First of all, thanks to all the Fodorites who helped us out in the planning!
Day one-- NWA flight to Gatwick, Easyjet to Barcelona-- first experience with Easyjet and I have to say that we would definitely do it again. All tickets are electronic (which I love), they tell you what time they will start checking in, no problems there, you get a number, and they board you by those numbers (and yes, they did pull people aside who tried to board early), open seating-- we ended up front row. The planes were very clean and decent seat room (same as any domestic US flight.) Now, it is no frills, and you will have to pay for a beverage if you are so inclined, but I would rather have the cheaper flight and bring my own frills!
I have a friend living in Barcelona, so she picked us up front the airport and they made us a yummy Catalan dinner (BF is from Barcelona) and introduced us to a yummy liquor called Creme de Catalan-- had to bring home a few bottles of the stuff.

Day 2 - off to the Languedoc!!! We rented through pepe car - and ended up with a HUGE Hyundai Matrix (I think)-- very spacious especially for Europe, plenty of room for 4 people and luggage. One thing about driving in this area-- the tolls are EXTREMELY expensive, so have cash ready!! I think in 3 days we probably spent 50-60 euros in tolls easily. We stopped at two of the Cathar castles, Queribus and Peyrepertuse, both which were amazing. Queribus is maybe a "more interesting" ruin, but Peyrepertuse is easily 3X the size-- and a little confusing too, we had a hard time finding the path back down (we were the only ones there) and had an impending thunder storm looming down on us! Then off to our B&B-- we inadvertantly took the very long route to the Trois Mongettes (east of Lagrasse), and the owner is the most helpful man who does speak "some" English and was even about to drive out and find us!!! (It's really very easy to find in the daylight, but at night in the rain we were a little challenged.) He was shocked that we had not had dinner (we could not find anything open in route) and called two different places and found one open and sent us on our way to what he termed a "typical french cafe". He warned us that they did not speak any english, so off we went with guidebooks in hand. They were very nice in the cafe, and in fact did not speak any english, but we ordered the plat du jour and our waiter helped us out by making the "oink, oink" snort-noise to indicate that we would be having pork! (I know I am not explaining this very well, and maybe it was a "you-had-to-be-there" moment, but it really was quite amusing -- we have bare bones french, we were just pointing to items on the menu, he's trying in vain to have a conversation with us, but we understand nothing, and suddenly he snorts and there is an "a-ha!" moment all around! We kept trying to pull out the translation books, but he finally grabbed them and took them off the corner to show his friends-- all very good naturedly. We ended up having a lovely dinner of fresh salad with tomatoes and anchovies, some kind of pork tenderloin roast that was amazing-- like a pot roast it was so tender!, and creme brulee for dessert.
Day 3 - Can't say enough wonderful things about the Trois Mongettes. They have 3 rooms, they have redone themselves, they are just charming and squeaky clean. We had a good breakfast (although we missed that we were supposed to use the bowls for our coffee-- the owner quickly provided coffee mugs for us!) He was very helpful with maps and directions, and even helped us make reservations for the Grotte de Niaux, which is where we headed out towards. It's south of Foix, and took us about 1.5 hours to get there, but it is one of the prehistoric caves with cave art that they actually allow you to tour. And lucky for us, there was a tour available in french and english. It really was an amazing experience, and the tour guide was wonderful-- this really was one of the highlights of our trip. Incidentally, they told us there are 180 caves with prehistoric art in France, but only 12 that are open to the public.
On the way to the cave, we stopped in the absolutely charming town of Mirepoix-- if you are anywhere near this area, the town is enchanting (even in the cold rain) and has the best boulangerie-- my mouth is watering just thinking about it!
Near Grotte de Niaux there is another prehistoric cave and a museum, but they close pretty early (3 and 4pm I believe) so by the time we were done with our tour, we had missed them.
On the way back to the Trois Mongettes, we stopped in Caracassone. We ended up there at the end of the day (4:30ish) so the tourists were leaving and a lot of the stores were closing. We did have a nice dinner, and a chance to try cassoulet, and a lovely dessert (I have the french name written down, it's a creme (tastes like a more liquid creme brulee) with a meringue floating in it. Delicious! As for Carcassone, it is touristy -- as many of these types of restored walled cities are-- but it was an enjoyable stop, and it makes for a very pretty walk around the wall at night when the perimeter is all lit up.

Ok-- I am going to post this before I lose it!

Hi Jonesie

Thanks for the report. My wife and I really enjoyed our trip to Languedoc.

OK, continuing on....

