off to Chateaneuf-des-Papes wineries by train and Uber, and yesterday everyone but me visited Arles by train, then to Saintes-Maries-de-La-Mer by bus and foot to the sea.

Everyone is happy, and we're greener and a few hundred $ ahead using public transport. Glad to be in Avignon. Thanks for your help.

kerouac

Being green in this era is nearly always the best choice, so bravo for working out things that make everybody happy.

mominavignon

The Camargue is very close to Avignon and has great sandy beaches! You can drive there in about an hour and 10 minutes. Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer is a favourite of ours. Mostly locals, not too many tourists. I believe you can get there without a car by taking a train to Arles and then a bus - it would take closer to an hour and a half to 2 hours depending on the transfer times. Hope you have a great trip!