I'm leavin' on a Jet Plane...

Some of you might remember Peter Paul & Mary's #1 hit song in the 60's; Leaving on a Jet Plane... (It was actually originally written by John Denver with the title Babe, I hate to go...)  If, like us, you do remember this, you're old enough to also remember that not all planes were jets back then!  

We're about 8 ½  months out from your  "Beautiful Villages of Provence" Tour...   So it's time to start looking for and booking flights! The longer you wait, the less choices there will be.

If you're a frequent traveler, and have lots of experience finding and acquiring your own air tix, you may want to just skip this post... But for any of you that might want a few tips for finding the best flights, we're going to go into some of the things to look for here in this post... 

Flights

So foremost in this preparation, is to decide where you want to fly out of here in the US, and into in France...  If you haven't done this yet, we suggest you start looking.  We've heard from some of you that you plan on flying over early and spending a few days in Paris before the Tour... In this case you're obviously looking for flights into Paris, but you'll need to think about where you want to return from.  If you're heading home right after the tour, you could do a multi-city, ~ into Paris, return from Marseille. 

For any of you that aren't doing this, and are coming just for the Tour, we always suggest flying in at least one day early... That would mean flying out on a Thursday night, and getting into wherever you are flying into France on a Friday morning and spending a night in a hotel... (we are happy to help with hotel recommendations). You certainly don't have to do this, as you won't be able to come to The Villa before 4pm on Saturday... We have had guests fly out Friday night to arrive Saturday morning, but again, we forewarn you of the possibility of flight delays. Also, the extra day gives you a little time to adjust from jet lag and time difference (6 hours). 

click this pic for a clearer view

Everyone always asks: Which airport is closest to The Villa? And the answer to that is Marseille (MRS) (about an hour and 15 min drive).  There's also Airports in Lyon, Nice, Montpellier and Avignon as well but fewer flights into these. Marseille will be your best choice if you're just trying to get close to The Villa. And know that prices can sometimes vary dramatically depending on the airport you fly out of here in the US...  Here in the Northeast US, we find that flying out of JFK airport in NY usually has the best pricing and the most flights, but of course it's a little more of a commitment to get there... We most often now fly out of Newark NJ (EWR)  or Philadelphia (PHL) and find that EWR prices are usually 2nd best to JFK... This of you in the South, will likely find the best prices out of Atlanta or Miami...

Flight Tips: We always suggest sticking with a "legacy" carrier such as United, Delta, American, Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France, etc... You can certainly find cheaper flights, but you should be aware that sometimes the discount airlines, don't have affiliations/codeshares with other airlines, and if they cancel, they sometimes can't get you on another flight in a reasonable amount of time... We've had guests who scored great priced tix on some of these discount airlines, and then had last minute delays or cancellations and lost a day of their vacations. 

Other things to think about as you search:  Flight duration and number of stops... Obviously a nonstop flight is quicker with less chance of missing a flight or losing luggage, and if you're flying into Paris, you'll easily find nonstop flights... But if you're trying to fly into Marseille, you'll most likely be on at least a one-stop flight. As most of you are flying out of the Northeast US like ourselves,  non-stops to Paris can be found with a flight duration of as little as 7 - 8  hours, whereas one stops into Marseille are often around 10 - 12 hours (including the connection).  Also you'll want to keep in mind connection times... On any connection less then 60 - 90 minutes, there's always a chance your checked luggage (and possibly even you) may not make the connection...  (especially if your first leg of the flight is delayed).

So, if you haven't bought air tix yet, there's three basic ways to acquire them:

•  1.Go online and buy them your self at an airline's website or online agency.
•  2. Call the airline customer service and buy them over the phone
•  3. Go to a Travel Agent and have them buy tix for you

 Buying online  Most of our guests over the years just go online and buy their own tix... This method has the obvious advantage of you taking as much time as you need to see all the options; all the airlines, their flight times, stops, total flight duration, and of course price. Pick the flights you want and put in your credit card info. Not a whole lot different than buying a toaster oven on Amazon.  (pro tip: clear your cache & history on your computer after each session as they often put cookies on your IP address, and sometimes when their servers see you returning with the same search over and over, the prices can go up).

