YazooLady

We are planning a trip this May that will involve a canal barge trip on the Canal du Midi, with a van from the barge picking us up and at the end taking us back to the train station in Montpellier. After that week, we will want to spend a week in the Dordogne, around the Sarlat area, and realize we will need to rent a car for that.

We can fly from Washington, DC, through Paris to Montpellier, or take a train from Paris, but flying seems much simpler. Of course, in that case, we'd have to get from the Montpellier airport to the train station. We are thinking that we would fly out of Toulousse back to D.C.

The big question is getting from Montpellier to the Dordogne (train to Toulousse? then rent a car there?) I suppose renting it and returning to Toulousse would be the best bet.

We'd love input on our plans and any advice, including places to stay. We've never traveled in France before, but drove (awful driving on the left!) and stayed in B&Bs in England and Scotland.

Thanks for any advice. All the forum posters seem to be so helpful!

StCirq

Yes, I think taking the train from Montpellier to Toulouse is a good idea. It's relatively way to get out on the autoroute from the Toulouse train station and it's only a couple of hours' drive.

Of course you could just drive from Montpellier, too, then drop the car off in Toulouse at the end of your trip.

YazooLady

We've about decided, after further checking, that we might drive from Montpellier and return the car to Toulousse. Sometimes something like that really jacks the price up, but it doesn't seem so in this case. Especially considering that we'd have to pay for the train, and we could just drive to wherever we wind up staying in the Dordogne.

Thanks for confirming that idea

StCirq

There should be no extra charge for picking up and dropping off in different locations as long as they're in the same country.

If you do drive, there's lots of interesting things along the way.

Sarastro

Both Avis and Hertz will charge for one way drop off in France. However, you can avoid any fee like this when using Autoeurope or Kemwell to reserve with Europcar, Citer, or Sixt.