So we’re taking a 3 night detour into Provence before heading home. We’re looking at staying at St Remy as our home base. Is it necessary to stay in the town for dinner/etc? For some reason in my mind I think of the whole area is a sprawling country side and if we aren’t centrally located (as in walking distance into the town) we’re going to be stuck eating dinner at the restaurants at the hotel.
We will have a car, so part of me thinks I shouldn’t be worried.
We haven’t been to Saint Remy in 10 years, but we found then that there were good dinner choices in town as well as in the countryside. We stayed in Les Beaux and ate well at the two related fine dining restaurants at L’Oustau de Baumaniere and La Cabro d’Or (where we stayed). 15 minutes drive from Saint Remy. You may want simpler provencal fare after Paris. Good food in the area.
Charlie,
I am headed there today for four days. I have a few reservations already made and will report back to you. Where are you staying?
It is very easy to get around by car so don’t worry.
You have any winery visit suggestions? We are going to Beaucastle to take the tour etc.
Seth
We haven’t booked our place yet as we are still deciding if we are going to stay in the center or outside. I think we might be leaning to outside since we will have a car.
Winery wise I’m probably going to contact beaucastle and pegau. But nothing is set in stone.
Please update me on your trip!! Would love a report of where you stayed/ate/explored
Thanks as always! We are definitely looking for lighter fair. My wife really really wants bouillabaisse So we will probably drive to the coast one day
So you are going to Zurich, Burgundy, Paris, London and Provence?
You are right, you do like to keep in motion.
The St. Remy market (food) is charming so try and plan to visit. Perfect before a picnic lunch.
Not sure if you like museums much, but Van Gogh’s house in Arles was a treat and it’s a lovely town.
Are you checking out Avignon? If so, I loved Christian Ettienne’s place, but it was a decade ago that I was there.
Where I based myself when I tour that area is Villeneuve les Avignon. A little closer to the wineries and just across the river from Avignon. Very peaceful. I stayed at La Magnanerie, which was fabulous. The restaurant (again many years ago, 2003) was awesome and back then there were real steals on the list (90 Chave for 110 euros with the euro being less than a $).
If you find a good place, St. Remy is a great town.
We will be training into Avignon and renting a car there. We leave the day of the market at st remy. But our flight from Lyon isn’t u til 3pm so we will have a chance to explore. My only worry is finding parking in the town with the market going on. That’s kind of the reason I was thinking of staying in the town
We definitely are going to van goghs house.
Also in your list you’re missing us going to Lucerne, zermatt and Geneva 
Not sure I’d stress exploring St. Remy your last day if I was driving up to Lyons airport from there. The Rhone Valley is awesome, gorgeous, with wineries and the Vahlrona chocolate factories.
With three nights, I think even you might have too much running around. Arles, the seaside for boulliabaise, Beaucastel and another winery or two, St. Remy and the market, a drive through the Rhone valley to Lyons, not to mention Avignon’s amazing sites (maybe you are skipping Avignon).
I figure one day for Arles and anywhere else you want to go in the area (I did Arles for one day, I’m sure there are great restaurants), one day for wineries, and then a leisurely drive through the Rhone valley.
Given two of the three days are north of Avignon, St. Remy seems like a geographically disadvantaged choice of base. Consider Villeneuve les Avignon, and do St. Remy on the Arles day. Yes, you’ll miss the market, but you’ll get the Vahlrona factory, and a stop at great Rhone winery no more than 1000 meters from your route to the highway.
Here’s the place I recommended above in Villeneuve
http://www.magnaneraie.najeti.fr/chambres/chambre-charme.php
thanks for the rec barry! I might completely skip over CDP, it’d be fun but it’s not a real priority. I think we want to go visit some lavender fields (should still be in season), head to the seaside for some food, explore some castle/towns, that’s primarily the reason I picked St Remy as it seems centrally located to go all over. I also did look at Avignon as well, still debating!