Calling the Airline  Having good results with calling the Airline and buying them from their customer service agents has a whole lot to do with the actual agent that you end up speaking to. Just like any other industry, some service agents are much better and more helpful than others...  To accomplish this with the most ease, we suggest getting up and calling early in the morning as wait times will be significantly shorter... Mid-day and early evening wait times of 1 to 2 hours or more are not unusual. Be sure to tell them what's most important to you. (price, # of stops, or flight duration). Also, being very polite (they deal with a lot of nasty people) and perhaps saying something sincere like; "I really need your help, I tried to do this online myself but I'm just not comfortable..." If you get an unhelpful or unpleasant agent, just say thank you, and call back at a later time... (Tip: When dealing with customer service agents on the phone, write down their name when they first introduce themselves, and use it throughout the conversation; "Thanks so much Nancy, I really appreciate your help".  It's proven to get better results.

if you look closely, that's us- just over the wing

Travel Agent  Travel Agents are professionals and not unlike airline customer service agents, some are much better, much more experienced, and more helpful than others.  If you already have have a good travel agent, you can by all means use them, but be aware that these days Travel Agents usually don't make commissions on Airline tix, so they'll charge you a fee to do this for you... especially if that's all you're buying from them. (usually this is between $25 -$50 per tix). You might also sense some resentment that you didn't come to them for your vacation plans...  

Things to keep in mind when shopping for tix: 

• Look for refundable or no change fee tix
• Often, the most basic of economy tix won't include checked luggage fees (read carefully)
• Allow extra time between flights if your flight includes a connection (90 minutes minimum recommended)
• Keep in mind that the more connections you have, the more chances of you or your luggage missing a connection.
• Discount airlines vs legacy carriers: be careful with the discount airlines... sometimes they only have a couple flights a week on a given route and they may not have "codeshares" with other airlines (so if your flight is cancelled or delayed for some reason, it could be difficult to get on another flight).
• We always suggest the larger legacy carriers... examples: United, Delta, American, Lufthansa,  British Airways, Emirates, Air France, etc.
• While some guests arrange their flights to arrive the first day of the Tour (Saturday), we usually suggest flying over at least one day earlier and staying in your arrival city in a hotel for at least one night just to be safe in case of cancelled or delayed flights. (this is of course totally your choice)
• If you're thinking of flying home on the Saturday immediately after your Provence Tour, be careful concerning how early your flight leaves (you'll need to drive to the airport, return your car, get a shuttle from the car return lot to the terminal, and check-in a few hours before your flight departure... all of that can be pretty tough to do if you have a 10am flight... you may want to consider an afternoon or next day flight.
• Lastly, we suggest you spend some time researching before you pull the trigger on buying tix... (watch prices for a few days to a few weeks).  Prices vary daily...

For long term planning, we usually suggest a budget of around $1000 -$1500 per person for roundtrip economy tixs...  Tickets are easy to purchase directly on line...  Right now, we're seeing roundtrip basic economy tix into/out-of Paris on budget airlines for as little as $700...   And on the other end of the scale, Multi-City standard economy tix (into Paris/out of Marseille) on legacy carriers in and around the $1300 range....  

Everyone has their own strategies, but we always start our flight research at a site like www.kayak.com,  or Google flights and once we find the  flights we want, we personally buy them directly from the airline's website...  If you're uncomfortable doing this by yourself, give us a call; we are Tour Operators not Travel Agents, but we'll be happy to try to help ...  And lastly of course, you could use a travel agent to purchase tix for you. They'll usually charge in the neighborhood of $25 - $50 per tix. 

Passports

Make sure your passport is valid until at least 6 months after your return date... This is mandated by French law... If you don't have a passport yet, you will of course need one... and while historically they were usually pretty fast... ever since the pandemic, they have been running way behind...  they could take up to several months to arrive...  And trust us on this; if you don't have a valid passport, they will not under any circumstance, allow you on the plane!  Just this last year, we had a guest wait 7 months for his passport renewal and it still didn't come... He got desperate a week before his departure and contacted a congressman who helped him out and luckily got it two days before his departure!  If you need a new passport, we suggest you start working on it now and pay the extra few dollars for both expedited service & expedited shipping! 

As always if you have questions, or need help, reach out to us!  We're always happy to help! Start getting excited... Your adventure to France is just 8 months away! You're gonna have a Blast!

Need a little blast from the past? Here's Peter Paul & Mary singing it for their 25th Anniversary Concert in 1986!  (click here)

So I've heard of Provence... Tell me about it!

the red star indicates the area of Provence where we focus

With just a little over 8 months before we leave for France, we wanted to give you a better idea of just where Provence is, and where we're going to be... So Provence is one of the largest, and by most people's opinions, the most beautiful and geographically diverse regions in all of France...

