I am still booking the France part of our trip. So far we are arriving (after a month in England) in Provence on Monday, October 4 and spending just under 2 weeks in Goult, in a vacation rental (from HousesForHire). Then we thought we would take the TGV from Avignon to Paris, spend 4 nights in a hotel and fly home.

But now we are thinking of spending another week in Goult - so we would have nearly 3 weeks in the one place - and flying home from Nice. Delta flies Nice - New York - Atlanta - Albuquerque. This is not as good a flight as we get from Paris (Paris - Atlanta - Albuquerque) - but we could avoid the expense of Paris.

Now I know most of you are horrified that we would skip Paris, and maybe it is a stupid idea, but this is really going to be a countryside trip for us - we want to really settle in to each place and not move around much.

So, my questions:
- Has anyone flown Nice to New York? Tell me about the Nice airport.
- How long to drive from Goult (near Apt I think) to Nice?
- Has anyone taken the TGV from Avignon to Paris?
- What would you do if you were me?

We have not been to Paris since 1988 (but spent two weeks there then and Steve has been a few times before).

Reasons for not going to Paris - don't want to deal with a big city. Lately I seem to have lost my interest in museums and churches (blame those two weeks in Rome at Christmas). I am sure it will come back sometime in the future and we will go to Paris then.

Reasons to go to Paris - better choice of flights home, we will probably love it.

I flew Delta when I visited Nice in 2000. Seattle-NYC-Nice and back. The Nice airport is fine. It is somewhat small, very efficient, good amount of services. Very easy access to transportation for getting into and out by either bus or taxi. I went by bus from the airport to the train station when I arrived and returned via taxi from Vence.

I did rent a car a previous trip to Nice and picked up and returned the car from the downtown Hertz. It was very easy getting out of downtown Nice so I expect it even easier at the airport.

The flight was on time going to Nice. I think it had a bit of a delay on return and an extremely long delay in NYC. It was mid June and there was a storm. We sat on the tarmack for about 2 hours. I now try hard to not go back through JFK when traveling from west coast to Europe. I would guess the worst thing about your flight is the NYC connection and not Nice.

I have also taken the TGV from Paris to Nice. It is a great train ride. Very smooth and fast. Our train was delayed a short bit because a woman on our car got sick and they had to stop and get paramedics. They did try to make the time up and we weren't too late getting into Nice. It is definitely a great way to go.

I would probably stay in the region for three weeks and fly out of Nice. It will be the fall and the wine harvest may be going on. I would expect there would be a lot to see. It also might be warmer than Paris. I'm not certain what the weather is like mid-October.

Nice is relatively easy to navigate, around the airport. And as pointed out it is not a large airport like CDG, but it still has most any service you would want. I have flown in/out of there twice, both times on my way to Italy and back. I cannot comment on what your drive in from Goult should be like but just add about 10-20% on to the time that www.viamichelin.com gives you. If you want a low key way to end your vacation, then Nice would be my recommendation. I can't comment on JFK, I haven't flown through there internationally for many years

We spent two weeks in France in May/June 2003-- flew into Paris with transfer to Strasbourg, stayed a week in Alsace, then took the train from Strasbourg to Lyon and changed to TGV into Avignon. We spent a week not too far from Goult. On Saturday morning we drove from the Luberon to Vence. Then on Sunday morning we drove over to the Nice Airport and flew from there. It was about a 15 minute drive from our hotel in Vence to the airport-- no traffic, very easy rental car return. We flew Delta to JFK and I think our flight was around 10:30 am.

I described our drive from the Luberon over to Vence in an earlier post that might be helpful to you. It was a pretty drive and we enjoyed the chance to have a leisurely lunch on the Mediterranean Sea. We also enjoyed our evening in Vence and thought it was a good way to wrap up our two weeks in France. We did not go into Nice itself.

You would need to leave Goult very very early to catch a morning flight out of Nice. I would recommend staying near the airport, and would definitely recommend the little hotel where we stayed in Vence (see link in the other post).

I agree with Marta that flying into JFK was not the greatest. We then had to make another connection before getting back home, so it was a long day and the security process at JFK was slow and yucky compared to Atlanta or Cincinnati.

All things considered, though, I'd probably vote for flying out of Nice again. Would Marseille be another alternative?

Pauline....NO PARIS, for shame. You know that Paris is a lot more than Museums (well, I could go to the D'Orsay every time) and Churches...it's about eating, cafes and walking all over the entire city.
Besides there are probably tons of vegi restaurants.....
Further about the museums, we don't go to more than one or two in two weeks of our apartment rental, which reminds me of another Paris plus, the food shopping and cooking, great stuff!

Fly from Marseille, not Nice. It's about 3 hours closer to where you are staying. It does mean that dreaded CDG connection, but if you allow enough time, it's doable. And then you can fly from CDG direct to Atlanta and home to ABQ. The other alternative I'd consider is taking the fast train directly to CDG and flying from there.

And as much as I love Paris, I completely understand the no-city vacation. The last time we stayed in the Luberon we were so mellow after a couple of weeks that Nice was more "city" than we wanted to take.

Oh, and both the Nice and Marseille airports are relatively small and easy to maneuver.

Another alternative... fly from Marseille to Zurich and home from there. We did that once, when Swiss Air was still a Delta partner. It was breathtakingly beautiful!

