Hello. If you made Toulouse home base and had 6 days, where would you go if you had a car? Think family with 3 kids. Ages 8-12. Do you have any areas in Toulouse you would recommend staying in or not staying in? Thanks.

Castelnaudary, Albi, Cordes-sur-Ciel, Revel, Castres, Puylaurent, Graulhet, Olonzac...loads of places.

Get and read a guide to Toulouse. It it a treasure trove. No need to go there unless you read up and know what it has to offer.

I just stayed near place Wilson which was great, but I didn't have a car. That's the problem with a car, staying in the center which is generally most convenient doesn't work that well. I often stay in Accor hotels, that was a Mercure, but they also had one just a few blocks away in an area that would work better with a car (Mercure Toulouse Centre St Georges. That was right next to a shopping center so there was a public garage there. It may not be the type of hotel you want.

But if you are talking about Toulouse being a "base" for 6 days, you probably should be more on the outskirts or something. I did a day trip to Albi and to Carcassonne by train as the train station was easy to get to by metro from where I was. If you are talking about day trips by car, someone else will have to suggest where you should stay for that, but a map probably can help with that. I also would pick a place near a metro stop, though. Toulouse is a large city, traffic is not trivial.

So I'd suggest at least 2-3 days in Toulouse, then Albi, Carcassone, maybe Narbonne. Perpignan is doable also. I don't know the park areas there in the SW.

I based in Toulouse once thinking I had nothing to lose - and found in an engaging city with lots of students and a wonderful citywide harmony but if driving I'd probably stay in a smaller town or even a gite - vacation house for a week - self-catering so you can save money by cooking own food- some are in country others small villages:

https://translate.google.com/transla...ml&prev=search

try for a swimming pool.Great for driving - Toulouse like any large French city can have traffic problems. Make sure hotel if in city has convenient parking.

Carcassonne (especially for kids) and Albi are musts - a day each.

Toulouse would make an excellent base. Obviously there are tons of places within reach of a car -- it all depends on how much you want to drive every day. www.viamichelin.com will give you distances and driving times, as well as any possible tolls if you take the autoroute.

We stayed a bit south of the city on our one week visit last year, but the places we visited still apply, of course. Lots of pictures and commentary here: A week in the Occitanie

Great advice-- SemiMike-- great thread!!!
StCirq-- any of those places you mentioned better than the other to stay in.
kerouac- good link. Thanks!
Christina and PalenQ- good advice

So I want to find a base-- a gite, chalet, home-- for first week of June-- want for it to have a pool-- will it be warm enough? a lot of these pools are heated. Would like to venture from there.

Which town? Nothing too busy -- in the outskirts. We use it as a base and travel out. It can be between Toulouse- Albi- Carcassonne or surrounding. Help please.

"any of those places you mentioned better than the other to stay in"

Better for what? If you look at a map, you can see which of the places I listed are "in the outskirts" and which aren't.

FWIW, we can't get in our pool here in SW France the first weekin June normally. We'd freeze. Of course no one can tell you if it will be warm enough or not - normally, no, and it was a freezing cold winter here.

If you're actually finding places with heated pools you must be looking at expensive places. And no one I know would pay to heat a pool in June around here no matter how cold it was outside unless it was a resort or a campground or, as mentioned, a very high-end property. Fine if that's what you want and are finding.