Around in circles near Toulouse

I haven’t been to this part of France in many years, so my opinions are out of date. That said, I would stop in Carcassonne on the way from Arles to Toulouse, then sleep in Toulouse. The old town in Carcassone will be dead on a January evening. Spend 3 nights in Toulouse, with 2 full days and possibly another half day when you leave. Drive to Albi, spend half day there, possibly next morning depending on your next destination. If you want a full day in Albi, leave early from Toulouse.

I don't have solid advice but I will tell you my experience. I'd visited Carcassonne with a tour group as a day trip from Toulouse a few years ago. It was OK. In October I stayed there for 2 nights on my own and 7 nights with a small group tour. I really enjoyed the old Cite of Carcassonne either early in the day or after the day trippers left. It was so cool to walk around although toward the 3rd week of October many things were shutting down by 6-7P. Restaurants were still open.

We did day trips from Carcassonne but ours were all to smaller places than Toulouse and Albi and might not interest you for a first trip to the area.

I'd probably go with at least 1 night in Carcassonne just so you can walk around the old cite In the evening.

Our tour stayed at the ibis Styles Carcassonne La Cité at 2 Darius Milhaud. It's in a neighborhood, not the Bastide (new town area) and there is a large parking lot. It's about a 10 minute walk to the Cite although it could be darkish at times with street lights not coming on. It's flat until you get to the actual Cite area which has some elevation. It was clean, awesome staff, stridently eco/recycling with signs everywhere (I wanted to scream...I was recycling before you were born....but I restrained myself, hahaha) and located so it was easy for my tour guide to get out of town. The price was reasonable compared to the hotels IN the Cite.

https://all.accor.com/booking/en/accor/hotel/A480?destination=11000-carcassonne-france&compositions=1&dateIn=2025-09-23&dateOut=2025-09-24&nights=1&hideWDR=false&accessibleRoom=false

If you want a restaurant recommendation, I loved L'Ostal des Troubadours and ate there 3 times. There was a guitarist there all the nights who was excellent. His name is Jericho and he is Gitane so sang in French, Spanish, Oc and a little English.

https://ostal.net/index_en.html

Maison de Cassoulet was also delicious. I am not much for cassoulet but I had a salad with steamed shrimp and they were possibly the best shrimp I might have ever eaten....and that says a lot!

Enjoy this area. It is very interesting and there is a lot to see. I really liked Albi which I saw on the Road Scholar tour. Toulouse was fine and interesting but it is a bigger city.

I would visit Albi for the Toulouse Lautrec Museum. The Louvre, which was too conservative at the time of the Lautrec death, refused the offer of his works; so his mother started the Museum in Albi. You will be delighted to see this expansive collection. They open by noon most days, or 10 on some days. Bon Voyage!

From Arles, take the road to Toulouse (via the A9 then the A61) and stop in Carcassonne along the way. It's true that it would be a shame to drive past without stopping, especially since you will see the medieval city from the highway, but you don't need to stay all day; you have plenty of time to visit the medieval city in two or three hours. Why would you want to stay longer in this kind of large open-air museum? (especially in January in the winter wind).

And the modern part of Carcassonne doesn't have any particular appeal other than having the services, hotels, restaurants, and shops to accommodate the crowds of tourists. There are much better and more authentic places in the region.

On that note, you should know that the medieval city was abandoned for centuries and partially destroyed. It was restored in the 19th century by Viollet-le-Duc, who significantly altered it. So what you see, which looks a bit like a beautiful Walt Disney castle, is not at all historically accurate to what originally existed.

Leaving Carcassonne, you'll be about an hour's drive from Toulouse.

If from Toulouse you're going to Port-Vendres (a charming fishing port overlooked by tourists who prefer to stay in Collioure) you can also stop in Carcassonne at that point in your itinerary. I've made the round trip by car several times in a single day from Toulouse, taking friends to visit Carcassonne, Collioure, and the surrounding area. You just have to get up early.

Also, Carcassonne to Albi is nearly two hours on a Tour de France
route – not a good day trip.

Right ! In January, you should definitely avoid driving from Carcassonne to Albi, as it will take you through the Montagne Noire (Black Mountain), which is a very bad idea by car (it was snowy the last two days). It's nothing like the sunny weather in July with the Tour de France.

So, spend more time in Toulouse, from where you can take a day trip to Albi. And since you have a car, stop in Gaillac, halfway between Toulouse and Albi.

Toulouse is a Low Emission Zone and, in theory, requires a Crit'Air sticker (at least the entire area inside the Toulouse ring road). However, this requirement isn't widely observed by locals, and there are no specific police checks for stickers. It's the only low emission zone in the region.

You won't have much time to explore the region, but here's some information and ideas on this map:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1SrAtdgxHVZnob6W3FwLoW4bqrLmZCuU&usp=sharing

All these places are well-known to French and European tourists, but unknown to most others. Too bad for them.

