I'm planning a trip to France for next June. Plan on visiting Paris for 3 days then heading south. Will be travelling with our 2 kids age 13. Need some ideas for a home base. Would love to have them swim in the Atlantic (Bay of Biscay) and in the Mediterranean. Also do some day hikes in the Pyrenees and visit Carcassonne. We will be renting a car. Is there a lot to do in this region? Would Pau or Tarbes be good places to stay? We are outdoorsy types and want to keep the kids active. Any advice would be great. Thanks! We will have about 6 days in the South.
Posted by
Atlanta
3250 posts
We had plans to stay in either Pau or Tarbes last May. Once we arrived, we didn't think either city was quite what we wanted so we drove further south towards the Pyrenees. It's a beautiful drive! We spent two nights about 1.5 hours south of Tarbes in the lovely small village of Saint-Lary-Soulan. It's a great base for hiking but I'm not sure how the location would fit in with the rest of your itinerary. It's about 2.5 hours from Carcassone. The town is family-friendly and is a ski resort in the winter. There are many good restaurants (though some may be closed as June might be considered off-season there.) Also a great tourist office, many bakeries, and a grocery store for picnic items. We went to a local bookshop and bought a book with maps of hiking trails and hiked. We stayed in a basic hotel Hotel Les Arches - I think they also have apartments available. For the Bay of Biscay ocean swim consider Saint-Jean-de-Luz. I haven't spent much time on the Mediterranean side of that region. It sounds like a fun trip though a long drive from Paris. Perhaps fly from Paris to Toulouse or Bordeaux on one of the discount airlines and rent a car from there? We flew home from Toulouse to Atlanta with a brief layover in Amsterdam.
Posted by
Santa Rosa, CA, USA
355 posts
It appears that you are trying to center yourself between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. I don't know about Tarbes, but I would not choose to stay in Pau. It's a larger city and I find it easier, with a car, to stay in smaller towns, where driving is not as challenging. It might add a little more time, but I really like Oloron-Sainte Marie and it is somewhat central to the Atlantic, Mediterranean and the mountains. Biarritz has a nice beach on the Atlantic, but St. Jean de Luz is a much nicer little town. St. Jean Pied-de-Port is the "traditional" starting point for the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage and is very charming basque town. You could hike the beginning of the pilgrimage up into the Pyrenees from there.