I like the towns and countryside of interior Provence more than the cities: Uzes, Pont du Gard, Arles, the area and small towns around and including Saint Remy and Les Baux, Vaucluse (although I’m not sure it is technically in Provence), et al. The last time we drove around Provence was maybe 5/6 years ago and we stayed in Castillon-du-Gard, in a cool old castle with an excellent restaurant. The town was literally nothing, but the surrounding area was interesting. Uzes is maybe 12 km away. I’ve never stayed in Avignon, but have visited twice in the past 10 years. The first time, we spent half a day. The second time, we ate lunch, wandered around a bit, then left. Barry is right that Avignon/environs is more centrally located as a base to explore the surrounding countryside. But Saint Remy/Les Beaux is a lovely area to stay. All of the places I’ve mentioned above are 30 to 40 minutes drive from Avignon. And Roussillon is less than an hour.
I agree with Mark overall, and CdP area is sort of dull compared to the area Mark describes. Beaucastel does a great tour if touring wineries is your thing. Not quite the historic touchstone that Burgundy was for me, and other than the wineries, not much to do.
Skip CdP and use that time to enjoy Provence, and the itinerary makes sense. Going from Avignon to St. Remy to CDP back to St. Remy to Lyons is a little too much back and forth . Not sure what time you arrive in Avignon, but just a couple of hours might be enough for the Pope’s Palace - it’s open until 7pm in September.
One caveat, it depends on how much you like atmosphere and history. I love it, but the point of Provence is in general being there, not doing things (except Arles, which has Van Gogh house and Roman Ruins). I’m encouraged that you are talking about seeing the lavender -not only seeing the lavender but taking the time to immerse yourself in the fragrance!
One last thought - if you ride horses, Provence by the coast (the Camargue, just south of Arles) is a super destination for that I’ve heard. (I don’t ride, so can’t evaluate their claims). Then you’ll have two days of action.
This is my idea of “Provence” - http://www.bastide-moustiers.com/LA-BASTIDE-DE-MOUSTIERS,53
Alain Ducasse used to ride his motorcycle between his two Michelin 3 star restaurants in Monaco and Paris and needed a place to stop halfway so he opened this small inn that is the perfect South of France experience for me. Quaint with a capital Q. Just a few rooms, 2+ acre garden on site just for the restaurant, stunning terrace to dine on, great little village - Moustier.
Its in the “grand canyon” portion of France not far from Aix en Provence - great hiking, rafting if your into that kind of thing but I just loved the whole feel of the place/town/pool and was happy soaking it up. Food is fantastic and local sights pretty special. We spent 1 weekend there on our first trip to France and have been wanting to go back ever since.
Charlie,
We are back from a lovely time in Provence and I would like to share some thoughts and impressions with you. We stayed at the Chateau Des Alpilles just outside of St Remy and it was lovely. It is a terrific property with various room options in the Chateau or other smaller buildings on the property. I doubt you will be disappointed with any location on property. We had dinner at the hotel two nights as it was really good. It is upscale homestyle food that is of high caliber. Bottom line it is much better than many of the overpriced, overrated places we ate at in France. I doubt you will find a more idyllic setting for dinner either. Regardless of where you stay in St Remy you should go here for dinner one night. The wine selection was good had an excellent White Burg with an equally amazing meal.
Staying is ST Remy is not our thing it gets crazy busy on Wednesday am during market day. I suggest you go as it is a great market just get there early I would suggest 8:30am. We enjoyed the cured/smoked meats, cheeses, breads, rotissere chickens are the bomb! Needless to say I gained weight. I looked at a few of the hotels in town and I do not recall seeing anything special.
Having a car is a must and we hit some incredible places. The town of Les Baux about 15 minutes away is cool built on top of a hill and worth a visit. Get there early (parking is an issue) and walk around the city. It is really touristy but I suspect that is the only way they can maintain the site. You won’t need much time there if you arrive early. We then went to Chateau Es’clan. Recently mentioned in the WSJ as the Hampton running out of Rose ( LOL). Personally, I did not care for their wines. In fact, we went to a few wineries in the area and I did not care for the wines. We had just come from Bandol visiting Tempiere and Pibarnon which were excellent.
We had dinner at Mas del Amarine it was recommended to us. I checked it out on trip advisor as well. Avoid this place it is incredibly overpriced and the owner can be a witch. We had an average meal at 3 star prices. I was really disappointed in the food and the service was dreadful. I like a casual meal but when you ask for the check and it takes 35 minutes thats ridiculous. Our dinner was 3.0 hours with no dessert. We could not get anyone to come over and when they did they ignored the request. The setting is outside with no bug repellant. Skip this place if it is on the list.
