I’m planning a private bike tour in Provence for the fall. Have done this before in Bordeaux several times and stayed in Bordeaux. We used Bordeaux as our home base and it worked out great. Cycled out to Pessac-Leognan, Medoc/the left bank, and Entre deux mer from Bordeaux and used a van transport to get us to St. Emilion/right bank Usually do about 100k/day. For the trip in Provence we are planning to stay in Avignon and use that as our home base. Any thoughts on staying in Avignon. We liked staying in Bordeaux because, among other things, there were a variety of restaurants we could walk to at night (as opposed to staying on a chateau property where that would not be possible).
It’s more about the kind of terrain that you want to ride - Hills or flats . I have used Avignon as a base for touring Provence. I also rode with my wife from Paris to Brittany , down the atlantic coast to Biarritz, across the pyrenees , and then up the med coast to Marseille.
In the summer , I preferred the languedoc, herault, roussilion area more than the area around Avignon. Too many crazy tourist drivers. The pace was significantly calmer towards Spain. You also have to be concerned about the Mistral winds near Avignon. Around Arles, we had a day that when we stopped pedaling, the bikes went backwards . We had been riding 100k a day normally fully loaded but we could only do 50 or 75 in the winds.