Aix in provence

Sailing NCL Spirit with day stop in Toulon, France on Sunday the 29th of April. Dock at 8:00 am. Thought was to take train to Aix in Provence to sightsee for day as all indications is Toulon is not a great day excurion. Train leave Toulon at 9:20am and arrives 10:10am. In order to get back to ship by 5pm (sails at 6pm), would have to take a 3:04pm train that gets back to Toulon at 4:15pm. That would allow 5 hours in Aix. To be on safe side, the earlier option is a 1:35 train that gets back at 3:15pm. Doable ???

Sailing NCL Spirit with day stop in Toulon, France on Sunday the 29th of April. Dock at 8:00 am. Thought was to take train to Aix in Provence to sightsee for day as all indications is Toulon is not a great day excurion. Train leave Toulon at 9:20am and arrives 10:10am. In order to get back to ship by 5pm (sails at 6pm), would have to take a 3:04pm train that gets back to Toulon at 4:15pm. That would allow 5 hours in Aix. To be on safe side, the earlier option is a 1:35 train that gets back at 3:15pm. Doable ???

Spend two weeks in Aix last year. What a wonderful city! Beautifully preserved old town with a ton of fun little shops, fountains, cobblestone streets and wonderful markets. Get there early to enjoy the market. I can recommend a tour we did. Hiliary does a fantastic job with Wine in Provence, wine tasting/pairing! It is voted #1 on Trip Advisor for things to do in Aix and we highly concur!

If you're willing, it's often more efficient to rent a car in Toulon or La Seyne sur Mer than to take the trains. At least on a Sunday, we figured that the car saved us well over an hour of port time versus the trains. You also need to determine whether the trains you want stop at the regular or TGV Aix train stations--if I recall correctly, only the former is walkable into town.

Les

I live in this part of France and have had a stream of rotten experiences with the French train service (cancelled/ late trains, strikes and missed connections). I'd strongly advise you to rent a car, given your tight schedule. It would give you a lot longer in Aix too.