We took a day trip to Avignon which we really liked and tied that into a tour at Pegau and Beaucastle. The Beaucastle tour was interesting and it is not everyday you get to taste wines from 2001! They did a very generous tasting with no fees. Total tour time was about an hour. We then headed into town and purchased some wines from older vintages which can be hard to find. An excellent day trip as we also toured the Popes palace in Avignon.
You can reach many of the towns of the Luberon from St Remy which are interesting and beautiful. Some of our favorites were Gordes, Bonnieux, Rousillion. These are all worth going to for a visit. On the way you will see many others which you can drive through or have lunch.
We also stayed in Aix En Provence and used it as a home base to go to Bandol and other areas. While it is a nice town I would not go back. The smaller towns of the Luberon are much more of what you expect of Provence. AS far as bigger cities I prefer Avignon to Aix.
Not sure where else you are headed but we were in Vence. Really beautiful about 20 minutes inland from Nice.
Hope this helps…
Seth
Awesome!! Thanks Seth
+1
Charlie, I hope you and Kathy have a wonderful vacation. Will be looking forward to reports!
Ok, weird. My wife and I did a tour of southern France in July this year, and also stayed at Chateau des Alpilles! I saw this thread and was going to recommend it as well. It’s a gorgeous country estate about a mile from ‘downtown’ St. Remy. On this trip we stayed in larger towns (like Avignon) and country spots like this one, and we ended up preferring the peace and serenity of the country, especially after a busy day of French tourism.
My wife and I are students of history so we found the region to be endlessly fascinating. Far too much to do in our 5 days there … we will definitely go back some time. We also found the Luberon beautiful and picturesque (we actually walked/hiked from Bonnieux to Lacoste … a pretty little valley). Avignon, Nimes, Aix are all wonderful and varied towns. Never made it to Arles ridiculously! Just flat out ran out of days.
There are so many restaurants in the region, with so much variation from very casual deli-style fare (except we’re talking a French deli. There’s one on the main road east out of St. Remy that was just wonderful – like you died and went to deli heaven) to 3 star Michelin extravaganzas, it’s hard to recommend one without knowing what you really like. But a little research and use of guide books will get you a long way. Generally I try to stay away from the most obvious tourist areas – usually there is better (or at least more authentic) fare just slightly off the beaten track.
We are absorbing all of this information and will just go where time and availability takes us in October. Thanks for your report!
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Rich
We will be in St Remy in a couple weeks and would like more detail on the deli you mention below-approx. how many K E of St Remy is it? Is it past the big iris garden place on D 99?
mark meyer
quote=“R. Frankel”]
Ok, weird. My wife and I did a tour of southern France in July this year, and also stayed at Chateau des Alpilles! I saw this thread and was going to recommend it as well. It’s a gorgeous country estate about a mile from ‘downtown’ St. Remy. On this trip we stayed in larger towns (like Avignon) and country spots like this one, and we ended up preferring the peace and serenity of the country, especially after a busy day of French tourism.
My wife and I are students of history so we found the region to be endlessly fascinating. Far too much to do in our 5 days there … we will definitely go back some time. We also found the Luberon beautiful and picturesque (we actually walked/hiked from Bonnieux to Lacoste … a pretty little valley). Avignon, Nimes, Aix are all wonderful and varied towns. Never made it to Arles ridiculously! Just flat out ran out of days.
There are so many restaurants in the region, with so much variation from very casual deli-style fare (except we’re talking a French deli. There’s one on the main road east out of St. Remy that was just wonderful – like you died and went to deli heaven) to 3 star Michelin extravaganzas, it’s hard to recommend one without knowing what you really like. But a little research and use of guide books will get you a long way. Generally I try to stay away from the most obvious tourist areas – usually there is better (or at least more authentic) fare just slightly off the beaten track.[/quote]
Mark - it’s called “Pasta Nostra”, with a sign that says “Epicerie Fine Italienne” above the door. It’s at number 13, 99A – just about 50 feet East of the main ring road that circles central St. Remy. So yes, Italian/French deli. 
.