We pick up a rental car in Toulouse at 10 a.m. on a Monday morning in October and drive to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence for a 5 p.m. check-in. This is less than a four hour drive on the A61 and A9 freeways according to the Michelin route planner. There are a couple of other routes that stay north of the main freeways and take a little longer. We are trying to decide a town to explore for a couple of hours and have lunch. Does anyone have some experience along this route?
Thanks
I would have thought Carcassonne is your obvious answer. Small enough to be quite easy to get into. Couple of hours would be about right to wander and get a flavour. Things to do inside if the weather is inclement - the only drawback being that it is closer to the start of your journey than you might want.
Of course, a Monday in October is going to limit your choice of places to eat (so unfortunately Franck Putalet's wonderful 2 michelin star place which does a really good value lunch is closed on Mondays, but his "2nd" restaurant, the Brasserie a 4 Temps in the main town, is open) .
I tentatively have Carcassonne listed as a day trip from Toulouse since it is only an hour by train and we don’t need to deal with traffic. We can reconsider. Thank you for the restaurant recommendations!
That northern route takes you on departmental roads through a gorgeous area with national forests and not a lot of towns. You can stop in Gaillac, Saint Afrique, Lodève. It takes two hours longer.
If you take the autoroute coast route, you could stop at the seaport town of Sète and have a delicious lunch at its fish market. It's a traditional town with a lot to see.
Thanks, we looked at Sète since it seems to be a smaller town and is approximately 2.5h drive from Toulouse. It appears to be a good spot to stop and your recommendation is appreciated.
If you pick up your car at Blagnac airport you will be northwest of Toulouse, the opposite of your destination and you will have to reach the Toulouse ring road. The whole area between Blagnac Airport and the ring road is quite busy (there are Airbus factories and all the aeronautical industries). And the ring road is busy too
On a Monday, you can therefore add at least half an hour to the travel time indicated by Viamichelin.
The A61 and A9 option will take you to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence probably before 5 p.m.
It's the fastest, the most expensive, and the most... boring.
In case you did not see it during a daytrip, along the way you will see the medieval city of Carcassonne from the A61 motorway
That being said, taking these highways, Bets' idea of stopping at Sète is very good although it could be too late to have lunch there.
Try anyway to go to the restaurants on the quays of the port, there are some interesting ones.
There are other options by taking small roads and going through the Montagne Noire and the Regional Natural Park of Haut-Languedoc with beautiful scenic roads but I'm afraid you won't have time for these because it's is at least 90 minutes longer.
And without a nice weather it's less pleasant
Thanks again. The car rental agency is near the Toulouse-Matabiau station, not sure how much difference this makes. We will need to reconsider when to visit Carcassonne, either a day trip from Toulouse or stop on the day we leave.
From the station you can reach the ring road more easily and you will save time, probably around 20 minutes. There are trains approximately every 2 hours to go to Carcassonne. The journey takes 1 hour. From Carcassonne station there is a bus (line 4) which takes you to the medieval city.
See which option you prefer. By staying several days in Toulouse the best option is in my opinion the daytrip.
We have five nights in Toulouse which should give us time for a couple of day trips. We will plan on a lunch stop in Sète, maybe some time for a stroll after lunch. Thanks again for your recommendations.
In two days you will have enough time to see most of the "pink city" . The old town is not very big, and if the weather is nice it's best to walk. This will leave you enough time to go to Carcassonne and also Albi which is also easily accessible in less than an hour by train.
In Toulouse don't miss the Cloître des Jacobins (Les Jacobins monastery) where there is also currently a very interesting exhibition about the Toulouse Opéra showing how sets, props and rigging are made to perform opera performances.
https://www.jacobins.toulouse.fr/anglais
For lunch (except Mondays) go to the Victor Hugo market (one of the most beautiful in France). Upstairs above the market there are 4 or 5 restaurants serving excellent local cuisine at very reasonable princes, less than €20 for a 3 courses lunch.
All products are fresh from the market one floor below. Go upstairs before noon to reserve a table.
Thank you for the recommendations. The restaurants at the market look interesting.
A little off-topic - I am reading that the bus in Carcassonne is not reliable but I am not sure how recent or accurate this information is. Do you have any information about this? Is it a pleasant and reasonable walk to/from the train station to the old city?
Thanks again.
I don't know where you read that the bus is unreliable, under what circumstances it was, and in what way it's unreliable.
I searched on other forums where I read that last June a tourist (also Canadian) had to wait an extra hour because the scheduled bus had broken down.
But sorry I can't help you regarding the reliability of this bus that I never took. I always went to Carcassonne with my own car.
That being said, except for a specific curse on Canadian tourists, I don't think you need to worry about this bus :))
Thank you, we will use the train and bus.
