South western France visit

You plan to include the Uffizi in Florence. You should also visit L’Accademia in Florence to view
Michelangelo’s statue of David. It is breathtaking!

From what I see and given the number of days you spend in each city while wanting to do day trips from these cities, you will see a lot of stations, trains and buses.

Since you are not a big fan of museums, do not worry you will not have the opportunity to visit many. You will not have many opportunities to be in nature either.

Unless you want to feel a "cosmogonic ecstasy" by going to the Perpignan train station, like Salvador Dali who decided in 1963 that it was officially the Center of the Universe, I do not really see the point of making an excursion to Perpignan and I did not understand from where you would want to make this excursion.

We spent time in Toulouse, Carcassonne, Nimes and Montpelier in April 2023. We traveled by train between cities and on public transportation. I did a trip report on the podcast Join Us in France if interested https://joinusinfrance.com/transcript/470/

I often have several trips in the back of my mind waiting for specific timing.

Geneva wasn't my favorite in Switzerland or even on the lake. Perhaps take a look at Lausanne, Vevey, or Montreux. Geneva has some sights, but, to me, it was mostly a big, expensive city with little Swiss charm. If you are interested in physics/math look into visiting world famous CERN on the outskirts of Geneva.

We spent 3 nights in stunning Girona and did a day trip to charming Besalu.

Goodness, I thought my questions were fairly clear, but I guess not. I'll try to clarify based on comments so far.

Suki, I used Uffizi as an example, hence "ex.". As the title of my post states, I am looking at France, not Italy, but I agree, David is indeed breathtaking!

JoLui, I appreciate your input. As I mentioned, I'm just starting to pull ideas together. That includes possible day trips, not confirmed day trips. Of the places I mentioned as possibilities, which, if any, do you suggest? Or do you mean that 1 or 2 day trips from a city in which I'm staying 4-5 days is too much?

Renee, I'll take a look at your podcast. Thank you!

jules, I used Geneva as a start point because it seems to have the best flights from the US for this trip. Unfortunately, flights to Lausenne, Vevey or Montreux also land in Geneva for me, but those places do look lovely.

you can easily take a train between Geneva and Montreux and the other cities.

After landing in Geneva, you could take the train directly to Annecy. Then to go to Montpellier, you change trains in Lyon. I’d add a day or two in Lyon.

Why have you chosen Béziers as a day trip? Have you considered Narbonne? You can stop in either Béziers or Narbonne when you take the train from MPL to Toulouse.

Sète and Nîmes are good day trips.
Check the wised.com website for their day trip to Saint Guilhem and sites in the back country. I think this day trip gives you a lot to see and do for the price.

The pacing of your trip seems fine to me. I’m struggling with your 4-5 nights Toulouse plans. I’ve never been to Toulouse, but I really enjoyed Collioure, Foix and Tarascon, though I had a car. Grotte de Niaux is my favorite tourist attraction in all of France so I would encourage you to look into it. The little town of Ceret was fun too.

Elizabeth, that's a good point about going directly to Annecy. For some reason I was thinking that it was farther away.

Meanwhile, I think I figured out an alternative that would have me flying into Paris instead of Geneva, but I think I heard CDG is a challenging airport to maneuver. Does anyone know if one is easier than the other?

As far as Beziers vs Narbonne, I'm still in the early planning stages, and seem to recall reading that Beziers was nicer than Narbonne, but maybe that's not correct? I know I could stop on the way between Montpellier and Toulouse, but I'd either have to find a place to store my luggage or spend one night there. I guess my thinking was that I'd rather stay in fewer places, so not as much packing and unpacking, for which the trade off is more train or bus rides, but I'm open to making it a stop along the way if that would be easier.

Matt, that grotto looks so cool! I'd have to figure out how to get there, but I like that it's different than the other things I'll see and do on this trip.

Hi! Happy New Year! We have toured that region a couple of times. But we usually have a car.

