JoeCal

Greetings Fodorite's. I am spending some time in France this year and need help on deciding where to spend one night in transit. I am going from near Orange to Bordeaux to pick up friends at the airport. I have a car and will be staying near Bergerac afterwards. I am looking for a recommendation on a place to stay somewhere from Toulouse on towards Bordeaux. I was thinking Agen would be a nice place to stop and rest or perhaps someplace closer to TLS. I have until 2pm to get to Bordeaux (I am splitting this becasue I figure it would be too much driving to do in one day - Orange to Bordeaux to Bergerac. Agree? Any suggestions? (I would like to do some touring along the way). Thanks in advance.

StCirq

Agen is a big bore, but it's on the direct route from Toulouse to Bordeaux, so that's a plus. I would suggest heading for Agen and doing a small detour west on the D656 to Nérac, a delightful town where, if you want, you can take a nice barge tour on the river.

sheila

If, as an alternative you wanted to come off the main roads, you would do worse than going due west, through Millau (going over the viaduct!!) and staying somewhere like Cahors.

If you stick with the main road, again, I'd agree with St Cirq. Don't stay in Agen, but one of the very pretty villages or towns 15 kms or so off the motorway

JoeCal

Thank you both so very much. I don't think we'd have enough time to go via Cahors and Millau and still get to the airport and back in time. (But I will get a chance at Millau as I will be in the Langedoc a week or two earlier). I will ultimately end up fairly close to your place StCirq... near Lalinde at any rate. I will be leaving one gite in Provence for another in the Dordogne. So I am leaving on Friday afternoon and driving as far as Nerac (or similar), spending the night and then picking up my friends at the airport Saturday morning and driving through Bergerac towards my next gite.

Thanks again and if you have any other suggestions or places along the way to recommend, I would love to hear about them too. 7 months to plan - sometimes I just don't think that's enough. Reading all these posts makes my vacation last a long time - before and after I go.