OK... So I think it's GONNA be great, but at the moment the Aix-en-Provence Gare Routiere is a big mess, with billboards all over the place sporting an artist's rendering of what it's supposed to look like by the END OF DECEMBER. We've been passing through there everyday for the past month. Not sure they'll get the job done before the bus carrying Pére Noël arrives from the north, but they ARE making visible progress with the new boarding area, and I think it will be efficient and user-friendly when it's done.
A couple facts a traveler would want to know, whether arriving in the construction war-zone that exists today, or later when the facility is up and running...
- The entire facility is about a 10 minute walk from the center of town. Very doable, but not especially convenient.
- There are two or three youth hostel/apart-hotels that I've noticed in the area, but they aren't particularly close either.
- Connections between city buses and the local train station are also a couple blocks away, and the train station is just plain hard to find unless you know where you're going. But that doesn't really matter since the REAL train station (where the TGV arrives) is 18 km away, and you have to take a bus from the TGV station to... you guessed it...
... the new Gare Routière.
Confusing? Oui. Je pense! read more