If you are a fan of the Eurostar service to Paris you will need no convincing of the many benefits of train travel. The annual summer service from London Waterloo direct to Avignon started on Saturday July 7th and continues until Saturday Sept 8th. It is a weekly service and ideal for those holidaymakers headed for Provence who want to avoid the hassles of summer airport hell and who don't want to have the 650 mile drive from Calais. Driving will take between nine and fifteen hours whereas the journey by Eurostar is a mere 6 hours 10 minutes, station to station, and can cost less than £200 return.

I did a quick search on the eurostarpromotions.com, the website for direct services, and came up with availability for travelling out on August 24th and back on August 27th at a price of £99.50 for each leg. The train leaves Waterloo at 0709 and reaches Avignon at 1412. If that sounds too ungodly an hour to be up and about I could have travelled on the 1240 service from Waterloo which involves a 41 min wait to change trains at Lille. By doing this I could knock £25 off the price of the ticket. If I wanted to maximise my time in France the best return train would be the 1630 from Avignon, arriving at 2130 at Waterloo. If I wanted to cut the price I could have booked the 0909 service from Avignon, again involving a change of train, this time at Paris. Unfortunately you have an hour and fifty minutes between trains making it rather less appealing. This would get me into Waterloo at 1525 and costs a mere £54.50.

Avignon is an interesting destination in itself with its famous old bridge and Papal Palace plus four excellent art collections. It is also an excellent gateway to the rest of Provence, in particular the Vaucluse, an area with more than its fair share of natural beauty, good food and wine and plenty of sporting opportunities.

A quick look at the user-friendly Car Hire Centre website showed that for £138 I could hire a little Ford Ka for my week. However, given the temperatures in Provence I would do well to pay £18 more and opt for the Opel Corsa with air-conditioning. A convertible Renault Megane could be mine for just over £400 for the week if I fancied splashing out on something a bit more special for my holiday. There is an excellent selection of properties available in the region here at Rentals France.