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France: Provence & the Gard Walking Tour

The southern French regions of Provence and Le Gard have everything you need for a perfect vacation: beautiful landscapes, charming villages, fabulous food and wine, Medieval fortresses and colorful morning markets. Add to that an imposing Roman aqueduct and intact colosseum, a wildlife sanctuary for wild flamingoes, and traditional cowboys, and you have a stellar walking tour! Some of us started our guiding careers in Provence so we’re delighted to be going back.
Duration: 7 nights / 8 days
Dates: 2026: private departures available, contact us for details!
Trip starts/ends: Avignon, afternoon of Day 1 and Avignon (city or train station) mid-morning Day 8
Activity level: 2 -- GENTLE: easy walks on rolling terrain plus lots of city walking [more info]
Group size: min. 4 - max 14

Highlights

* walk around the beautiful streets and alleyways of Avignon, once home to the Popes!
* see the village of St Remy de Provence, once home to Van Gogh and Nostradamus and now a bustling morning market
* hike around the Medieval fortress town of Les Baux
* taste some of the best locally produced cheese and wine
* stay 3 nights each in two delightful villages
* spend the day exploring the Camargue region, which is famous for its cowboys who raise bulls for (bloodless!) bullfights
* walk in an ornithological park that is home to thousands of wild pink flamingoes and other birds
* learn about (and taste!) the local olive oil
* hike around the massive Pont du Gard Roman aqueduct, one of the largest and best preserved in the world
* see the morning markets in St. Remy and Uzes, among the best in France
* spend an afternoon in the fascinating city of Arles, once an important Roman city (it still has a huge colosseum!) and then home to both Van Gogh and Gauguin

Trip price includes

7 nights in charming 3 & 4-star hotels; 5 dinners, 2 lunches and 7 breakfasts; 1 wine tasting, 1 cheese tasting and 1 olive oil tasting; all entrances and activities as per the itinerary; at least 1 bilingual Wild Sage guide throughout the week; all transfers from departure from Avignon on Day 2 to arrival back in Avignon on the morning of Day 8

Not included

4 lunches & 2 dinners; anything other than water at meals; anything not listed in the inclusions

ITINERARY

Day 1: Independent arrival in Avignon
Make your way to the beautiful city of Avignon, which is conveniently on the train line from Paris (2.5 hours) and Marseille (40 mins). Walk around the city with your guide this afternoon and learn about the rich history, including the roughly 100 years when the Papacy left Rome and set up shop here!
Overnight Avignon. 

Days 2-4: Hike and eat your way through Les Alpilles 
The limestone rocky mountains called Les Alpilles (or “little Alps”) are the heart of Provence and offer great hiking as well as the marvelous small towns of St Remy, Les Baux, Maussane, and others. We’ll see local markets and try some of the delicious local food (our hotel is right next to an awesome bakery!), and of course pair it all with the best local wines.
Spend 3 nights in charming Maussane, which doesn’t have the crowds of some of the other towns. 

Days 5-7: La Camargue and Le Gard
Head south on our transfer day from Provence to the Gard region and spend the day exploring the wild and surprising Camargue. It’s full of estuaries and bird-life, and we’ll go to an ornithological park that is home to hundreds if not thousands of pink flamingoes! Walk through the park before heading over to see how local cowboys raise and work with cows and bulls for the local bullfighting tradition that (thank goodness!) involves no violence. The riders on horseback have to artfully take a piece of ribbon from the bull’s horns in order to win! The final two days of the trip are in and around the charming small town of Uzes, that was an important town during the Middle Ages and Renaissance and is still a Duchy within the Republic of France! We also see one of the most impressive Roman aqueducts in the world.
Stay 3 nights in a marvelous former noble house that has rooftop views and loads of charm. 

 

Day 8: TOUR ENDS back in Avignon
We offer one group transfer from Uzes back to Avignon (train station or city) with arrivals in the mid-morning.
Breakfast and ONE transfer included.

TBD
[info on prices]

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Activity Levels

Some tours have a range of activity levels through the week, where some walks may be more challenging than others, but this will give you a general idea of the type of walking/hiking involved on your tour.

1 – EASY: City walking, all or mostly paved, minimal climbing
2 – GENTLE: Moderate hills & easy terrain
3 – MODERATE: Some sustained hills with occasional steep grades on a mix of terrains
4 – HIKE: Classic hiking with rough/rocky terrain, sustained hills, and longer mileage
5 – CHALLENGING: Challenging hiking with steep climbs and descents over rocky terrain and some longer mileage

See below for more detail:

1 – EASY: City walking, all or mostly paved, with minimal climbing (though some cities may have steeper inclines). Archaeological sites may be unpaved but the grades and difficulty level is easy. TOURS: Sicily Coast-to-Coast and any “light active” version of a tour

2 – GENTLE: Moderate hills & easy terrain
The terrain is easy to navigate with packed earth or gravel roads. There are some climbs but nothing too challenging. TOURS: Tuscany, Puglia, Provence
[2+ The “plus” indicates more challenging terrain though the walks are gentle].

3 – MODERATE: Some sustained hills with occasional steep grades and rocky terrain
Here you find a mix of terrain with some steep stretches.
TOURS: Corsica, Sardinia, some of the Dolomites tours, and some hikes on the Greek Islands
[3+ The plus indicates rockier terrain or lots of stone steps (Amalfi, the Cinque Terre) or greater elevation gain/loss (the Dolomites)].

4 — HIKE: Classical hiking with rough terrain, sustained hills, and more mileage. These hikes are on a mix of rough terrain, sometimes involving steep stretches and difficult footing. TOURS: some of our hikes in Sardinia, some of the days in the Cinque Terre, some of the variants of our Dolomites tours.

5 – CHALLENGING: Longer days, challenging climbs, rocky terrain. We don’t do a lot of seriously challenging tours but we do have a Dolomites trip where we hike from hut to hut, so that’s probably the closest we get to a 5.

Info on prices

Prices indicated are for a minimum of 6 people on our European tours (tours outside of Europe have a higher minimum) and our basic itinerary based on double occupancy — a “single supplement” covers hotel prices only, we apply no extra fees. Departures with fewer people or with upgraded hotels will have a higher price. We can organize private departures for any number of people but prices vary depending on number of participants. Please contact us for details!