Base in Toulouse or Carcassonne?

The city of Toulouse does not make Rick's list of preferred destinations for a first or second trip in France. You could take a direct TGV from Barcelona to Carcassonne, see the town, then pick up a rental car the next morning to explore more nearby (Albi, Minerve, Caune-Minervois). Or rent a car in Barcelona and drive through the mountains, if you will return it in somewhere in Spain, but don't plan to pick up a car in one country and drop it in another, due to high drop-off fees.

Thank you.
We could drive but giving 3 children in the back of the car the mountains may not be great relative to being car sick. For this reason, we prefer highways when possible, hence the reason for the train. We will be in Madrid on the front end of the trip, ending up in Barcelona with 3 days in the middle. Originally we were heading south for 3 days but now are considering heading to southern France. We will take day trips from Madrid and Barcelona to cover exciting things in between such as Toledo, Segovia, Zaragoza. If you were to go to Southern France, where would you go, and why. Or, is there a place in northern Spain that you feel is an absolute must?

Probably neither.

Toulouse is a university and aerospace city without much of interest to the general tourist.

Carcassonne is rinky-dink and you can easily see most of the tourist stuff in a very few hours - - actually after supper if you want to skip the poorly-redone castle.

Maybe Albi or Castres? They're both kind of central to several places and both offer enough of interest to fill the rest of the day and evening after you finish wandering.

Thanks Ed.
All: both like the idea of our family being able to bike around for something to do. Is this safe? Where is best in the southern France towns?

I did stay in Toulouse and used it as a base for exploring Carcasonne, Albi, Foix and Narbonne. It is a lovely city.

I'm not quite so hard on Toulouse as Ed is, but here's the thing. Neither of these towns is a good base to see anything other than themselves. Also, outside the cities, rail service is so spotty that if you want to sightsee you almost have to drive.

Pick the sights you want to see, then pick your base.

Brevity sucks.

I don't dislike Toulouse at all. I've spent a lot if time there and am actually quite find of it. Aerospace and all that.

It just never struck me as a place that the average tourist would care about the first time out.

Adam has the best advice--pick what you want to see and plunk yourself in the middle.

It's very hard to answer your question because we don't know when you'll be traveling, the ages of the five, and your interests. Since you have only three days , you won't see a lot, so you need to consider the place you are staying as the primary site. Children will enjoy the walled city of Carcassonne, even if it was all rebuilt in the 19th century and is full of tourist shops and restaurants. However, it's the second most visited site after Mont St. Michel, so expect shoulder to shoulder tourism in July and August. You can also bicycle along the Canal du Midi in Carcassonne and take a little boat ride. If the crowd is older, they might like the interesting museums in Toulouse. No matter which you go to, there is a lot to see in the town and around. Finally, In my humble opinion I think you should use the days to go to Cordoba. Nothing tops the mosque there.