Three weeks in France and no Paris? Omigod!!! I'll get over it, though

Chris has the best idea - take a flight out of Marseille - small airport, easily navigable, etc.

As for the TGV from Avignon to Paris, I do it all the time and it's a piece of cake. Takes under 3 hours, and the station at Avignon is very modern and clean with great signage. You can probably get one of those great 25 € PREMs fares on the www.sncf.com website.

Someone mentioned taking the TGV from Nice to Paris - as far as I know the TGV doesn't go to Nice; it's a regular train past Avignon. Anyway, it's probably better to fly.

StCirq, thanks for clarifying about the TGV. I suspect I was the one who mentioned taking the TGV from Paris to Nice and completely forgot that it was regular train past Avignon.

Pauline, I feel about JFK the way some here do about CDG: unless you either have a very long layover or plan to do an overnighter, I personally would do *anything* to avoid connecting through JFK!

On our way home from Italy last Sept we sat on the tarmack at JFK for 45 min then were herded like cattle through customs, which then took an additional *2 hours* (they had closed down a runway so everyone was re-routed through the same entryway)!! Fortunately we had planned to stay overnight in NY so didn't have an immediate connection to make - but others weren't so fortunate! On our way home the next day they closed down part of the terminal and sent us to another...thankfully (again), we had left enough time to make the switch so we made it out OK.

So, if you can avoid connecting in NY, I certainly would do so!

Jody

Haven't been to S of France since the 80's, but I can speak about the October weather. It was lovely. Obviously not warm enough to swim, but just sweater weather. Nice for walks.

We flew out of Nice last October to Heathrow then to Seattle. Great airport, helpful people, easy to navigate, and a few cute shops to get those last minute souveniers. We were staying near Cavaillon and decided to leave Provence a day early and spend one night in Nice since our flight left early. The drive was pretty easy. If you plan to stay in Nice at all I would recommend Le Grimaldi Hotel . Very cute hotel, close to the Promenade and Cours Saleya. Wonderful breakfast too!

Bonjour Pauline -

As you know, we live just near Goult and I've done the drive to the airport in Nice a number of times - you can count on 1 hour's drive to Aix (other on the windy but gorgeous road over the Luberon or the long way around via Cavaillon and then the autoroute). From Aix, count on 1 1/2 hours to the airport in Nice (maybe a bit more if you don't drive a la francaise!).....

I'll confirm that the airport itself is a snap. Easy to get in and out of, dropping off rental cars etc.

My recommendation;: skip Nice if you can get a more direct flight from Paris. Then to get to paris, either hop on the shuttle from Marseille or the TGV from Avignon - the TGV would be a bit closer drive for you from Goult, but both are convenient choices and you arrive home a whole lot less tired.

Thanks everyone! I like to make our flight home as easy as possible because we have a longer flight (from NYC we still have a long flight to get to Albuquerque). Flying into NYC is not as good for us because we then fly to Atlanta and change again and after what some of you said about JFK, I am going to rule out the Nice to JFK flight. Flying from Paris is more direct and I think they even have an earlier flight that would get us home before our usual 8pm at ABQ airport. Delta has a few flights a day from Paris, but only one from Rome (where we usually fly out) - so we get more choice out of Paris.

So now I have to decide if we stay one more week in Provence, then get up to Paris by train or plane and leave from their with just one night - - or if we go back to plan A and stay a few nights in Paris.

If we could, we would just stay an extra week in Provence and then go to Paris for a week - but we have to be back for a work conference in Los Angeles the first week of November and I am trying to arrange things so we are home for a couple of weeks before we fly off again.

I want to get this booked in the next couple of days so we can upgrade with fewer miles (thanks to someone else for posting about this - Delta is increasing the miles for tickets and upgrades on March 15).

Kevin has offered to host a SlowTrav GTG at his place in Provence! (Thanks Kevin!!) He is near where we are staying in Goult. More details will be posted on the GTG forum - I hope lots of Slow Travelers will be in Provence then!!

Pauline, what about a few days in Burgundy on the way back to the Paris airport? It's truly beautiful countryside, and there are some wonderful B&Bs there, assuming you wouldn't be there long enough to rent a place for a week.

I booked our flights yesterday and there were no upgrades (to business class) left from Paris or Nice the week of October 17!! The only flights we could get were from London.

This will teach me to book flights earlier. I usually book around now, but we fly into Zurich and out of Rome and never have problems getting upgrades. Maybe these flights are not as popular with Delta or maybe they have changed things this year, and do not allow as many upgrades.

So the trip has ended up with 5 weeks in England (1 week when we arrive not booked yet, 4 weeks in the Cotswolds), then to Provence for 12 nights in Goult, then back to London for 3 nights and then fly home. This gets us home two weeks ahead of the trip we have to do for a conference in Los Angeles, but means that we do not get to Paris this trip (will go to Paris another time).

Thanks for all your advice and I should have checked with the airlines first to see what was available!! Next year I book earlier!!

Don't suggest the best solution, which is to fly coach or do standby upgrades - once you have flown First/Business Class to Europe, it is difficult to go back to coach - but one day when we are all out of miles, we will have to go back to coach. AutoEurope offers sales on First/Business Class seats, but they are still expensive.