Spring Private Tour 2025
REVIEW:
My wife and I love to travel. One of our favorite ways to explore new areas includes finding the best local guides for one day tours of larger urban areas but mostly hiring driver guides for multi-day trips thru large regions of a country. We always wanted to explore Provence so finding that perfect drive/guide was essential. My search found Emily of Your Private Provence. Although I could write a short story on our trip with Emily I will try to keep it short.
PLANNING:
I always work closely with private driver/guides in planning our trips. I do extensive research online about the areas we want to visit. This includes videos and other travel information. When I first started emailing Emily I gave her my initial thoughts and asked a lot of questions. Emily kept me focused and rational about how much we should include in our journey and how much we should load in to a day. We spent untold numbers of emails nailing down the regions of Provence from the obvious to the off the beaten track, to places that Emily herself had not really explored that much. We finally nailed down a great itinerary. We also decided what the best time of year to travel to the region. I didn’t care about lavender but we do love wild flowers and fewer crowds. We went from May 21st to the 31st when each day was blue skies and temperatures from low daytime of 70-81.
THE TRIP:
Emily’s trusty Mercedes van was very comfortable. Sharon and I took turns riding shot gun as we got to know what a wonderful woman Emily was. We had such fantastic conversations and spent the trip laughing at each other’s stories. Emily knew that a right hand turn might be interesting but if we took a left turn instead more off road adventure would ensue. Yes, we saw all of the fantastic small towns and villages of most of Provence. However, we travelled to the ruins of an ancient monastery in the middle of nowhere surrounded by acres of wild flowers. We went to the Verdun Gorge which I liken to the Grand Canyon of France and walked to the precipice of massive cliffs to view mountains and the green river below which carved out the amazing canyon. We walked the Cedar Trail thru a beautiful cedar forest to off the main trail that lead us to wildflower fields. At the end of the trail it dead ended at a cliff where we could see for miles. Emily got to know Sharon and my limitations as far as what hikes to take. We are two very vigorous folks in our 70’s but we can’t hike the trails we were able to handle in our younger years. Emily researched hikes that were great for us. We were just blown away at the diverse geography and topography of Provence. I wandered thru vineyards as Sharon tasted the fantastic wines of the Rhone River region. We hiked thru the ocher trail where mineral was mined to paint the beautiful Luberon villages. We saw the calanques in the area of Cassis. We traveled to Moustiers Sainte Marie(a must see village in the mountains) and stayed at the Bastide Moustiers. In Avignon(one of our hub towns) we stayed at the beautiful La Divine Comedie. In the Luberon we stayed in the exquisite Domaine Les Martins. OK enough! I warned you I could write a short story on our adventure with Emily.
THE TAKE AWAY:
Sharon and I have traveled the world with the help of some of the most amazing local guides. I can state without hesitation that Emily stands out as one of the best! How can you go wrong with a girl born on an Oregon farm who falls in love with a farmer from Provence? The answer is you can’t.
Posted with true appreciation and warm memories.
Neil/Sharon from Philadelphia area.