Last minute ideas: Bandol, Cassis, Provence in general

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
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last minute trip planning is in full force!! Wife and i have the majority planned but we are looking for some other ideas to supplement:

First two nights, we are near Toulon, but closer to sanary sur mer. mostly taking it easy at the beach, but we could use some food recs

Secondly - we really need recs for wine tastings that are easy going and not hard to get into at this point, ideally in bandol or cassis. If anyone has lunch or dinner ideas here - that would be great too.

Finally - well be splitting the rest of our time near avignon and aix. Food recs (dinner especially) and other must dos - please!!

Looking forward to this trip!! Thanks to anyone in advance for anything!

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in the wide arc between Aix and Avignon, I’d make these general comments:

the board (me included) likes carrière de lumières

I’d avoid l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. It has an interesting geography, but is simply swamped with tourism.

if going to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, know which days are market days. Non-market days the town is much more easy to navigate. Or you may not care about the crowds and might want to see the market. The best restaurant I found in Saint-Rémy was la Cuisine des Anges.

There are one or two small towns where I found great restaurants but they had absolutely nothing else for the tourist, this suited me perfectly. But a lot depends on how much you want to drive.

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Loved this place when we were there, but is may be too far out of the way: Au Fil du Temps in Pernes Les Fontaines. Here’s a write-up from Le Fooding:https://lefooding.com/en/restaurants/restaurant-au-fil-du-temps-pernes-les-fontaines

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Have had a couple of nice lunches at Nino in Cassis over the years. Excellent bouillabaisse.

5

Don’t miss the Pont du Gard. Nearly on a scale with the Coliseum in Rome.
The Gorges du Verdon make for a spectacular drive if you get up that way.

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In the Bandol area, there are a lot of wineries that have easy, walk-in no appointment tasting rooms, and some will do no appointment tours if someone is around to do the tour. Remember that the wineries are not actually in Bandol but mainly clustered around Le Castellet and La Cadiere d’Azur. A few to consider: Tempier, Pibarnon (really a schlep and you’ll think you’re lost but a beautiful property), Bastide Blanche, Gros’ Nore, Pradeaux and Domaines Ott. Terrebrune is a bit further away but worth the drive - very good wines and nice people. Terrebrune had a good restaurant on the property but it closed. Le Castellet has some okay little restaurants but nothing worth a special trip.

7

We were in Bandol several years ago and visited Pradeaux and Pibarnon. Liked both, loved Pradeaux.

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I’ve never visited, but also love Pradeaux.

-Al