Barcelona/France - HELP!!!
 

I am throwing myself at the mercy of all Fodorites to help me figure out how to plan our upcoming trip in mid-October which centers around a 4 day convention in Barcelona. The convention starts on Sun.,10/14 and ends on Weds.,10/17; I will be taking several organized tours while DH is attending the convention sessions, so my needs for help are more focused on the other portion of our trip.

Before and possibly after Barcelona, we would like to go to France, ideally hitting Paris and environs for a few days on one end, and then Toulouse and environs on the other (for a total of approx. a 10 day trip). We would prefer to do it this way because we ideally want to maximize the use of the 2 weekends that surround the convention (but I am open to other suggestions if the consensus is that this is a crazy idea!). So...my question is this: how would you suggest we do this trip, i.e. if and where we should rent a car, take trains, fly, etc., between these destinations, and is there anywhere around Toulouse that you particularly recommend as a place to see? BTW, we will be departing from Newark, if that makes any difference...

Naturally, I would also welcome all recommendations for places to stay and eat, but my first priority is to just nail down a reasonable itinerary!

Thanks in advance for "

Hi M,

There are discount flights from Paris CDG and Paris ORY to Barcelona and from ORY to Toulouse.

See www.whichbudget.com

It's 4:18 hr by car Barcelona to Toulouse, 5 hr by train.

See www.viamichelin.com
www.voyages-sncf.com

((I))

Barcelona/France - oops...

Author: margot55
Date: 08/14/2006, 09:31 am

Sorry - I hit the wrong button and didn';t finish me post...I just wanted to thank you in advance for "de-overwhelming" me!

====================================

Posting your post-script here. This is how you add to your own post... by "replying to yourself"...

Best wishes,

Rex

Margot55
If you go to Toulouse, you could drive down to Carcasonne, which worth visiting. It's a little (okay it's really) touristy but it's certainly than spend the time in Toulouse.

If you're driving towards Barcelona, you could stop at Collioure (in France) and then cross over into Spain and visit Rosas, Figueras, and Girona.

I guess you could work this out with trains from Toulouse to Carcasonne and next to Narbonne. From Narbonne you could take the train to Collioure, Figueras, Girona, and Barcelona.

I've spent a lot of time in Toulouse and it's okay but it's not a real tourist center. Things to do but better places to spend your vacation time.

That's my opinion and maybe others will think I'm nuts.

Blackduff

Day trips around Touloouse: Carcassonne, Albi, Moissac, Montauban. Even Auch might be a possibility. Montauban and Moissac can be done in the same day. The former has a Louis XIII main square, with couble arches rather than the single ones of the Place des Vosges and an Ingres museum, the latter has famous carvings on the church portal and a beautiful cloister.

I'm puzzled as to why you have picked Toulouse. Why not Madrid? Or San Sebasitian (via Bilbao)? Do you need to get back to Paris for a return flight home? How about Marseilles?

There are indeed lots of places in the general area of Toulouse to do some touristing, but once you are willing to get on a plane, even Montpellier is more interesting.

If you want to rent a car and explore the southwestern French countryside, then Toulouse is as good a place as any. If you would like an interesting destination, Spain is famous for cheap flights. I'd head to the Alhambra, or Madrid/Toledo -- the possibilities inside Spain are endless, and from many Spanish cities there are cheap flights back to Paris or London if you don't want to fly back from Madrid or Barcelona (Continental has direct flights to Newark out of both).

WOW - now I'm REALLY overwhelmed! >) Seriously, thanks for the feedback so far - Rex, appreciate the tip about how to attach "P.S." additions to an existing thread! It seems that there are a lot of pro and con opinions about Toulouse - as I said in my initial post, none of these destinations is written in stone 9except BCN), but as a big fan of the France I've seen so far, which is a small portion, I thought it might be nice to explore that region given its proximity to BCN. Nessundorma, re: your question as to why not Madrid, etc., it's not that we necessarily have to get back to Paris (although I'm thinking it's cheaper to fly round trip to and from the same city), but if we do include Paris as our "before" destination with BCN, then we thought it might be nice to explore a little of SW France on the way back to Paris. However, I would be interested to hear what others have to say in response to your suggestion to do more of Spain instead...

TTT

I'm not sure flying RT Paris saves you much money.

If you really would prefer to see southwest France, there is certainly a lot to see. But you don't want to pay the drop-off fees for renting a car in Spain, so it makes sense to fly to either Toulouse, Perpignan or Montpellier or even Marseilles or Nice from BCN -- whatever works best. You can strike out in just about any direction from there -- for historic towns, great mountain scenery, great food destinations -- but I would consider heading in the general direction of a town with a fast train connection to Paris, and dropping my car off there to take the train back to the Paris airport. That might mean either meandering toward Bordeaux or Lyon. You could also head for Marseilles, but another port town after Barcelona might be less interesting.)

But, again, since domestic air fare in Spain is so cheap, there are those possibilities, too.

But if you are thinking of seeing more of France, don't be limited in your thinking that it needs to be "near" Barcelona. Pick the area of France you want to see in mid-October. Loire Valley? Dordogne? Brittany? Cote d'Azur? Then fly to the best airport and rent a car, with the idea that you'll eventually end up in Paris.