Don’t miss Albi, and the museum there, dedicated to the art of Toulouse Lautrec. Well worth the side trip! And the city itself is charming!

Carcassonne is a must-see. If you can manage it, stay at Le Donjon, right in the old city. Worth the price, to wake up and be able to go out and walk the old town when it’s all quiet, before the buses arrive around 10:00!

La Grotte de Niaux is not too far…one of the last sites where one can enter and view the real cave drawings, rather than replicas. So cool! And a magnificent site up in the mountains.

Zaragoza is great, and very non-touristy. More a contemporary Spain. Don’t miss the world-class aquarium!

Girona is lovely! And we enjoyed the beach at Roses, too.

Just like Elizabeth I also think that Narbonne is nicer than Béziers. But that's just my personal opinion. It's up to you.

Albi, Castres or Carcassonne are about 1 hour by train from the Matabiau station in Toulouse.

Going to Castres with its half-timbered houses on the banks of the Agout river is a good idea, I would even say that it is smarter than Albi and Carcassonne to avoid the crowds of tourists and to do some "people watching, soaking up the atmosphere".

In the same vein Gaillac is also a good option, especially if you like wine.

https://www.la-toscane-occitane.com/en/gaillac

Be aware, however, that very often in these cities the train station can be a bit far from the historic center. It can take up to 20 minutes to walk to reach it.

You mentioned 4/5 nights in your initial message and not 4/5 days.
4 nights means 3 days. For example, arriving on a Monday will make you leave on a Friday. In cities like Montpellier or Toulouse that require and deserve at least 2 days of visits even if you are not a fan of museums, this basically leaves you only one day for a day trip outside the city.

JoLui, thank you for the clarification and I see your point. I must not take as long to pack up and move around as some people on the forum do, so I can usually still get in a pretty full day of wandering and site seeing even if I spend several hours on a train in the morning.

I wasn't sure about Beziers or Narbonne, which is why I asked here, so it's good to know that I should look more closely at Narbonne. I googled Gaillac and it looks lovely! I'm not sure why I didn't come across it so far in my research, so thank you.

I'm just starting to pull ideas together for this trip, so please let me know if anyone has any other suggestions. Other than definitely wanting to spend time in Montpellier, Toulouse and Barcelona, I'm pretty flexible.

I did come across another flight that might work, but it lands in Paris rather than Geneva. While I'd like to see Annecy, it certainly doesn't have to be on this trip, so I could consider arriving in Paris instead. Does anyone have any input into which airport is quicker and easier to manage? I'm certainly not opposed to starting a trip with a few days in Paris. :)

I appreciate all the ideas I've gotten so far. I love this forum!

I spent the best part of a week in Toulouse this fall. For me it was central to the Caves at Lascaux, Andorra, and the Airbus Museum. All of which I was interested in. Lascaux was great, the drive over there was very nice, reminding me a lot of the area around Paso Robles, CA 30 years ago, but with Geese. I did stop and buy pate and sausages. The Airbus museum is good if you are into aircraft (I especially wanted to see the two Concorde). The cathedral in town is nice, but I found mosquito larva in the holy water a bit off-putting. There are some nice gardens, shopping in the old part of town is interesting, but the best thing I found was the Foundation Bemberg, which has an excellent collection of Impressionist art.

Toulouse is an industrial city, being to Airbus what Seattle is to Boeing. I stayed in a hotel obviously geared towards the aviation industry, and it was good, and reasonable. The local tram is very easy to use, just buy a 10 stop ticket and scan when you get on. 1.60 euro per trip. Be advised, if you stay over a Sunday there's very little open, even restaurants. This is a city where the weekends are less congested than the work week.

|f you want a challenge, go from Toulouse to Barcelona via the bus through Andorra. Sit on the right hand side if you don't have issues with steep drop offs. Very pretty scenery.

If you skip Geneva and Annecy, which would be more logical for a trip to the southwest of France and up to Barcelona, ​​you can from Paris either take a TGV train to Montpellier or a flight to Toulouse.

