Avignon and French coast

Hello,
Just discovered that Eurostar has direct train service to Avignon (no stopping in Paris) for part of the Summer and we're considering a trip around first week of September.  I hope the weather should be fairly nice.

Ideally, we'd love to visit/stay somewhere by the Med/coastal area for at least a few days.  We don't really know it at all apart from when DW went when she was about 8 years old.

I did a map search to see how far Nice, Monaco and such are, it looks like they're quite a long way.  Are there nice places closer to Avignon that anyone recommends?  Doesn't have to be coastal either as I'm sure there's lot of nice places in Provence.

Thanks!

They're not as far away as you think, it's a reasonable drive/train ride between Avignon and Nice.  If you get a chance, Nice, Cannes, and Monaco are all worth a trip, though you'd want to take three or four days to see them all properly.  Elsewhere in Provence, there are nice Roman ruins, if you're interested in that.  Definitely go to Aix-en-Provence and I'd also recommend Grasse, it's famous for perfumeries and gorgeous flowers.  You really can't go wrong with Provence in the summer, but seriously, the coast is worth a trip, and you can do it easily by train. 

Hyères is very nice, and so is Sanary-sur-Mer, where Sybille Bedford grew up and which figures in her book, "Jigsaw".

But Nice is not that far away. I have been spending my holidays in Nice since 1994. Hotel Nicea in Rue Miron is affordable and clean.

where Sybille Bedford grew up and which figures in her book, "Jigsaw".

That's in my pile of 'to-be-read' books!

I keep reading the title of this thread as "French toast." Sorry about that. I'm sure the coast is just as lovely as the toast. 

The whole coast is simply gorgeous. A lot of people ignore the coast eastward of Marseille - Sète, Palavas, etc.

Thanks for the feedback!  I guess the trains must be pretty good between Avignon and Cannes, Nice, Monaco, the bigger places?  I guess some places we could see or get to on the train.  But then renting a car could be expensive although would give us more choice on where to go, I suppose.
I think given that we'd be bringing the 2 small children it'd be ideal to stay in one place in a family-friendly hotel and possibly do some day trips.

One thing we'll probably do is that given the early morning departure and later evening return to London a hotel stay in London not far from St Pancras would be wise the night before we go and probably the night we return.  I found that Travelodge has £9/night supersale fares from time to time and even when they're not doing that, they have central London hotel stays for £30-40 which is pretty cheap.  I've stayed at Travelodge before and while cheap and cheerful I think we should get something reasonable.

South of France.............it's all good!  Your little ones will love the beaches and the sunshine. We went last summer and still talk about it with wistfulness.....

Thanks for the feedback!  I guess the trains must be pretty good between Avignon and Cannes, Nice, Monaco, the bigger places? 

The trains along the coast are very good, particularly on the Cannes-Nice-Monaco-Ventimiglia route (just over the border in Italy and well worth a visit esp. the Friday open air market), in fact most years we go to San Remo in Italy as well. There is a narrow gauge railway called the Chemin de Fer de Provence which runs from Nice up the valley of the Var into the Alpes de Haute Provence, to Digne-les-Bains. This is spectacular. Also the regular size railway line from Nice to Cuneo in Italy via Breil-sur-Roya. Plenty of train routes.

Going to Monaco and Ventimiglia sound good.  Not knowing when we'd have a chance to be down that way it'd be a shame not to see the principality or Italy as they're relatively so close.

I just looked on tgv-europe.com as this is the place sncf.com (French railways) took me to to enquire about booking tickets.  I wanted to get a general idea of how long the journey is between Avignon and Nice and price.  It had the 2 adults + 2 kids (both under 4 so free of charge) for 80 euros but what really got me was that it said the journey time is 4 hours 34 minutes changing at Marseilles St Charles (21 minute wait on train change)!

Going to multimap.com it says by road Avignon to Nice is 157.7 miles and should take 2 hours 50 minutes.  Granted you don't have to stop in Marseilles when driving but the train journey seems incredibly slow.

If you drove from Avignon to Marseille then Marseille to Nice, it would probably take about the same amount of time as the train.  Avignon straight to Nice is much shorter.  The nice thing about the train, though, is that it goes right along the coast, and there are some beautiful views.  The PACA (Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur) trains are some of the nicest in France.

Hyères is very nice

Seconded!  And the Presqu'ile de Giens is beautiful. 

Hmmm, found a site called tgv.co.uk which redirected me to raileurope.co.uk.  Put in Avignon to Nice and it has a train leaving 10:27 and getting to Nice 2 hours 50 minutes later.  Even the slowest train listed that day takes less than 3 3/4 hours.  So where the hell they got 4 hours 34 minutes on the tgv.europe.com site I have no idea.  So that's a bit better!  And no mention on tgv.co.uk of a stopover in Marseilles.  Looks like £40/adult return is standard fare.

TGV is the high-speed trains.  SNCF is the regular trains.

TGV is the high-speed trains.  SNCF is the regular trains.

I don't think you understand, the SNCF site took me to tgv-europe.com and the booking there (for a TGV train) said 4 hours 34 minutes changing in Marseilles.

The tgv.co.uk site said the train from Avignon to Nice was 2 hours 50 minutes.

tgv-europe.com, tgv.co.uk, what is the difference?

tgv-europe.com, tgv.co.uk, what is the difference?

Sorry, I'm not a travel agent.  Perhaps you should consult one?

Sometimes trains run faster than other trains.  They do in England too.

ETA: It looks like there's one train that takes 2h50m.  I found it on both of the sites you mention, but only the one that leaves at 10.27 goes that fast. 

Just discovered that Eurostar has direct train service to Avignon (no stopping in Paris) for part of the Summer

Wow, that is amazing! A few years ago we spent our summer holiday in the south of France. For one week we had a place just outside Avignon, and for another week a lovely villa in the hills just north of Nice.

All I would say is .... don't just think of the coast here. There is a lot else to see in the south of France. The city of Avignon itself is well worth a couple of days ... Sur le pont d'Avignon .... etc etc!

And vineyards are not too far away! And even Spain. OK it is a bit of a drive but while staying in Avignon we did have a day trip to the seaside in Spain!