car rental in carcassonne or nearby?
 

hi all, i'm meeting my lady in paris soon. after a few nights in the city of lovers we want to take a train south to carcassonne from where we hope to rent a car and explore the region.
does anyone have experience renting a car in carcassonne? and driving around the area?

we want to visit that mysterious village of renne le chateau and the coast before driving on to barcelona after a week. so if anyone has any advice on nice places to stay and sight see i would totally appreciate it!

I haven't rented a car there, but try www.autoeurope.com, they handle rentals with the major French agencies and have good rates.

I liked Narbonne towards the coast south of Carcassonne quite a lot.

If you can't find a car in Carcassonne, try Toulouse. It might even have a direct train connection to Paris, which would save you a train transfer.

I'm sure AutoEurope will have an affiliate in Carcassonne, but I would also suggest you take the train to Toulouse and pick up the car there. Then you can wander around the wonderful area between Toulouse and Carcassonne, like Puylaurens and Revel and Castelnaudary. After Carcassonne, head for the coast and visit Narbonne and Perpignan and Collioure and Port-Vendres and the Costa Brava, then down to Barcelona.

I hope you're planning to return the car to France. If you drop it off in Spain you'll incur a whopping big charge.

Mirepoix is also nice for a walk around the square, maybe lunch or coffee.

hey thanks guys! how long is the drive from toulouse to carcassonne?
we didnt think about incurring a charge for dropping off the car in espana. maybe we will change our plans. thanks again.

oh yeah, any recommendations for places to stay in narbonne and perpignan?

"how long is the drive from toulouse to carcassonne?"

Less than one hour. It is 85 km and there is a motorway.

There are plenty of car rental agencies in Carcassonne including Hertz, Budget and Europcar. You could rent a car in Carcassonne and drop it in Perpignan then take a train
www.sncf.com
or a bus - www.frogbus.com
to Girona
and rent a car in Girona for the Spanish leg of your trip though a car in Barcelona will be more of a hassle than a pleasure.


"any recommendations for places to stay in narbonne and perpignan?"

Depends on your price range.

Rennes-le-Chateau is not really mysterious but the town provides a large number of free parking lots :-)

hey thanks pvoyaguese.
price range = >100 euros a night or thereabouts.

i was wondering if rennes le chateau was tourist trap after the da vinci code movies. but i was so into that Holy Blood Holy Grail book when i was a teenager (long ago) that i just have to stop there.

No, Rennes-le-Chateau is not a tourist trap. It is a small village and there isn't much to see except of course Abbé Saunières'church. There are signs everywhere forbidding people to dig for gold. It has been a popular place to visit long before Dan Brown :-)

See www.lafauceille.com. It is a 4* hotel in Perpignan with an excellent restaurant.
Or Hotel Mas des Arcades : www.mas-acardes.com
Or Villa Duflot : www.villa-duflot.com
All three hotels are off center.

If you want to stay in the center :
Best Western Park hotel : www.parkhotel.fr

A nice B and B : www.latourapollinaire.com/ -