France has a reputation as a budget-killer, and then it hands you the TER regional train network, where no ticket in this itinerary costs more than €25 and most cost under €10. A week from Avignon to Nice covers Roman arenas, Cézanne's mountain, white limestone fjords and the best urban swimming in Europe, all with a baguette sticking out of your daypack.
Avignon
Start in Avignon — direct TGVs from Paris take 2h40 (€25–60 booked ahead on the low-cost Ouigo). The medieval walls still ring the whole town, and the Palais des Papes (€12) is a reminder that for most of the 14th century this was, improbably, the center of Christendom. Sleep in the hostel by the Rhône (€25–30), buy picnic supplies at Les Halles market, and eat them on the Pont d'Avignon's famous half-bridge or, cheaper, on the Île de la Barthelasse across the water with the postcard view back. Day-trip option: buses to the Pont du Gard aqueduct (€1.50 each way, absurdly) — three tiers of Roman arches you can swim beneath.
Arles
Twenty minutes down the line (€6), Arles compresses a Roman arena, a cryptoportico, and the streets Van Gogh painted into a town you can cross on foot in fifteen minutes. The café terraces at night still glow the exact yellow he said they did. If it's Saturday, the market along the boulevard is one of Provence's biggest — olives, saucisson, and €1.50 goat cheeses from the Alpilles. Flamingo-spotters can bus into the Camargue delta from here.
Aix-en-Provence
Trains via Marseille or a direct coach get you to Aix (about 1.5 hours, €10–12), the plane-tree-shaded university town where Cézanne spent his life painting Mont Sainte-Victoire. Do what he did: take bus 50 toward the mountain and walk up from Le Tholonet through red earth and pines. Back in town, the Cours Mirabeau ritual — one expensive coffee, one hour of watching Aix go by — is worth the €4. The morning produce market on Place Richelme runs daily and smells like the entire concept of Provence.
Cassis and the Calanques
The train to Cassis (€8, change at Marseille) delivers the trip's highlight. The Calanques are a range of white limestone cliffs slashed by narrow inlets of implausibly blue water, and the walk from Cassis port past Port-Miou and Port-Pin to Calanque d'En-Vau — about 90 minutes each way, proper shoes required — ends at a wedge of beach between 100-meter walls where the water is cold, clear and unforgettable. Go early: summer access is sometimes restricted on high-fire-risk days (check the MyCalanques app), and by 11am En-Vau is busy. Cassis itself is a pastel fishing port that knows exactly how pretty it is; a pastis at the harbor costs €4 and buys you the sunset.
Marseille
Twenty-five minutes back up the line, give France's oldest and most argumentative city two nights. Climb (or take bus 60) to Notre-Dame de la Garde for the full sweep of the city, get lost in the Panier district's laundry-strung lanes, and eat: a proper bouillabaisse is a €60 commitment, but the North African quarter around Noailles market does €8 couscous that's just as much Marseille. The MuCEM's rooftop and footbridge are free and spectacular.
Nice to finish
The coast line to Nice (2.5 hours, €15–25) runs within spray distance of the sea after Toulon. Nice earns its ending-spot: morning swim off the pebbles, socca (chickpea pancake, €3) in the old town, the Castle Hill viewpoint, and the €1.70 bus 82 up to Èze's eagle-nest village if you want one last cliff. Hostels €30–35. May–June and September beat the August crush; the sea stays warm into October. Carry a corkscrew at all times.