As KGC mentioned, Toulouse is an important city for the aerospace industry with Airbus but also many other big international companies in this field.

However if you are in the city center you will not see any planes or satellites passing in the streets but rather old traditional pink brick buildings. All the aeronautics and space industries are in the suburbs

And Sundays are not that quiet, you just have to go to the right places!

Most likely, the train you take to Barcelona will stop in Girona on the way from Toulouse or anywhere in that part of France. If you don't mind occasional one night stays, you could stopover in Girona rather than backtracking as a later day trip from Barcelona. I did this about 15 years ago, spending a couple nights in Collioure, one night in Girona, and then a longer stay in Barcelona. I believe it is also possible to store luggage for several hours in Girona if you wanted to stop there but not spend the night.

I am no expert on the area but did have a great visit to Carcassonne, Collioure and wonderful Villefranche de Conflent back in 2018. We stopped briefly in Toulouse on the way to Carcassonne. We stopped overnight in Toulouse after taking the Little Yellow Train from Villefranche de Conflent to Latour de Carol then just catching the Barcelona to Toulouse train with minutes to spare. Wouldn't have cared if we missed it as Latour de Carol would've been worth a look.
This may not be of interest to you but I'll put it out there anyway.

We spent several days in each of Carcassonne, Collioure and Villefranche de Conflent but would've liked to spend longer in each.
Toulouse was not of any great interest to us.

In Carcassonne we stayed in the actual town, it's really nice and well worth some time. Most RS tourists seem to just want a flying visit to the Cite' and usually stay within. We were happy to be staying among the locals in town, we do a tight budget so it wasn't really a choice but glad we did. We visited the Cite' in the evening, early morning around sunrise and middle of the day. It was crowded in the middle of the day.
The town itself wasn't at all crowded except the day the Tour de France finished there. That was a bonus standing at the finish line as they came through then mingling with the riders afterwards.

Collioure was pretty busy, it was July so not surprising. Beautiful spot. Each morning I was up in time for a swim before the sun popped up above the Mediterranean horizon. Then a run up past the ancient windmill through vinyards to the spectacular hillside Fort. A few more swims on the return leg. If you like walking, interesting architecture and people watching and nature then Collioure is ideal. We had breakfast each morning in the Templiers Bar, amazing art collection.

Villefranche de Conflent is a tiny walled village with a hilltop fort accessible by stairs through tunnels. This little village probably topped the favourite list for both myself and my wife. Also has some interesting caves near town. We got there by train from Collioure to Perpignan the a bus the rest of the way. I think the train is now back running though.

From V.d C. we caught the Little Yellow Train sitting in an open top carriage as a wound it's way very slowly through the Pyrenees. Great fun, a bit of a change up from the 320 kph intercities. As I said this meets up with the Barcelona/ Toulouse line at Latour.

We loved this part of our French trip.

This is very helpful, thank you! I'm most interested in Toulouse because I've heard it's a beautiful city. I find the difference in architecture in various cities throughout Europe to be fascinating and I guess I want to see as much of it as possible.

I googled the little towns you've suggested as well as the little yellow train. I love these ideas! I'm not necessarily opposed to a one night stay in a smaller town if it's just a short train ride away, so it may indeed make sense to spend one night in Girona. I guess I like the idea of having just a few home bases, but it might be nice to mix that up a bit as well. I'll have to give that some thought.

I really appreciate these ideas. It's really making this trip start to take shape.