Another one, more focused on Toulouse:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Z1sSFFM4Injq9W_WArpkpYN_6SanFjw&usp=sharing

Regarding cassoulet, there are quite a few places that true cassoulet connoisseurs avoid, some of which are notorious tourist traps (even for French tourists). But one you can go to without hesitation is the Auberge du Poids Public.

https://auberge-du-poids-public.fr/eng/

Cordes sur ciel is another worthy drop dead gorgeous hill town 20k from Albi.
Brad

Thanks to you all for your replies which were helpful to clarify my ideas.
Interesting to hear about your longer stay in Carcassone, Pam, most useful. I think I would be interested in the smaller towns and villages you visited from there but probably a better time of the year. Yes, also Cordes sur ciel, Brad. We are sticking to cities and/or coast this time because it's January and the weather may be poor.
Thanks for your detailed post Jo Lui, I understood from previous threads that you live in the area so I was hoping you'd reply. Reassuring that you like Port-Vendres, yes, we're going there the following week as a base. Those maps you've created are really great! I shall definitely follow the routes in Toulouse city. At the moment I'm studying the other one. Everywhere I click looks interesting (maybe some overlap with the places Pam saw?) so I may 'have' to return at a milder time of the year as well!
Thank you :)

Some practical information about Toulouse and getting around by car:

There are peak traffic hours, mainly on the Toulouse ring road. Arriving in or leaving Toulouse during these times can cause you to lose a lot of time in traffic jams. This is roughly from 8:00 to 9:30 AM and from 5:00 to 7:30 PM.

Second point: The historic center of Toulouse is a maze of narrow, one-way streets that were originally designed for horse-drawn carriages. Something like this:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/tMhCpetJ3gST1zPd6

https://maps.app.goo.gl/hNUXQyyLxwtcmUBA6

As a visitor, I'm not sure you'll enjoy driving and finding your way around this kind of environment for very long. So, find a paid public parking lot if your hotel is in town and doesn't offer free parking. The main sights of Toulouse can be seen on foot anyway.

Port-Vendres is a nice place, but you should know that it's nothing like Collioure in terms of atmosphere. In the summer, there are some beautiful luxury sailboats, but in January, it's a small port town with just a little local life, fishing boats coming and going, and sometimes far more seagulls than people. So, if you get tired of seeing seagulls, here's an idea:

Not far from Port-Vendres is the town of Cerbère, the last town before the Spanish border. If you go there, you'll see a unique place, the Hotel Belvédère du Rayon Vert, an Art Deco hotel built at the beginning of the 20th century when the town was prosperous thanks to the fruit trade from Spain. The hotel is a listed historical monument. It's shaped like an ocean liner, the interior is in the same style (even including a ballroom).). Some people travel across France just to spend a night there. You can just visit it , but you must book in advance.

https://hotel-belvedere-cerbere.fr/

Here is an edited version of our itinerary based on my FB pictures, hahaha!

Day 1: Carcassonne
Day 2: Walk along Canal du Midi right outside Carcassonne to see the boats passing thru the lock. Then to the Belvedere overlook at Lastours to see 4 Cathar castles (which we had to ourselves until a bus tour of about 50 French folks turned up, lol!). We ended the day at the cave called Gouffre Geant de Cabrespine where I lasted about 5 minutes because I am claustrophobic - but the view from the terrace is stunning.
Day 3: We started with a Megalithic chambered tomb called Dolmen des Fades or Dolmen of the Fairies. It’s more than 5,000 years old. We ended the day with a wine tasting at Chateau Saint-Jacques d’Albas.
Day 4: Tuesday we visited Fontfroide Abbey on the transit from Carcassonne to Leucate
Day 5: Oppidum at Enserune overlooking the Étang de Montady (a pie shaped field system in a former swamp that is drained to a central drain and carried off thru the mountain) and stopped nearby where there are 3 layers of tunnels- the Medieval aqueduct on the bottom, next up - the modern train tunnel carrying the current rail line and then on top the Canal du Midi going thru the “Malpas Mountain”. This day was so cool! That field system was so interesting to see.
Day 6: defensive forts of Queribus (climbed up) and Peyrepteruse (looked at it from our picnic lunch site below)
Day 7: Fortresses des Salses built in 1497. Then after lunch climbed the oppidum or hill fort in Leucate
Day 8: Viewed the nearby beach, birdwatcher and had a wine tasting at our hotel from a local winemaker
Day 9: Camp de Rivesaltes, a WWII internment camp
Day 10: Visited Terra Vinea, a winery which stores its barrels in an old gypsum mine. Afterwards we went over to the ruins of an 8th century church.
Day 11: la Grotte de Niaux (cave paintings by guided tour only. English tours on certain days only. They are thinking of closing this cave as the paintings are in danger from people pollution)
Day 12: medieval village of Lagrasse seeing the Bishop’s Palace and village

Thumbnail outline of our tour. I'm sure I forgot a few things.

Some of these venues switch to winter hours so if you are going to go further afield from Carcassonne, do check. When we got to Lagrasse even though Mark and the assistant guide had checked ahead of time the Bishop's Palace was exceptionally closed for the morning. They were able to switch things around on the fly and we did a vinegar tasting in Lagrasse (very cool!) then did the Palace.

I knew from a prior visit that Eugene Viollet-le-Duc had heavily restored Carcassonne but that did not diminish my enjoyment of this UNESCO heritage site. You can still see traces in the walls from the building efforts of the Romans and Visigoths.

One more perspective here. We stayed in Carcassonne for a week in late August, so it was pretty toasty (40 C most days). But we found the center city, across the Aude from the Cité Médiévale, to be remarkably enjoyable, with lots to do and see. Certainly one could find it easy to fill a day with outdoor markets (pick the right day), the beautiful central square, and the lovely walks at riverside and along the Canal du Midi. Agde, Perpignan, Narbonne and Beziers are within easy driving distance, as is Toulouse.

I'm glad we stayed in Carcassonne, as it's more convenient to the coast and to the winemaking regions. But Toulouse is also lovely.

Thanks again for all the info, I've added more places, I may switch things round so we have longer in the area. And definitely Cerbère from Port-Vendres - I chose PV over Collouire because I found accommodation I liked with proper heating. It should be a good base.