France, in Western Europe,  is roughly the geographical size of Texas with a population of around 66 million people and encompasses medieval cities, alpine villages and Mediterranean beaches. Paris, its capital, is famed for its fashion houses, classical art museums including the Louvre and famous monuments like the Eiffel Tower. The country is also renowned for its wines and sophisticated cuisine. Lascaux’s ancient cave drawings, Lyon’s Roman Theater and the vast Palace of Versailles all attest to its rich history.

And while all of France is beautiful, they call Provence The Crown Jewel of France!  This famous region in The South of France bordering Italy and the Mediterranean Sea, is known for its diverse landscapes; from the incredible mountains of the Alps... to the wilderness reserves of The Camargue Delta... to it's amazing rolling vineyards, olive groves, fruit orchards, pine forests and it's oh so famous lavender fields. To the south is the Côte d'Azur (or French Riviera), where the elegant city of Nice and glamorous resort towns such as Saint-Tropez, Cannes and Monaco line the coast. (all very, very expensive - makes Paris look cheap!)

We're in The Bullseye!

Provence in The South of France is one of the largest regions in the country encompassing approximately 12,000 square miles and has a population of around 5 million people, the bulk of which live in it's larger cities like, Marseille, Aix-in-Provence, Avignon, Arles, Orange, Toulon, and Nice...   Much of Provence is rustic & rural with a similar look and feel to what many of our guests have experienced on our Tuscany Tours;  an exceptionally unique landscape filled with incredibly quaint & charming, pastel colored hilltowns perched atop rugged granite outcroppings... surrounded by softly rolling hills... dotted with magnificent, rustically elegant old stone built Villas... Beautiful undulating hillsides covered with the distinct diagonal lines of gorgeous grape vineyards & the wonderful silvery hues of opulent olive orchards... All connected by wildly winding roadways lined with Provence's festive Sunflowers, Plane trees and of course, iconic fields of luscious Lavender!

Our Villa, Château du Soleil, sits on a hilltop on it's large Estate overlooking the quaint & charming hill town of Venasque...  It sit's in the middle of vineyards, olive groves, and cherry orchards surrounded by Provence's most famous villages, including Gordes, St. Remy, Le Baux de Provence, Roussillon, Arles, and L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue...  All of this in the shadow of majestic Mont Ventoux in the Alps, that we'll navigate for our Le Provençal Classique Road Rally! Yes, that's right... The Villa sets in the foothills of The Alps!

the red star here indicates the location Château du Soleil and you'll notice it's proximity to 
Marseille (where the airport is) about an hour and 15 minutes south and Avignon 
(where the Rail Station is) about 40 minutes west of The Villa. (click on the map to enlarge)

This area where Château du Soleil is located is what is called the Vaucluse Region of Provence between the Lubéron Massif and Mont Ventoux. The Vaucluse and the Lubéron was made famous and gained international recognition by Journalist Peter Mayle when he released his bestselling book "A Year In Provence" in 1989 about he & his wife's move from London to Ménerbes to restore a Provenćal Villa. 

We highly recommend reading this book if you want to gain a better understanding of the Provençal French Country culture. (there is a BBC miniseries that came out a few years back that you might find streaming, but it really doesn't do the book justice).  (click here for the book) If you're not a big reader, you can get an unabridged audio version of the book online from services like Amazon's Audible, and it's actually pretty good! (careful, it's hard to find the unabridged audio version).  Reading or listening to this book will give you a feel for the culture that made Provence famous, and undoubtedly enhance your vacation experience in Provence!

This area is in what locals have often called The Golden Triangle of The Luberon/Vaucluse, and our Villa sets right in the very center... It is indeed, The Bullseye!  This is truly the area to be, if you want to really see and experience the magical French Country culture of Provence. And we've chosen Château du Soleil after several research trips to Provence and an exhaustive month long search touring wonderful Villas all over the region.   

So we'll educate you more about the region in future posts, but suffice it to say, you'll be in one of the most iconic and aspirational vacation destinations in all the world! This is indeed where the rich and famous come to play!  Get the book / audible book, you won't regret it!

Welcome to The Blog...

Hi guys! Welcome to The Blog!  If you're new to the world of Blogs, it's pretty simple; BLOG is short for Web-log... and it's simply a website written in reverse order kind of like a diary...  

Tommy & Terese at The Pont du Gard 

We're Tommy & Terese and we'd like to welcome you to your private "Beautiful Villages of Provence" website Blog... Some of you have been with us previously on our Tuscany expeditions, and have experienced our Blogs before... Others of you are brand new to us...  Welcome... We're flattered and honored that you've joined us and we look forward to getting to know you better!

