Fastest way from Loubressac to Apt, France

It is going to be quite painful. How are you even getting around in Loubressac without a car in the first place?

But anyway, if you can get dropped off at the station in Souillac in the early morning, from there you can take a train to Montauban or Toulouse (~2-2.5 hours). Then, two trains from Montauban/Toulouse to Avignon Centre or Avignon TGV (usually via Nîmes) and the bus from Avignon Centre or Avignon TGV to Apt. Basically a whole day.

Alternatively: overnight train from Biars sur Cere to Paris Austerlitz, cross the Seine to Gare de Lyon, TGV to Avignon TGV and bus to Apt. More expensive, but potentially more time-effective.

Thanks for the info. Yes, it looks like a long trip. We are doing a couple of “MACS Adventures” inn to inn walks, so we wont need a car. Our first hike will be in the Dordogne (I’m going to Pau and then the Basque Country first, meeting up with friend in Bordeaux), then from the end of our trip in the Dordogne (Loubressac) we need to get to the start of our next inn-to-inn, in Apt. We don’t want to rent a car for various reasons. We were hoping to not have to backtrack to Paris again.

Ha! We thought it might be easier to stay in France than to go to Catalonia, but it appears not.

Thanks

Regarding how to leave Loubressac and where to go to catch the train, also consider Brive-la-Gaillarde. There are more trains that stop in Brive than in Souillac, whether you're going to Paris or Toulouse.

In your other post, I already gave you information on finding transportation from Loubressac. It's a nice little village, I spent a few hours there last month, but you won't find any trains or buses.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/n6VBHJZ9kxBcxq1m7

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CR6iH8Ypdw8n5FfT9

As for how to get to Apt, I think the best option is to go south and take the train to Avignon via Toulouse-Nîmes, but this needs to be confirmed by checking with SNCF.

Ha! We thought it might be easier to stay in France than to go to
Catalonia, but it seems not.

Catalonia is only a small part of Spain and just one administrative region, not comparable to France which is 20 times larger with almost as many regions.

Thank you also, JoLui!

There is a bus P57 at Puybrun, about 4 miles (as the crow flies) from Loubressac, that goes to Brive-la-Gaillarde to connect to the train to Toulouse and connecting on the Avignon. check the schedules when you get closer to your actual travel date, which I assume will be next summer.

Not summer. Very early April which can be sunny or not.
Last time I hiked just east of there in April, we had rain the first day, snow the second, hail the third, called it quits the fourth and headed to Limoux and two nights in Carcassonne where we endured Tramontana winds.
But a couple years earlier we had had a week of beautiful weather hiking the Causses and the Cévennes on the GRs from Millau to Saint Jean du Gard, both served by SNCF.

There is a bus P57 at Puybrun

Puybrun is a small station on the Brive-Aurillac train line. Transport to Brive is provided by SNCF, not by the regional bus network. It can be taken either by SNCF bus or by train, depending on the timetable. Don't bother looking for P57, it's not a known designation here. It's a reference from English-language websites that seems to have appeared out of nowhere.

There are few trains/buses per day to Brive: roughly two in the morning, one around midday, and two in the evening. Most of the small stations on this line are now closed, sold, and repurposed. I don't know what happened to the Puybrun train station; it's now private property. You can no longer even enter the Puybrun station, you have to go around through the fields to reach the platforms.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/HUA98eNxXniyQ2yPA

Anyway, unless someone kind gives you a lift, you won't be able to get to Puybrun except by taxi (or hitchhiking), so you might as well go directly to Brive-la-Gaillarde by taxi. Note that in case off unexpected event once you'll be in Puybrun, you'll be lost in the middle of nowhere and can forget about going to Apt.

Thank you again for the additional info. Regarding the weather - guess we’ll just have to be prepared for rain, wind, snow or hail! Who knows anymore what the weather will be! I’m guessing Pau late March will definitely be chilly?

Pau isn't a particularly chilly place, but it a fairly rainy place for France, and especially so in early spring (around April) and mid-autumn.

Pau is nestled at the foot of the Pyrenees mountain range, and like all such areas, its climate can change drastically from one day to the next.

I've experienced a beautiful blue spring sky in April, and then, just an hour later, a snowstorm.

Here, they say that when you can clearly see the mountain peaks in the distance, it's going to rain within three days (which is often true).

Our storms come into France from the west, a lot from the southwest and then spread east. Provence is drier but there is the Mistral at that time of year. Does your company offer hikes in the mountains behind the Côte d'Azur? From there, it would be easy to reach the other dryer place for hiking in March/April which is your original Catalonia hike. Or the Apt hike and then the Catalonia hike. IDK how much your Apt hike is in the path of the Mistral. Balso, do you know? Our conversation seems to highlight weather, as well as the connecting routes challenges.

Thanks again for all the additional info. Sorry it changed into a post about weather

The Luberon, where Apt is located, is generally sheltered from the worst of the Mistral winds, but the mountaintops can get windy (extremely so when it comes to Mt Ventoux a little bit to the north).
I would still say that March is likely to start feeling springlike.