Day trips by car from Nice.

My partner and I booked 7 nights hotel at the Hotel Roosevelt in Nice, also rented a car for 7 days. (Mid March). Our plan is to make day trips to places like Avignon , Orange , Arles, Maresilles. We have no problem leaving early and returning late. Are these places dooable as day trips from Nice? We would like to pack some of our own travel foods are there any good supermarkets that the locals use in Nice. When we were in Rome supermarkets were had to find. Any suggestions or comments on our agenda, hotel, and driving routes would e appreciated. Merci

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Avignon and Orange are close to each other and you can see Arles on your way back from Avignon. It is a long drive but if you drive expressaways at 130 Km per hour (almost 80 MPH) you can go from Nice to Avignon in 2.5 hrs.

Marseilles should be done in another ride (2 hrs drive).

Go on www.viamichelin.com and make your itineraries. Get a road map from michelin in travel stores. They are the best ones.

You have supermarlets all over Nice (Casino, InterMarche, etc). They are easy to find.

Remeber the Nice area is very enjoyable (Villefranche, the Corniches, Monaco, Menton if you go eastbound or Cannes, St-Tropez, Vence if you go westbound). And you can go in the mountains behind Menton (Sospel, Fontan, etc). These rides can be done in half day.

Prepare your itineraries closely then improvise...

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I would stay at least one night in the centre of Avignon, which is a delightful town. With an early start from Nice one day and a late return the next, you could reasonably see Arles, Orange and perhaps Aix without rushing too much. Don%26#39;t forget that France has only just begun to enforce the traffic laws and autoroute driving will make the trip to Cape Cod on a summer weekend seem very calm indeed!