Marseille ship shore excursion

[chclde]

Looking at tour of Provence or avignon, popes palace, les baux. Both are full day tours and same price. Can somebody contrast the two different excursions?

[Mura]

I have been to the area on a private self-drive trip some years ago and a Viking river cruise last April. In April we also spent several days in Aix-en-Provence before boarding the riverboat.

 

If you have NOT been to the area before I would recommend the trip to Avignon and the Palais des Papes. Les Baux (we did this on the Viking river cruise as an excursion) is certainly worth it, but I think you will get more benefit out of the Pope's Palace. Not only might you see the Pope's Palace, but if you have the time there is another small museum there as well as the famous "Pont d'Avignon".

 

I'm not sure what your tour of "Provence" would do in case there is another one, since Provence is a quite large area!

 

But my vote would be for Avignon.

 

Feel free to email me privately if you have more questions.

 

Mura

[mrssbi]

We did the Avignon Pope's Palace and Les Baux through the ship in August. I thought it was a wonderful tour with lots of free time in both places. Well worth it!!! Guided part of the tour at the Pope's Palace was very good.

[GJH123]

We spent the day with a wonderful private guide, Cahterine D'Antuono. Our day's itinerary included Avignon, St. Remy, and la Baux. Each offered a unique experience and allowed us the opportunity to explore a different aspect of Provence.

[chclde]

Thank you!

[chclde]

Do you have contact information for this private tour? I tried one private tour guide and they don't have anything available for the day we are in town.

[no fuss travel]

Just hope the port does not decide to go on strike. That was the port we lost.:eek:

[Bostontvi]

We will be taking a wine tour in Provence October 27,2012 if anyone wants to join us I can give ou the tour company name or check the Nautical roll call.

[Tansy Mews]

You don't mention Arles, but we loved Arles. Not a cruise tour.

[Cruise Junky]

We've spent a lot of time in the area on land trips. Where does your tour of Provence go?

[chclde]

I contacted Catherine D'Antuono and she has a few options including Avignon, Popes Palace, St remy and Les Beaux. She also offers a tour to several villages of Luberon that sounds very interesting also. Which one would you recommend for geting a good flavor of Provence. Our cruise is going to so many locations with ruins and monuments, etc. that maybe a tour of the countryside of Luberon may be worthwhile. Thoughts?

[Mura]

I can't speak for myself about Luberon, but we were in Aix en Provence in April before a Viking riverboat cruise and a number of our group took a tour to Luberon. I don't know if it was with Catherine d'Antuono or not, but the people who took that tour thought it was beyond spectacular.

 

Mura

[tropicalkerry2002]

has been our guide both times we have docked in Marseilles.

She is fabulous!

 

The first time( it was in early Oct) we went to Aix en Provence and Cassis, as I really wanted to see the Calanques in Cassis. It was a great tour, but unfortunately, the water was too rough in Cassis to do the boat tour of Calanques, which was on my bucket list.(google to see the incredible photos!) We spent the extra time in Marseilles, which didn't knock my socks off.

 

The second time was in later Nov, and I figured the water/weather wouldn't be good to do the Calanques, so Catherine's tour took us to Luberon, which she said was her favourite area. I loved every minute of it, and would do the whole tour over again! We visited 4 wonderful villages, each more picturesque than the last! Gordes! Lacoste! My camera needed a vacation after that day...

 

Catherine's driving skills in tight places will also impress, and as I speak/understand a fair bit of French, I loved hearing her mutter in French about what is this guy doing, etc...

 

You will have a wonderful tour with her!

[JimandStan]

I know that this is heresy, but we find Aix to be hot, dusty, far too touristy and sometimes dangerously crowded. The last time that we were there, Aix was giving Times Square on New Years Eve a run for it's money.

 

When planning an excursion to Aix, be sure that somebody has looked into the size and number of ships scheduled to be in the area.

[Mura]

I guess we should thank our lucky stars that we were in Aix for several days in early April because it wasn't hot and it wasn't crowded. We just loved it.

 

I'm sure Provence in the summertime is something else, however. (Especially after finally having gotten around to reading Mayle's wonderful book.)

 

Mura

[chclde]

Based on all of your help, we are going with Catherine on the villages of Luberon tour during our cruise in a couple of weeks. I have one other couple - that we found on CC roll call - who will be joining us for sure and hopefully, a couple more folks will as well. This has been a great forum. Thank you all so much!!

[Tansy Mews]

JimandStan, I was underwhelmed by Aix as well. Loved Lacoste, Gordes, and the Luberon villages. We spent a few weeks in the Luberon a few years ago and found so much worthwhile to see. If anyone is curious, here are some of our photos. http://tansymews.com/France_2008/France_2008.html