Day 4 - another yummy breakfast at the Trois Mongettes (with coffee mugs - I am sure the man thinks Americans are complete imbeciles at this point, but his daughter is going to Stanford right now...) He also very kindly arranged for us to go to wine cellar in Boutenac(again, if you would like the name, I have it written down)-- he even drove us there (I am sure he was convinced we would never find it on our own!!!) and it was a wonderful experience. The vinter is 8th generation, and most of the vines are 110-130 years old. It was funny, they told us the wine would be "expensive" here-- the most expensive bottle was 15 euros I think, and 2 were 5 euros!
We said our goodbyes and headed back to Spain, stopping in Lagrasse, which our tourbook said was one of the most beautiful villages in France. I think we missed something. It was supposed to be market day (and granted, we would have been there towards the end of it arriving at 11/11:30) but we never found any evidence of a market, and very little evidence of anyone, except a few other tourists looking a little lost. The town appeared to be run-down, a little dirty, and compeltely deserted-- even the abbey! After Mirepoix, I had high hopes, and though some of the buildings were interesting, and the tight winding streets are charming, I was a little disappointed.
We stopped in Figueres to check out the Dali Museum and get some lunch (bit of a touristy place, but I think they all look fairly touristy in the town), but they did serve what we termed the "wine bong"-- looks like a olive oil carafe filled with very sweet and strong Moscatell wine, held from some height and poured down your throat after dinner. Then headed to Bisbal to talk a look at all the ceramic shops, and we stayed at a B&B outside Girona called Can Barrull (found through toprural)-- wonderful place, very nice rooms, would definitely recommend, but I think they may only speak Spanish. They also recommended a local restaurant (next village) I believe called Mas Pau-- what our friends called a very typical Catalan country house -- and had a wonderful dinner (including snails, which, to my surprise, I actually liked!)

Day 5 - We explored some of the villages and beaches along the Costa Brava-- I think my favorite beach was Aiguablava, but we had a great time walking from Llafranc to Calle(?) along a pathway above the ocean-- we stopped at a market and had a lovely lunch along the beach. Then we headed back to Barcelona for dinner (tapas of course!) and a lovely walk around town, and saw many of the Gaudi buildings lit up.

OK, more later!

jonesie, we had the same problem when we visited Peyrepertuse and we got lost, and wasted alot of time finding our way back to our hotel.

Nice report--and I did laugh at the "oink oink" moment!

Nice to hear that someone else has checked out Mirepoix. We stayed there a few years ago in the wild Astronomer's Suite at Maison du Consuls. Thought it was such a unique place--but it was cold and rainy when we were there too (and it was May!). I suspect that, with the topography and location, Mirepoix stays pretty cool, even in summer.

Day 6 - whirlwind tour of Barcelona. Used the bus turistic in the morning, which was nice because we got to see some of the sights we would not have otherwise (like Montjuic, and the port)-- however, I will say it's a bit slow, and I got a little weary of the "5 minute smoking stops"-- but maybe it was just our bus
We hopped off at the bottom of the Ramblas, so we walked it backwards I guess. Our favorite part was the boqueria, and we could have spent all day eating and checking things out (plus it was fun to see other people with cameras taking pictures of a market!) We checked out a little bit of the gothic quarter, but did not spend too much time there during the day, because we knew our friends were taking us back in the evening. We caught the bus touristic again to head up to Park Guell, which was a good thing because it is a long ways away-- but we had a gorgeous weather, so we sat and ate the snacks we bought at the Boqueria. We (foolishly) walked from the park to Sagrada Familia--- I would pay for this walk with 3 lovely blisters (and I NEVER have gotten blisters from walking-- Barcelona is brutal on the tootsies!) The church is awesome, and very interesting to see how it was being constructed, and we did walk up to the "top"-- which was very cool (although there was a large school group that was getting yelled at by their teacher the whole way). I have to admit, I didn't think I would like the Gaudi architecture as much as I did-- there is so much to look at and see (and though I know it is supposed to be controversial, I loved the passion facade-- much better than the other one in fact.) I was a bit disappointed that the crypt was not open while we were there-- there is supposed to be a really interested exhibit on how Gaudi determined how to support the structure using a model with inverted weights.
From there we walked to Casa Batllo, where we met our friends and did the tour. Very interesting, I would definitely recommend this one-- very interesting to hear about the innovations that Gaudi came up with. Then we did our tour of the Gothic Quarter, with a lot of historical info from our personal tour guides, after which we ate dinner at a really good Basque tapas bar, Sagardi (spelling?)

Day 7 - Easy jet back to Gatwick-- again, great flight, very timely, would very much recommend (we were even able to buy our Gatwick express tickets on board) We took the Gatwick express in to Victoria Station, but unfortunately service was suspended on the circle line, and the ticket guy gave us a bum steer on how to get to High Street Kensington, but we quickly recovered and learned a lot about the tube VERY quickly. We stayed at the Copthorne Tara (through Priceline, for $99 US/night), which was right around the corner from the tube, very clean, and a good size room-- no complaints here!!!
We dumped our luggage, got a sandwich from Pret a Manger (which we learned to love while in Scotland, I only wish they had these in the US!), and started out towards the "tourist loop"- Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St.James Park, Picadilly Cicus, Fortunum and Mason....and by then my DH was begging for a pub - literally. So we had to stop at the first one we could actually worm our way to the bar at (Maybe St. James???) -- not really my idea of a true pub, but the beer was good!!!! So began the start of our pub crawl through Soho and surrounds. One of the pub chains was offering a free t-shirt if you had a pint in 5 of the pubs, so we decided this would be a good reason to see the neighborhood and earn a better souveneir that a keychain. We actually had quite a good time, and we were enlightened as to what beer Madonna drinks (though apparently she "can't finish a proper pint"--- this is what happens when people find out you are from Michigan.) We also managed to weasel ourselves one of the cool St.George's Day hats that have the dragon spikes on them-- my DH has no shame when it comes to begging for beer paraphanalia.

