9-day Itinerary - Arrival Carcassonne - Depart Barcelona

We did a similar, but shorter, trip a few years ago. We flew into Toulouse then went to Carcassone, Perpignan, Figueres, and finished in Girona. Perpignan is very nice- when I looked into it I was more interested in that location than Narbonne, but I haven't been to Narbonne so can't give personal experience. But the old town in Perpignan is lovely and you can visit the Palace of the Kings of Majorca which has wonderful views to the Pyrenees. If you need another stop, I would definitely recommend either Figueres or Girona. Figueres is primarily if you are interested in Salvador Dali, as you can visit the Theatre-Museu Dali, or even better, go to to nearby Cadaques on the coast and tour his home. However, there's not a whole lot going on in Figueres beyond the Dali connection. Girona is a beautiful historic town on a river, with a huge cathedral (used in filming the final series of Game of Thrones) and city walls you can walk. Definitely worth spending a night there. Good luck with your planning!

Carcassonne is great, but 4 nights might be overkill.

Three nights Carcassonne, or even two. Add 1 or 2 to Barcelona and be sure to stop in Figueres to visit the Dali Theatre Museum on your way to Barcelona. Count using your 8 nights instead of days. I've been to all your planned stops, including 10 nights in Carcassonne for business, and suggest the following.

Carcassonne: 2 nights or 3 if you are very tired and jet-lagged
Narbonne visit during the day but sleep in Perpignan: 1-2 nights depending on the time you arrive
Figueres visit, sleep in Girona:1-2 nights
Barcelona: remaining nights

Pre-book the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueres. I don't think it sells out much in advance, if at all, but individual time slots could sell out; it gets bus tours. On a quick visit to Figueres, it would be unfortunate to be told the next opening is in 90 minutes or 2 hours.

Not often mentioned is the small but intensely sparkly jewelry collection covered by the same ticket. I was told in 2019 one can visit the jewelry collection before the time shown on the Theatre-Museum entry ticket.

I'd go with 3 nights in Carcassonne which gives you 2 full days or your original 4 nights if you want to spend one day doing a wine tour outside of the city. I stayed there last Fall with a small group tour and while we were doing day trips out of the city managed to find quite a lot to see in Carcassonne. I stayed 2 nights on my own ahead of the tour and then 8 nights on the tour.

Be sure to walk from your hotel across the "old bridge" to the old city. Walk up Rue Trivalle to see the wall art. It's quite faded in some spots but still pretty cool.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/tnVwekPy4DixHdSA7

The meals I enjoyed most were at L'Ostal des Troubadours where they have a guitarist each night and Maison du Cassoulet which needed a reservation in late October.

https://ostal.net

http://maisonducassoulet.com/carcassonne/

The old city is much better in the early AM or late afternoon/evening when the bus tours are gone!

Thanks Cat VH, Elizabeth, Pam for the suggestions.
Overall would have 9 nights - was exploring if going to Andorras is an option to explore, have heard its very scenic the route from Narbonne and back, but that's takes away a couple of night due to limited public transport. Barcelona probably a couple of days in the city and one of the days visit the Montserrat.

Cat - Will explore the Cadaques option.
Elizabeth - Will look into the Figueres/Girona option as well
Pam thanks for sharing the must do in Carcassonne. I prefer the 3 or 4 nights option , and could look at using a day visit to Toulouse.

Toulouse is pretty easy from Carcassonne. it's a "local" commuter type train, takes about an hour. I was meeting up with a TGV in Toulouse last October to return to Paris. It was a very stormy day with high wind and rain warnings up so at the station I decided I wanted to leave on an earlier train. It was about 15E and easy to book on the SNCF app standing right there in train station.