We would like to spend a week in late May or early June of next year in Provence. For various reasons a tour would not work for us so what we would like is to find the perfect town/village to use as a base for several day trips. An ideal day from our perspective is to cycle through some beautiful countryside, stop at a couple of towns along the way, perhaps find a place to eat lunch and then meander our way back to our starting point.
We are looking for a town that is located within a couple of hours of a number of towns/villages so that we could choose a different route each day. Most of our bike rides would probably fall within the 1 - 2 hour range in one direction and the same on the way back - not counting photo stops, etc. Circular routes would be ideal of course. We don't mind hills but we don't seek them out either.
We'd love to get some suggestions and we are not absolutely wedded to Provence. Thanks for your help.
If you want to discover beautifull villages and landscapes, you can choose the "Toulourenc Valley" tour : around the Mont Ventoux you'll appreciate villages as Brante, St Leger du Ventoux or Savoillans
If you prefer hilltop villages, you will enjoy this tour
Read as many books as you can find that are written by Peter Mayle. He has written about 10 on Provence, and they will give you a great feeling for the area, and tons of information on the minutia of daily, off-the-beaten-path life in the area. That, plus a Michelin map, and you'll have all your answers, and you'll be overwhelmed by the area. I cycled around there for a few days before continuing north into Germany, in June 2010. Make sure you have lots of space on your camera's SD card!
Me and 2 friends did 3 days cycling in Provence last year and it was fantastic. We stayed at a basic but clean hotel in St Rapheal. On the first afternoon we rode along the coast road through places like Port Grimaud, St Maxime and on to St Tropez. The following day we did a loop of about 100miles through Frejus and up into the Mountains, you go through loads of beautiful little old villages with plenty of places to stop for refreshment (we got through dozens of bottles of water as it was incredibly hot). On the third day we went the other way down the coast to Nice.
It was a fantastic trip and we were situated perfectly, when we got back each day we walked to the beach in St Rapheal and had a swim followed by a few drinks, Perfect!!
