My wife and I will be arriving at CDG airport in the early morning of 26 October and will be catching the train from Perpignan to Barcelona in the afternoon of 30 October.
Our plan is to pick up a car when we arrive and drive to Perpignan over the four days.
Our planned itinery is --
26/10 CDG to Orleans to Chambord, staying at Chambord
27/10 Champord to Chenonceaux to Ayez-le Ridea to Chinon and overnight at Poitiers
28/10 Poitiers to Limogues to Rocadamour, overnighting at Rocadamour
29/10 Rocadamour to Toulous and on to Perpignon
30/10 morning in Perpignan and then 1340 train to Barcelona.
Is this a good itinery? Does anyone suggest a different trip? can anyone offer any suggestions of things to see?.
I have tried to split the trip so that there will be 4 hours driving and time to sightsee. day one is hopefully a slower day as we will have been flying all night beforehand and I did not want to make it too stressful.
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day 1: you will be bushed upon landing and will feel sleepy at odd times during the day.. Driving is not really recommended. We stayed 2 days in Paris before driving away..Besides that Chambord is a small town, more like a big village. Best bet is to stay in Blois nearby.
your day 2: I would add Villandry amongst many castles that should be seen..You are going to Chinon for the Plantagenets of course, aren%26#39;t you?
your day 3: take the time to visit the old Limoges. In Rocamadour look for hotel on the hillside with a view of the town straight ahead. There are a couple of them and years ago their rooms were plain but the food was great. the %26quot;gouffre de Padirac nearby is worth spending a couple of hours.
your day 4: Toulouse is worth a couple of hours at the very least..and so is Carcassone.
You are aware of course that driving on the freeway you will miss the best landscapes and that between Orleans and Perpignan you are bypassing at least 100 fascinating towns, castles etc...
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Thank you for your advice.
I find this site excellent for advice on holidays and have had wonderful times in the past using advice provided here.
Yes we will be trying to get as much as possible in the tour and will certrainly look at the items you have suggested. Chinon and Limogue are both firmly in our plans
Suggestions as to a route to keep away form the highway without overstretching us will also be greatly appreciated as we are not fans of motorway travel and towns/cities, we much prefer to get into the countryside and see the life of the country.
Peter
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If you don%26#39;t want to take the highway from Carcassonne to Perpignan, drive to Limoux, Quillan, Saint-Paul de Fenouillet, Estagel and Perpignan. The road is excellent and you%26#39;ll see 2 Cathar castles on the way : Puilaurens and Queribus. If you have time you may even be able to make a detour to Peyrepertuse.
Or drive from Carcassonne to Lagrasse (Abbaye).
Bear in mind that Rocamadour-Perpignan is a 4 hour drive and that days are short at the end of October. I%26#39;d skip Toulouse and stop at Carcassonne.
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Thank you for the wonderful suggestion. We will certainly go that way. We are not people who like spending all our time in the towns and cities but like to see the country and meet the people. I really appreciate suggestions as to the best ways to go to see the real France. Thank you
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For the first couple of days, between Orleans and Rocamadour, just take any of the roads in between autoroutes (Autoroutes-major divided highways are numbered AXX/EX. A the French numbering, E the European one) that link the places you want to see.
Once you are there it will be obvious..don%26#39;t take the major roads like N xxx (N = national roads) and not narrow country lanes but something in between. Beware that unless they have changed signs recently the French have the bad idea of showing only the name of the nearest semi major or major town in the area, not the name of a far away place. From leaving Poitiers for example you may not see signs Limoges at once..if you choose road 741.
The drawback of choosing roads between major motorways is that you will make you trip much longer as you can%26#39;t drive fast on these roads due to the number of intersecting roads, villages etc. while on the Autoroutes you can drive at 130 km/hr (the legal sped limit) for sure without problems...a couple o years ago, before the policed cracked down, we drove at 170 km/hr for long stretches and were overtaken by many cars. As soon as we left the autoroute we could only drive at 80-90 km/hr max. with long stretches at 50.
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Thanks. We will certainly be travelling on a lot of minor roads as per your suggestion. we will use viamichelin and gps to help us and your advice is also helpful as I now know to watch for minor town signs rather than major centres.
We do have some fexibility built into our trip, not too much but it should be enough to allow quite a bit of sightseeing. If we find time is getting away we can revert back to the major roads for a period to pick up some time.
Thanks again for your help.
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