Southern France Tour Review: Nice, Marseilles, Aix en Provence, Luberon Villages, Perfume Factory Tour, Olive Farm, Architecture

Overall the trip was extremely enjoyable.  We did a tremendous amount of research beforehand and Zicasso and this travel team complemented our thoughts and desires.  For the most part the trip was a positive.
The negatives:  Negotiating the train in Nice and again in Marseilles was a nightmare.  We had no experience, little to no understanding of French, and three pieces of luggage to get on, and up two sets of stairs in Nice.  My wife advised the travel team about her rotator cuff surgery as being one of the reasons we were paying for the transports, and that we wanted this trip to be as stress free as possible.  We had no idea what to look for on the monitors, what train, where to go, and what the process was.  We were going to Avignon from Nice, and that is what we were looking for on the monitor.  We had no idea that our train, when it finally came up was the one that showed Paris as the destination,  It was a godsend that we had over 2 hours. We went to information and they told us to go to the ticket office.  We did.  It was crowded and busy, and after observing and making some mistakes, we finally figured out the system there and were able to speak to someone with very limited English.  Marseilles was as equally bad as Nice.  A couple that we had shared a tour with us spotted our discomfit and took us under their wings.  We would never have made the train without them.  It was shear and utter chaos.  My wife held onto his shirt as we pushed and shoved our way to the train.  Honestly, my 5' wife thought she was going to get trampled.  More people than could fit were trying to get through the train doors, and we again, had to get our luggage up the stairs.  Please bear in mind we were gone for a full month and each bag was close to 50#'s.  There were twice as many people on the train than there were seats, with luggage jammed in the aisles.  I managed a seat with my 50# luggage on my lap for 3-1/2 hours, and my wife sat on her carry on bag, with her legs on top of her luggage.  The train was delayed for 45 minutes while they tried to get some people off and onto another train, but even after that the aisles were still packed.  There was no way the entire trip to even get to the bathroom.  At 66 and 69 years old, I can tell you, we will never do that again unless we have someone to assist us in learning the ropes.  I have no idea if first class is better.  
My wife expressed her concern to this travel team prior to the trip and he said "it's easy, you will have no problem".  
Our suggestions to the team would be, if you have clients who have never used the train system, provide them with the information necessary to guide them through the process.  Explain the monitors, advise what destination to look for, and give an itinerary on the stops as part of the train voucher,  and along with that advise the cab driver to go in with the clients and give them a brief overview. Your trains are nothing like our trains.  Never would they be able to have anyone, never mind women and children standing in the aisles, unable to move.  As you can see, the beginning and end of the trip was not good. The other negatives are minor.  The Perfume Factory tour was boring, loud and inaudible.  The private transfer from Avignon to Aix en Provence was almost 5 hours of driving with a couple of brief stops.  It was long, also boring and as he took all the back roads it was mile after mile of countryside with nothing to look as nothing was in bloom.  Our driver was very difficult to understand. Most of the time we had no idea what he was saying, and to make matters worse some of the villages he quickly drove through were where we were going the next day.  We wished we had more time in some of the small towns and villages that we visited that we were entranced with, especially when it was  just the two of us.  We understood the constraints of a group organized tour.  
Our room at the hotel in Aix-en-Provence had a consistent sewer smell.  When we entered the room it was strongly perfume scented but it did not cover it up.  We weren't in there a lot so just dealt with it and opened the windows at night. Just a heads up.
The positive is that we were able to see everything we had selected and then some, 
Our trip planner at this travel team was responsive and patient and did an excellent job in complying with our requests to the best of his ability. We enjoyed working with him and this travel team.