Carrieres de Lumieres in Le Baux from Marseille

[Travelling2Some]

We (two adults) will be docked in Marseille on November 21st from 8 to 4. We would very much like to get to Le Baux to see Carrieres de Lumieres. I have not been able to find a tour that goes to Le Baux and also allows enough time to see both the exhibit (about an hour) and the town itself. Le Baux seems tricky to reach via public transport. Can anyone say how much it would cost to hire a taxi for the day?

[realnice46]

We (two adults) will be docked in Marseille on November 21st from 8 to 4. We would very much like to get to Le Baux to see Carrieres de Lumieres. I have not been able to find a tour that goes to Le Baux and also allows enough time to see both the exhibit (about an hour) and the town itself. Le Baux seems tricky to reach via public transport. Can anyone say how much it would cost to hire a taxi for the day?

 

Several years ago we also docked in Marseille and I believe we were either on Silhouette or Equinox and they offered tour that included Le Baux. It did not mention Carrieres de Lumineres but we did stop there. It was wonderful and on my bucket list. At the time not able to find private tour.

Good luck

[Travelling2Some]

Thank you for the reply. We're on NCL. They do offer an excursion to Le Baux but, since it is a four hour excursion and two hours of that would be spent driving back and forth, it would appear that there would not be enough time to see both the town and Carrieres de Lumineres. It's so frustrating to be rushed back hours early when there are lovely things to see and plenty of time to see them. It's the main reason I will almost never use a ship sponsored excursion. I suppose I should ask if anyone else on my roll call is interested and try to organize a semi-private tour. Thanks for confirming it would be well worth the effort.

[Hlitner]

Thank you for the reply. We're on NCL. They do offer an excursion to Le Baux but, since it is a four hour excursion and two hours of that would be spent driving back and forth, it would appear that there would not be enough time to see both the town and Carrieres de Lumineres. It's so frustrating to be rushed back hours early when there are lovely things to see and plenty of time to see them. It's the main reason I will almost never use a ship sponsored excursion. I suppose I should ask if anyone else on my roll call is interested and try to organize a semi-private tour. Thanks for confirming it would be well worth the effort.

 

What you say about being rushed is so true. This is why the best way to see a country is to do it on land :). We often cruise the Med and love every day. But we have also done many extended European driving vacations and love having the time to really see and enjoy the country not to mention the wonderful evenings dining at excellent restaurants.

 

Using public transportation to get to Les Baux is not a practical option for cruisers or even those who are staying in the region. It is about a 1 1/2 hour drive from the port in Marseille, but that time really varies depending on the traffic (mostly around Marseille). Les Baux is somewhat isolated, has no nearby train station, and is not well served by public buses. Like many places in France (and Europe) the best option is to have your own rental car which allows you to come and go as you please. Another option is to book a decent land tour which includes the places you seek to visit.

 

Hank

[loves2read]

We (two adults) will be docked in Marseille on November 21st from 8 to 4. We would very much like to get to Le Baux to see Carrieres de Lumieres. I have not been able to find a tour that goes to Le Baux and also allows enough time to see both the exhibit (about an hour) and the town itself.

 

Last fall we visited Les Baux and Carrieres de Lumieres on a private excursion with Provence Connections Tours. It was one of the highlights of our cruise. We posted on our roll call and were joined by 3 other couples. The cost for a group of 8 was 575 euros. The admission to Lumieres was extra.

Tour 10 on their website was the one we took which also included visits to Arles and St. Remy. We requested to replace Avignon with a visit to Carrieres de Lumieres. Our tour lasted 8 hours, but they will customize the tour for you.

[Travelling2Some]

Thank you both! I drew the same conclusion on public transportation not being feasible to Le Baux and totally agree that this is a disadvantage of cruising. (Nothing like being yanked out of Santorini an hour before sunset!) But cruising does have its own charms and we often combine both. I would try to organize something with Provence Connections but our time in port is a bit too short considering the travel time involved. Realistically we'd have 6 hours and 3 of that would be taken up driving back and forth, so I think we'll take the path of least resistance and just take the bus to Aix. Thanks for the excellent input though.

[RynoWally]

Wow, this looks fantastic! I have never heard of this before, probably because this will be our first trip to the Med... This looks so interesting from the reviews I have read about the exhibit. We will be on a Viking cruise in the later part of November and we port at Sete as well as Marseilles. We are hopefully going to do an excursion out of Marseilles to Cassis and Calanques, but was wondering if the Carrieres de Lumieres is just as easily accessible from Sete? We will be in port from 8am-9pm it seem as though it is almost the same distance from either port, however I can not find any independent excursions from Sete....