To each his/her own.

I think Avignon is lovely, and by staying there you can easily go out at night. We have stayed there during the festival time in the summer and it was quite fun. There are a few day trips from there, as well as it being a good location to pick up a rental car for travel in the rest of Provence.

"Would you recommend staying in Avignon or near and going for the day?"

I'm not really sure what that means. Are you asking if anyone recommends staying in Avignon and making day trips out? Or, staying near Avignon and making a day trip in?

Either way, Avignon is lovely in June. You don't really say what you'd like to do while in Provence. You also don't say how long you will be here or if you will have a car.

I love Avignon, but if you'd prefer a smaller village, there are endless choices.

We love Avignon (inside the walls at least) and use it as our base for our yearly visits to Provence. With the cheap and easy availability of public transport to surrounding areas, we have avoided the extra cost of a car for our stays.

Are there better places to base out or of visit? Could be.

Will you be disappointed in Avignon? I doubt it.

Cheers!

Mark

I prefer Arles to Avignon but it all depends on what you want to do. Avignon is quite a big city

Avignon is a great spot, but my personal view as it relates to Provence is "smaller is better." I'd find a smaller village as a base and do Avignon as a day trip.....

I prefer a smaller village and to day trip to Avignon as one option. Avignon, the walled town, is surrounded by the suburbs of more modern Avignon and it can be rather slow and tiresome navigating through these, so by staying outside you are avoiding having to do this each time you want to explore outside.

However, if you don't have a car, Avignon is the transport hub for visiting around and that would certainly tip in favour of Avignon.

But I would hire a car. There are just so many small and charming towns and villages to see which would be quite difficult without a car.

Definitely agree, that the smaller villages are very charming, but starting and/or finishing at Avignon can be useful since it's on the main TGV line to Paris.

I agree about some of the urban sprawl, but even some of the larger towns in Provence suffer from some sprawl, such as Apt (great market town though).

Thank you. Where would you recommend we stay? Area if not place?

We will be traveling from St. Lo and the Normandy are on June 28 th to july 3rd when we meet our photograph group to take pictures of the lavender for 4 days. We have 4 days getting to Provence. We are driving. Where do you recommend we stay traveling to Provence. We could spend a day in Avignon as one of those days, either in the town or near it. What are your thoughts. Then after the photo group in Provence we head back to Paris in the Burgundy area. We again have 4 days. Any towns you recommend?

Thanks so very much for any help you can give us.

Cdavis5611