carcassonne

Carcasonne is best experienced at night or in early morning, as it is a tourist hell, otherwise. We stayed in a very expensive place (bcuz no other place had rooms), the Hotel de la Cite. It was an exceptional stay but tres$$$$$$$$$$$. Other cities nearby that are not big tourist stops are Saelat, Cahor and Albi. The entire area was once Cathar territory. This was a Christian religious group that was wiped out by other Christians who classed them as heretics. They built many castles and fortified cities. Guidebooks such as Frommers and Lonely Planet have sections devoted to bikes and explorations. Check them out and do a web search on cycling near Carcasonne. Bon Voyage!

Unfortunately Carcassonne is so far from Paris that your "one day" is likely to be spent in transit, not seeing the charm or riding a bike.

That said, if you have another day or so the Dordogne valley offers a wealth of wonderful things to see and do, from neolithic art to crumbling fortresses to charming towns to memorable peddling along the river. You'll find tourists there in season, but mostly Brits and French.

Though it's not a straight line you could also go to Provence for a day enroute to Paris--the TGV connection to Paris (drop your car, if any, in Carcassonne or Avignon) makes this trip about as long as a direct trip north.

Oh, and the Loire is more or less enroute from Carcassonne too, if you head north. Tourested, but flat.

We stayed in Caunes-Minervois (about 20 min. from Carcassone) at the L'Ancienne Boulangerie. We ate at Hotel d'Alibert, which was a terrific restaurant. If we go back (which we would love to do) we would stay at Hotel d'Alibert as the food was fantastic, the rooms incredible, and the price very reasonable. People came from all around to eat at this restaurant. Caunes-Minervois is a small village at the foothills of the ruined castles of Peyrepertuse and Queribus, which were the last strongholds of the Cathars before they were overrun by the Pope's legions. It's a fascinating region and you can hire a guide to take you up to the ruins, which are't overrun by tourists. A guide would be good, so that you learn of the history of the area.I'd go back in a heartbeat! Carcassone is wonderful also, but I wouldn't stay there.

The area from the Spanish boarder all along the Med up to Montpellier is facinating and worth the time spent there...and you can catch the TGV from Montpellier all the way back to Paris...with only one or two stops...

My grown son and I planned to stay for one night in Carcasonne last year after a week in Paris and another week in Nice but when we arrived by train at dusk and the taxi drove us to our hotel we fell in love with it and ended up extending our stay for 3 days. We stayed inside the walls of the medieval city at a Best Western! The Best Western in Nice booked the room for us so what a surprise that it was inside the city. We decided it was our favorite part of the entire trip. There is a another city outside of the city with shops and restaurants. You could feel all the history at night when no one else was there but you. Aaaah I enjoy thinking about it again. You won't regret it I promise. Paris and Nice and nice cities but this was like a fairy tale.