Day 8 - Off the the Young's Ram Brewery in Wandsworth (are you surprised that this was a major stop with what you have now learned about DH???) It was actually a very nice tour, and we were the only two people on it, so it was at a nice pace -- 1 hour and 45 minutes, a bit longer than I would have guessed, but they do take you through the stables to see the shire horses (they still deliver by horse in Wandsworth). After that, we headed to the British Museum for a very quick tour-- we knew it would be, so we had specific areas targeted- Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, Mummies, Lindow Man. We clearly got to see a lot more than that, and you could EASILY spend an entire day or week in there (especially on strict budgets, since the museum is donation only.) After that, we checked out Harrods and did some neighborhood walking before heading to our London Walks "Along the Thames" pub walk-- which was very nice indeed, and we got to see the Globe theater (though it's only open in the summer) and learn about a lot of things that we would not have otherwise-- their guides are very knowledgable--- be sure to ask questions, you can learn lots that they might not regularly mention!

Day 9 - We headed out to Notting Hill/Portabello Road in the morning, and literally had to drag ourselves out of Books for Cooks and the Travel Bookstore in time to make our tour--- I just love little stores like those!!!!
We did the "Special Access" tour of Stonehenge with Astral Tours-- we really enjoyed this-- very small tours (only 16 people per bus, 2 buses in the tour.) We went to Avebury, West Kennet Long Barrow, and finally Stonehenge after it has closed to the public and you can walk amongst the stones. If you are interested in this time in history, I would definitely recommend it just for the opportunity to get so close, with only a limited number of people. The guide was good, though I hesitate to say great, only because his explanation of what these sites might have been was very one sided. But this area is just beautiful, and I think on another trip I would be very tempted to rent a car and just spend a couple of days exploring the area. By the time we got back to London (about 9pm) we were pretty tired and hungry, so on our concierge's recommendation, we headed to a nearby Indian restaurant, Kensington Tandoori I believe. The food was very good (not the best I have ever had, but then I think may have gotten a bit spoiled) but the service was excellent and we got to have a dessert called "funky pie"

Day 10-- we had a lovely breakfast at a place called the Muffin Man (can't even type it without hearing the King in Shrek!) right around the corner from our hotel before heading out for our flight home.

Overall: Loved the Languedoc area, would definitely go back and spend some more time in this area, and if you can find the Rough Guide for this area, it is very helpful (amazon had it, but it took like 2-3 weeks to ship, I lucked out and found a copy in the bookstore at Gatwick!) I think the Costa Brava area is beautiful, and we tried to get a kayaking trip in this area, but they were not running them yet, I think that would be spectacular. I would also love to got back and see the Basque area as well. London is expensive, and it takes a lot longer that I thought to get places, but there are ways to make it affordable-- we ate most of our meals either at Pret or Boots meal deals, so I don't think we broke our budget.
I will try to post some pictures tonight or tomorrow.
Thanks again,
Jonesie

Thank you for the post! WHat a great trip you had! I'm envious.

As I'm heading to the Copthorne Tara for my vacation as well, it was good to hear it was a nice place... I've seen mixed reviews, but it seems that if you get a yucky (unrenovated) room, all you have to do is ask and you'll get a better one. Thanks!

Also thanks for the name of the Indian restaurant, will definitely check that out while we are there!

Green Dragon,
Have fun on your trip! The hotel really has a very nice location, and there is a Boots and Pret A Manger right as you come out of the tube station, which is very handy, and then you make a left out the main exit, then a left on the first street, and the hotel is about one block down.
We got the name of the Indian restaurant from the concierge, so they should be able to give you directions (it was only about 3 or 4 blocks, but I can't remember the name of the street!)
I'm so jealous....I want to go back NOW!

We stayed in the Ariège as well last month. We had a great hotel in the centre of the medieval village of Mirepoix, it is a four star hotel with excellent rooms and big bathrooms. The hotel is a charming caractere hotel in an old building from the 18th century with a lot of old details. For more information about the medieval village have a look at the website of the tourist office www.ot-mirepoix.fr. The hotel has only 5 rooms and 3 suites, so be sure you reserve the room before by their website. It is called Relais Royal and the have a fantastic gastronomic restaurant. I think it is the best in the whole department. They have as well a small pool.

When you visit the area, do not forget to visit the old church of Vals, it is stunning!!