Hi. We'll be spending 4 weeks in May/June 2024 somewhere in southwest France :). We won't have a car and want to spend most of our time in the town, pretending like we live there. We enjoy daily routines of going to the boulangerie, getting produce from the market, strolling through the town and nearby countryside, eating lunch and grabbing coffee in open-air settings. We look for a town with charming character, very walkable, some interesting architecture/museums and nice gardens/parks to stroll through and read a book in. We'll take a few trips by public transit to nearby attractions but I think there are so many in the area that finding the home base first makes sense and then see from there where we can get to by public transit. We've done this in the past in Dijon and Avignon, so I'm not interested in Montpellier or other towns on the coast and towards Provence as we're hoping to feel a different part of the country. I've been looking at Albi, Castres, Montauban, Brive-la-Gaillarde, Angouleme, and Poitiers. Not sure how much the weather differs among these places but we hope to avoid cold and rain. As for larger cities, Bordeaux or Toulouse could work if it has a cozy, walkable feel (like Dijon) and doesn't feel so much like a massive city.
Thanks for any insights you can share!
Posted by
Washington DC
28065 posts
I've been to Albi, Brive, Poitiers, Bordeaux and Toulouse; I found them all attractive, but as you know, Bordeaux and Toulouse are a lot larger (by roughly an order of magnitude) than the others. To me that's a plus, because I'd want a lot of things to see and places to eat if I stayed somewhere for four weeks. Of those two I preferred Toulouse. I thought if visually more distinctive (pink brick), and there were more sights of interest to me; I have no interest at all in wine.
Albi is day-trippable from Toulouse. I'd check weather in that area for your timeframe, because I recall being quite hot during the summer of 2017. I'm not sure about staying in Albi itself. There was virtually no one walking around during the mid-afternoon on the day of my visit. That might be too much of a siesta culture for a long stay. In addition, Albi was one of the French towns mentioned in a NYTimes article cited here years ago about French cities with dying cores: Gifted Link
Poitiers has a charming historic center that's set much higher than the rest of the city. You'd probably want to be especially careful about your lodging location there. Brive is much flatter.
I found Limoges quite interesting; you might take a look at it.
In the Dordogne/Lot area you have a number of other attractive towns (in addition to Brive) like Perigueux, Cahors and Figeac; Figeac is somewhat hilly. I found that area not so easy for a hub-and-spoke traveler. I ended up staying in a lot of different places because of transportation limitations. However, I was working from a list of picturesque places I hoped to see rather than looking at what places were accessible from a specific base, as you propose to do.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thanks acraven. Lots of great information. It seems our options for the area are either large city (I lean to Toulouse) or rather small towns (around 50k). Between Brive and Perigeux which one did you feel was more vibrant (cafe culture, parks and greenspace)? . I didn't included Limoge on my list because it looked like it might have a cooler/wetter climate in late spring, but I see it is quite a bit bigger than the others so I'll take a deeper dive into what it has to offer. What did you like about it?
Posted by
France Southwest
2319 posts
If I were you and since you are staying a month, I would go to Brive-la-Gaillarde AND to Périgueux. Both towns are charming and each in a different style.
Personally I prefer Brive but I'm sure you will also like Périgueux. There are quite a few things to see and do in both cities, as well as within 30 minutes of them. Since you will not have a car, which is essential in this region, check with the tourist offices.
From a transport point of view, it is easier to reach Toulouse by train from Brive than from Périgueux. Toulouse is the 4th city in France with 1/2 million inhabitants. However, the historic center of the "pink city" is not very large and you could imagine yourself in a city 10 times smaller. From Toulouse you can go by train to Albi for a day, the same to go see Carcassonne.
Castres can be interesting to visit for 2 or 3 hours, but the most interesting is outside the city, towards the Montagne Noire, and again, without a car forget Castres and its surroundings.
You forgot to mention Gaillac, very well known for its wine. But it's like Castres, without a car... Forget it. (too bad for you).
Montauban in my opinion is not of much interest, as for Limoges or Poitiers, I have no opinion, it is too far north for me. :))
About Brive
https://en.brive-tourisme.com/fr/
Périgueux, :
Posted by
Washington DC
28065 posts
I'll yield to JoLui on the Brive-vs-Perigueux comparison. I wasn't in either place terribly long. Brive may well have been livelier.
Limoges has a pretty historic district and quite a few decorative-art museums (an interest of mine). It's a good base for seeing Oradour-sur-Glane, site of a Nazi atrocity now with an excellent memorial/museum. I don't know what else might be available within a reasonable distance. There aren't many tourists in evidence, especially not many foreign tourists.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thanks guys. Very helpful. Sounds like my short list now is Toulouse, Brive, Perigreux or Limoges. That helps a lot!!! Thanks for the links too.