I'm a big fan of Toulouse. The historic center is very pretty and the architecture different. There are a large number of interesting (to me) sights. From my pre-2017-trip notes:

• Themed walking tours offered by the tourist office. (However, I find French cities often run English-language tours only on weekends.)
• This info may no longer be current, but there used to be a major flea market on the 1st Fri-Sat-Sun of the month at Alles Jules Guesde. There was also a Saturday flea market at Compans Caffarelli - Pierre Baudis, Boulevard Lascrosse. I didn't have the time to check out either one.
• 18C Capitole: World’s most elegant town hall. Free to visit as of 2017 but sometimes closes for official functions and weddings.
• Basilique St-Sernin: Largest Romanesque church in Europe, 11th-13th century.
• Les Jacobins Gothic church, 29 rue Pargaminieres: Major masterpiece of Gothic art; one of finest examples of palm-tree vaulting. -
• Fondation Bember, Hotel d’Assezat, place Assezat: Exceptional art collection.
• Espace d’Art Moderne et Contemporain
• Musée des Augustins: one of Europe’s finest collections of Romanesque sculpture and religious paintings, displayed in a former convent (Gothic).
• Musée Paul Dupuy, 13 rue de la Pleau: Medieval applied arts in 17th-century mansion.
• Musée St-Raymond: Archaeological museum whose collections of sculpture and Gallo-Roman artifacts are second only to those at the Louvre.
• Chateau d’Eau: water tower now with photography exhibitions.
• Marche Victor Hugo: Large covered market (restaurants upstairs) surrounded by food and antique shops.
• Place Arnaud Bernin, near St. Sernin: North African quarter
• These streets/squares have nice/historic architecture: Place de la Daurade, Rue des Changes, Rue Ninau, Rue Ozenne and Rue de la Dalbade. St. Cyprien is the chichi quarter.
• Hotel Bernuy on Rue Gambetta: fine mansion whose courtyard can be visited.

JoLui had some great suggestions for Toulouse in this earlier thread: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/toulouse-garonne-boat-tour.

The Yellow Train is a great trip. It's run by SNCF, so the fare is a lot lower than were it a commercial sightseeing train. I will warn you that Villefranche-de-Conflent is just about as touristy as such a place can be if you go there on a nice day during a busy season. My guess is that it gets a lot of French visitors (some by car) from the surrounding area, so it might be somewhat quieter on weekdays. I'd want decent weather for this excursion in order to see the mountain views; I think your odds in September should be good. This is a regional train (TER), so I don't think you need to buy tickets in advance, but I'm not 100% sure about that, since there are some open-air cars. The station for Villefranche-de-Conflent is called "Villefranche - Vernet-les-Bains" on the SNCF website. The Yellow Train schedule is very seasonal, with few departures in the winter and more in the summer. The SNCF website may not be helpful right now for September-schedule research.

I enjoyed Albi because of the local sights, but I found the sidewalks deserted in the early afternoon. That part of France, including Toulouse, can be very hot, and I may have just hit during the siesta period, but don't expect Albi to be lively around midday. I'd go there for the sights (primarily the cathedral and the aforementioned Toulouse-Lautrec Museum) rather than for atmosphere.

The area south and east of Andorra has some attractive smaller cities and little towns, including Puigcerda and La Seu d'Urgell, but you've already got a lot of great options on your plate.

I found Perpignan an interesting stop, but it has a sort of gritty aspect and is probably recommendable primarily for folks intent on seeing the (basically unfurnished) Palace of the Kings of Majorca.

The fort above Villefranche de Confluent was pretty important and can be toured from top to bottom. It’s one of a series of forts that were built under Louis 14 th when the Spanish border was pushed back to the Pyrenees. You can get up there in a 4x4, a bumpy ride, and take the inside stairs down, if your knees are willing.
One stop on the train line, Mount Louis, has another fort still in use today. This mountain town is very interesting to visit.

I had no idea Andorra existed. Fascinating! I appreciate the additional information on Toulouse. The thought of this trip is getting more interesting every time I read a new suggestion. I might have to make this a longer trip so I don't miss anything!

I ended up splitting France roughly in half, vertically, and making two long trips there. I still haven't been to the Paris region (other than one or two brief visits in the 1970s) or the northeast due to lack of time. France has an incredible number of beautiful villages, towns and cities to visit.

The capital of Andorra, Andorra la Vella, has many of the qualities of an overgrown outlet mall. The country is highly scenic (and I believe popular with skiers), but the capital is totally skippable.