abramsdn

We will be visiting a friend and Toulouse and are looking at renting a car to drive to Nice via Montpellier and Marseille. We have 5 days for this portion of the trip. What sights/activities would you recommend? Is it worth it to drive or would it just be better to fly to Marseille and/or Nice? Any ideas/recommendations would be great!!

JAAR

Just returned from Toulouse-Montpelier. We did a boat trip on the Canal du Midi. Toulouse has a rich history with lots of Big city sites...called the pink city because of the architecture. Carcasonne is one of the major sites...well reserved walled city. A little commercialized but very nice history. The new town of Carcasonne at the bottem has lots of nice restraunts. Many cute towns along the way...Capstang was one of the prettiest. Fun wine barge on the Canal not too far. Lots of wineries as well.
Between Montpelier and Marsaille is Provence...Marsaille can be a bit of a rough place with its seaport and big town area but the seaport boardwalk is fun during the day and the seafood dishes are wonderful.
As you get close to Montpelier you are very close to the Med sea. Lots of nice beaches, great italian ice cream.

mbiddle

We recently returned from a 2-week trip to France that included the (easy) drive from Toulouse (where we also visited friends) to Provence (we based ourselves in Arles). Our friends in Toulouse made a suggestion that turned out to be a wonderful, unexpected addition to our trip. They suggested that we drive through the Camargue on our way to Arles. I was delighted to see a bit of this region that I had heard so much about, but didn't think we'd have time to visit. On the day we left Toulouse, we headed first for Carcassone, a must-see walled city. After about 1 1/2 hours there, we headed toward Arles, stopping first in Grande Motte, a waterfront town with a delightful resort feel to it. Then onto Aigue Morte - a wonderful small walled city that also looks over the waterways. We found the drive and the stops to be delightful and were really pleased to see these towns that hadn't event been on our original itinerary, and we still arrived in Arles by lae afternoon. I thought the drive was great and much better than taking the train. We also LOVED Arles, using it as our base to see St. Remy, Glanum, Les Beaux, etc.

dugi_otok

Drive, will be able to see many sites and the heart of Provence.
This route, stop when you want.
Toulouse-Carcassone-Montpellier( no great sites, but an under rated stop)-Arles-Les Baux-Pont du Gard-Avignon-Luberon hill towns(Gordes/Roussillon)-perhaps Aix-Marseilles-perhaps St Tropez-St Paul de Vence-Nice

Gary

mpprh

Hi

my homepage has lots of info about the Languedoc area : http://tlp.netfirms.com

Peter

sandi

In 5-days you have more than enough time to drive and there's lots to see and places to stop for your overnights.

Since you don't mention when you plan to do this trip, I would suggest that you figure your route and have hotel reservations especially if planning during summer months. Once you get into late September thru begin Nov you might not have problem just happening upon a place you want to stay, but don't expect it to be easy during July August and begin-Sept.

abramsdn

We will be traveling in late September. Does anyone have some nice hotels/bed & breakfasts to recommend between Toulouse and Nice?
Maybe even a castle?