SW France/Dordogne/Catalonia logistics help

Take a TGV train from Paris to St-Jean-de-Luz 4- 4.5 hrs)

Train from St.-Jean-de-Luz to Pau (1:45).
Return by train to St-Jean-de-Luz. Train/bus to Bayonne.

Take a TGV from Bayonne to Bordeaux (2 hrs)

Return to Paris by TGV from Bordeaux (2-3 hrs)

For Meysac, Lubersac, take a TGV or Intercity train from Paris to Brive-La- Gaillarde (4:40). Then, transfer to a 30-minute bus from Brive-la-Gaillarde to Meysac, Lubersac.

After the trek from Meysac, Lubersac to the final endpoint in Loubressac, bus to Puybrun (8 miles) and then train to Souillac (1:15) where you can catch an IC train to Perpignan (5+ hrs). Alternatively, you can take a 90-minute bus from Loubressac to Brive-La-Gaillarde and then the train to Perpignan. Once in Perpignan, train to Girona, Spain (:40) and transfer to a bus going to Begur. There are no train stations on the Costa Brava so buses are the way to reach the coast.

You can reach Barcelona from Girona on regular or high-speed trains

You have a lot of TGV journeys for your itinerary and you’ll save a lot of money buying them online well in advance at www.SNCF-Connect.com/en
The best deal is on SNCF’s “Prem’s” tickets which first go on sale online 4 months before the train’s departure date. A limited number of the Prem’s tix are put on sale and once they’re gone— they’re gone.
A TGV train ticket bought on the day of travel can cost €140. A Prem’s ticket bought 4 months ahead can cost as little as €16 for the same train.

A couple of thoughts:

1. My wife, who loved Biarritz, hated Bayonne. Said she found it ugly and boring. After the spectacular scenery of Biarritz, perhaps understandable.
2. There's usually little reason to pay the price for a TGV ticket from Bayonne to Bordeaux. The much cheaper TER train typically gets you to Bordeaux just as quickly.

I liked Bayonne a lot and didn't like Biarritz much, so YMMV.

@jphbucks. The reason to buy an advance TGV train ticket from Bayonne to Bordeaux is price.
You can buy a TGV ticket from SNCF for €26 for some dates before December 14.

The regular TER train tickets are €40 and up.

(Train tickets for dates after December 14 may not be available to buy until after the new timetables are released on December 14).

Thanks to all for all the tips. Looks like Ill be spending a lot of time on trains and buses

@jphbucks. The reason to buy an advance TGV train ticket from Bayonne to Bordeaux is price.
You can buy a TGV ticket from SNCF for €26 for some dates before December 14.

The regular TER train tickets are €40 and up.

Interesting. This summer, using the SNCF app on the day of travel, TER fares were much less than you're quoting for advance purchase. And TGV fares were substantially higher. Curious situation.

This may clear up the difference: Kenko is referring to the “prems” TGV fares, few of which are available the moment the fares come on line. A few minutes later and they are gone. After that the TGV fares don’t vary that much. French trains are expensive compared with to other European countries.
TER tickets do not vary in price no matter when you buy them.
So Kenko cites a dream-prems fare compared to a same day walk-up fare.
BTW, I’ve never managed to get a prems fare. Fares are released well after midnight in France and are gone even when I look at 6 am.

I’ve set my alarm to buy Prem’s tickets in the wee hours and have scored them —along with many other national train companies’ bargain tickets— repeatedly.
(But then my middle name is Fortune)!

Over the years of travelling in Europe, I’m sure I’ve saved thousands of euros by buying discounted high-speed train tickets online far in advance of the trip.

I also scored platea seats to Teatro La Scala this year by buying them the hour they went on sale at 1am PST.
The same scenario as Elizabeth describes for some train tix—-the platea seats disappeared within an hour.

If you really want to travel on the high-speed trains with heavily-discounted train tickets— you can save a ton of euros by reading Seat61, watching the calendar and using an alarm clock!

Except SNCF tickets don’t appear at 12:01 am the way Eiffel Tower tickets do; they show up some time in the wee hours. So for Europeans, we have to stay up through the night trying and I’m not willing to loose sleep. When I wake and check at 6 am, they are gone. My hope is that students and poor families are getting them, people for whom the train really strains their budgets. We have a lot of low-income people in France.

A few details about your itinerary in the Dordogne villages (which are actually villages in the Lot Departement in the Dordogne Valley).

As explained on the MACS Adventures website, you'll get to Meyssac from Paris Austerlitz by taking the train to Brive-la-Gaillarde. There's no TGV, only Intercites trains, the journey takes about 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Kenko mentioned a bus from Brive to Meyssac. It's the 223 that stops at Brive SNCF train station. Its schedule until August 31, 2026, is below:

https://transports.nouvelle-aquitaine.fr/sites/default/files/timetable_files/NOUVEAU-SPECIAL%20Rentr%C3%A9e-Fiche%20horaire%20Cars%20r%C3%A9gionaux-Meyssac-Brive-la-gaillarde.pdf

a/ There are no buses on Sundays and it only operates as a TAD (Transport on Demand) service on Saturdays

b/ Bus schedules are primarily intended for school transport and are based on school holidays.

c/ There will be spring school holidays from April 4 to April 30, 2026, in this region.

Which means that in Brive there will only be one bus on weekdays at 5:46 p.m. No other buses.

If its schedule doesn't suit you, you'll need to pre-book a taxi. Don't expect to find plenty of taxis waiting at Brive train station.

Regarding the end of this "inn-to-inn walk" at Loubressac, I don't know which bus Kenko is talking about (who misspells most village names), but there are no trains, no bus, no taxi service in Loubressac, it's a tiny village with barely 500 inhabitants. You'll need to book a taxi (the hotel could arrange this).

Taxis in this region are most often used for medical transport, but you can try this one, which is based nearby.
Arno Taxi:

https://www.arno-taxi.fr/

In Brive-la-Gaillarde:

https://www.taxivalleecorreze.fr/#team

For your information, the regulated taxi fare is €2.36/km for a one-way trip, plus a €2.70 pick-up charge.

Then, to get to Spain, I don't see why Kenko would make you go via Souillac. Simply return to Brive-la-Gaillarde train station and take an Intercité train to Toulouse, Narbonne, or Perpignan. The rest of the itinerary to Spain is beyond my area of ​​expertise.