Thanks, nessundorma - I've been communicating with Stu Dudley, who helped us out immeasurably last year with our trip to Provence, and we might have whittled this upcoming trip down to an itinerary of Newark to Paris, spending about 3 full days there, then flying Air France to Toulouse (fairly cheap fares) and taking the train from there to Barcelona (air fares from Paris to Barcelona are outrageous!), spending 4 days in Barcelona, then taking the train back to Toulouse, stay there overnight, and then renting a car and head towards the Dordogne where we would spend an additional 3 full days, then drive back to Toulouse, drop off the car, and take the train back to Paris to fly home from there. What do you and other Fodorites think of that plan? Any suggestions/revisions are most welcome!

OOPS AGAIN - On the Toulouse to Paris leg, we'd be flying, not taking the train!

How long is the train from Toulouse to Barcelona?

What are air fares from Paris to Bilbao? Air fares from Paris to Madrid?

Domestic airfare in Spain in so cheap I would consider flying through Spain to get to Barcelona. Check out fares on Iberia and Vueling.

I may be wrong about this, but I would at least check it out.

By the way, I just used whichbudget.com to check airfares from France to Barcelone, and from Orly to BCN I see fares between 70 to 80 euros per person depending which days you fly.

I can't believe flying to Toulouse and taking the train is cheaper than that.

Nessundorma, thanks soooo much for that tip - that certainly could make things a lot easier on us, and I will look into this further later on. Question---how far is Orly from CDG? The reason I ask is that we would likely be flying RT from Newark to CDG.

There are flights from Paris CDG to Barcelona on Vueling Airlines around your dates for 20 euros apiece plus tax and handling fees. The total from Paris to Barcelona at that rate is 63 euros but from Barcelona to Paris it is 48 euros. Some flights are more expensive, depending on time and date. The web site shows you the price for all flights on the day you choose and surrounding dates so you can plan.

I flew on Vueling last month several times for amazingly good rates, and found them to be a great budget airline with new planes, on line check-in and assigned seats flying out of major airports.

there are flights from Orly to Toulouse on Easyjet as well.

try using www.skyscanner.net to see what the most CURRENT possibilities are (sometimes easier to check than using whichbudget)

There is not necessarily any need to drive a car all the way back to Toulouse just to turn it in and take the train to Paris; you could also turn the car in at Agen and take the train to Paris from there.

Of the many places we've visited in France, the Dordogne and Provence are the ones we return to most often. Margot visited Provence last year, so I suggested the Dordogne.

She wanted to spend some time around Normandy & Paris before her convention in Barcelona, and she wanted to visit "someplace else" after the convention.

So I suggested visiting Normandy & Paris first (presumably fly from CDG to Barcelona). After the convention in Barcelona, there is a 4:42pm train that leaves Sants or P Grazia and arrives in Toulouse at 9:40pm. I told her she might have had enough "big city" after Barcelona & Paris, and also Toulouse might be a dissapointment after Paris & Barcelona, so I suggested that she might want to just stay overnight in Toulouse, and next morning pick up a car at the train station & head out to the Dordogne - only 2 1/2 hrs to Sarlat. On the way, she could stop at St Cirq Lapopie and Peche Merle cave.

After 3-4 days in the Dordogne, drive back to Blagnac (Toulouse airport), and take a flight home.

Stu Dudley

What is the train route? Through Girona, Figueres, Pepignan? Another possibility might be a trip that begins in Perpingnan and goes through Carcassone, Castres and Albi and ends in Toulouse.

Or what about trains to Montpellier? Then looping around in a northest arc (Nimes, Avignon, Arles, St-Remy) to end up in Marseilles (fast train to CDG)?

Just thinking out loud.

Personally, facing a 7 hour door to door travel time using the train to Toulouse, I still might rather fly from Barcelona to someplace (France or Spain) and be there in time for dinner.

Yes, I agree, n'dorma - now that I know that there are reasonable flights from Paris to Barcelona, it looks like we can skip the train and save time and money at the same time. When I get home from work later today, I will look into some of the suggestions you wonderful people have given me.

Stu - stay "at the ready" for more questions!!!

Thanks everyone! :)

>>Personally, facing a 7 hour door to door travel time using the train to Toulouse, I still might rather fly from <<

If Margot stays in Barcelona in the center of town, it may only be a 15 min walk to the Passage Grazia train station - or a 15 min taxi at most. Perhaps leave 30 mins before the train departs. The hotels I recommended to Margot are a 15 min walk from the Toulouse station. That's less than 6 hrs door-to-door & the scenery out the window is quite nice along this route. I did not check any low cost air carriers, but Travelocity says there are no direct flights from Barcelona to Toulouse in the afternoon - so any flight (door to door) would take much longer than 6 hrs. Also, in these "days & times", I would rathar take a 5 hr train than a 1 1/2 plane.

A train to Perpignan would be shorter, but I think the Dordogne is much more interesting than the Roussillon area of France. I also prefer the Dordogne to the Catalonia area of Spain (excluding Barcelona & Girona, which I suspect Margot will visit during her convention).

Also, after Paris & Barcelona, I would welcome small villages and countryside. I would not want to go to another big city & stay there.

Just my opinion.

Stu Dudley