Does this make sense? We are trying to find fastest way to get to Provence from Lake Como.I know... not great planning on my part but otherwise my itinery make sense. We will be doing Slow Travel from that point on!

Thanks for all your help thus far!

It seems like it would make a lot more sense to just fly from Milan to Marseille. I'm not sure which airlines do that, but I'm sure you could find out with any of the airfare search engines.

I would take the train. Train in from Como San Giovanni to Milano centrale, From there a train to Gewnova and from Genova you can catch trains to southern France. An altenrative could be going from Milano to Turin and taking a train to Lyon from there.

Rita - Chris is right - going direct to Marseille is much quicker, though more expensive. Because I am compulsive and love a challenge, I have spent way too much time this morning looking at flight schedules etc - you can get to Paris from Milan in about 1-1/2 hrs., but then you have to get your bags, etc. and try to coordinate with the next TGV that stops in Avignon - which, as far as I can see, leave Terminal 2 at 11:24, 14:03, 17:03, and then take 3 hrs. to arrive in Avignon. Also - depending on which airlline you fly, you may find yourself with a very restricted baggage allowance (discount airlines).

Flying Alitalia or Air France from Milan to Marseille, you can be in Marseille in an hour and a half, pick up your rental car and be in Avignon an hour or so later.

Oh yes - and one other factor to consider - if your bags go astray between Milan and Paris, getting them redirected to you half way accross France will likely be a long term project!

Judy

I use this website www.whichbudget.com/ to look at budget airline connections in Europe. It looks like the only flights to France from the two Milan airports go into Paris or Orly. Looking quickly on Orbitz, you could fly Air France or Luftansa, Milan to Marseille (with a change) but these flights are about $500.

If you end up flying from Milan to Paris (CDG), the TGV to Avignon then takes about three hours. Be sure to allow enough time at CDG to get your luggage and get to the station (and any delays). Depending on what terminal you arrive at, it could take you a while to get to the station.

Kathy

Rita, its possible
i fly Paris _ Milan often, and its a quick turnaround either Air France or Alitalia both on the Skyteam program.then the TGV to Avignon its about 3hrs and have 5 connections per day.
just give you time between CDG arrival and changing to the TGV.
from terminal 2EF the TGV station is about 500 meters.

I was checking on the SNCF website: by train you could leave Milano at 11 am arriving in Ventimiglia at 5 pm, there you have a couple of hours of layover and at 5 pm you have a train that reaches Avignon at 10 pm. It's an eleven hours trip, considering the time needed to reach milano from Como, but it's still not much longer than the Paris route (from Como, consider one hour to reach the Malpensa airport via Saronno by train, be at the airport two hours in advance, one hour and a half to reach Paris, a couple more hours to reach Gare de Lyon from the airport and three hours to get to Avignon: about ten hours too.

One further hypotesys that may (or may not) work is take a direct train from Milano to Ventimiglia. Ventimiglia is the very last italian town on the French border. From Como you could easily be in Milano for the 9;10 am train to Ventimiglia, which arrives there at 1;07 pm, just in time for lunch. From Ventimiglia you could rent a car and drive to Avignon in 3-4 hours: just check before renting if renting in Ventimiglia (Italy) and driving to France does not cause a raise in costs.