Our goal is to totally exceed your expectations in every possible way. It starts with our experience... We've been touring Europe for over 40 years and we're now going into our 25th year of bringing Tour Groups to Europe for our adventure expeditions! We're honored & proud that so many of our guests who have traveled with us choose to do it again... and sometimes again & again!... We know our success depends on providing you with the very best value & the very best travel experience you've ever had. We'll work hard to do that and we hope you are already recognizing that! Our hope is that you are impressed enough to tell your family & friends... and we hope you'll consider traveling with us again... If we can improve your experience in any way, please let us know.

This website is dedicated exclusively to your adventure to The South of France next Summer! We'll use this site as our main conduit to  communicate with you about your adventure trek through France;  The Beautiful Villages of Provence... A Château in The South of France!

We encourage you to check this site regularly,  as we'll use it as a resource to educate you about your upcoming adventure... We'll feature articles about France, Provence, Paris, Avignon, Our Villa ~ Château du Soleil, travel tips, currency exchange, using credit cards in France,  international calling plans and smartphone tips, translators, phrasebooks, ATM's,  debit card usage and limits, overcoming language barriers, French Culture and Etiquette, packing tips, French restaurant etiquette, dealing with jet lag, guide books, driving in France, Cafe & Wine Bar culture, pre and post Tour itinerary ideas, flight tips, car rental tips, maps, GPS units, two-way radios, Touring tips, Gordes, The Abbaye of Notre-Dame de Sénanque, Venasque, Mont Ventoux, St. Remy, The Pont du Gard, Roussillon, Le Sentier des Ocres (the red canyons),  L'Isle-Sur-la-Sorgue, Le Baux-de-Provence, Les Carrières de Lumières, Sault, Maussane-les-Alpilles, Arles, our Le Provençal Classique Road Rally of Mont Ventoux, our Mountain Chalet Luncheon, the Lavender Fields, our La Fete Blanc, and our Wine Estate Tour and French Country Picnic...

Château du Soleil
(click pic to enlarge)

Organizing these group trips over the past 24 years has taught us a lot about "group dynamics" and "managing expectations..."  The most important thing we've learned over the years is that communicating to each  of you what to expect when you get here to Provence helps to manage your expectations by allowing you to more clearly visualize your adventure...   And the easiest way for us to that is through this website...

We've had these BLOG sites running continuously over the past 16 years, and for the 8 years before that,  we  sent out daily group emails...  We had a little trouble in the beginning getting folks to embrace the technology 24 years ago, but today we find that most folks understand and enjoy the benefits...  We'll post informational articles and videos specific to France, Provence and your upcoming Tour to this site on average about 3 times a week...  Sometimes more - sometimes less...  In the very beginning, during the first week of The Blog, we'll post daily, and then we'll drop back to about three posts a week...   And most of these posts will take only about 3 minutes or less to read or watch...  Ultimately, if you follow along, the posts that you'll read will be like reading a personalized travel guidebook designed specifically around your trip! You'll find the personality of the site to be light, easy and humorous...

Don't be underwhelmed by what you see here today...  This is just the first day...  We've learned over  the years to keep it short and simple when we first introduce you to these resources... You'll find that as you check back regularly, that the site will expand every few days... not just with our posts, but also with travel tools, resources and ever-expanding features in the right side bar that will help you better understand the who, what, when, where and how's of your upcoming Adventure to The South of France! By the way, if you're viewing this on your phone, you may not be seeing the side bar (to the right of the posts)... If you're not seeing the side bar on your phone, scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on "view web version."  This sidebar will expand dramatically over time to offer you even more resources.  We'll send out an email notification with a link to The Blog every time we update it... Clicking on the link will get you here without the hassles of remembering the website address or passwords...

So we're hoping you get here often...  It's a simple formula - we've found over the years that those who follow the blog most closely,  get the very most out of their vacations!  They know and understand how to prepare for their trip, what they need, the best way to get what they need, the itinerary, where we're going, what to expect, what's included, and how to best prepare and enjoy their vacation! We hope you enjoy! As always, if you have questions, please reach out to us... You can email us anytime at AdventuresToTuscany@gmail.com or call us 9am - 6pm EST Monday - Saturday at 610-657-7894. We're honored that you chose Adventures to Tuscany for your vacation, and we'll do our very best to show you an outstanding experience!