We'll be in the Dordogne and Lot valley for 8=9 days in mid September and then in Barcelona for 4 days. When I looked for flights from Bordeaux to Barcelona I was shocked that Kayak, Expedia, Air France only showed one non-stop flight a day; some Iberia flights ran $700 one way.. Where else can I check? Do I need to book now since there's only one flight a day?

I also was not successful in finding train connections on SNCF or Rail Europe.

If it helps we could return our car in Toulouse and depart for Barcelona from there rather than from Bordeaux.

You may be able to take the Elipsos (SNCF Rail), the overnight train from Limoges to Barcelona, but you will be unable to purchase tickets more than 90 days ahead of time. The economy class ticket is $215 one-way.

http://www.raileurope.com/train-faq/...sos/index.html

If you want to travel from Brodeaux St Jean to Perpignan, there are currently three early trains each day, one at 05h32 (4 hrs 51 min), one at 07h56 (5 hrs 12 min) and the last one at 12h28 (4 hrs 24 min).

The lowest fares are on the last train, 54,60€, one-way, 2nd class. There is a connecting train from Perpignan to Barcelona. There are no PREM fares shown for this route.

www.voyages-sncf.com

Again, you can only book 90 days in advance.

Booking on SNCF is a problem, or at least more complicated since they changed the system, but worth it since you can save a little money over what Rail Europe charges. I´ve only been able to get the site to work in French, with France as the pickup point.

Rail Europe, by the way, is part of SNCF.

You could also drive to Narbonne (have lunch in Carcassonne), drop of the car and take the train to Barcelona.

I just checked the SNCF site and found PREMs fares from Bordeaux to Barcelona for 70 euro (one way) up to 89 euro. The journey is just under 8 hours.

The 89€ fare, 2nd class, is only available on the 12h28 train, but it's a very good deal. It's not listed as a PREM fare for some reason.

The discounted 1st class fare on this same train is listed at 107.50€.

It came up as a PREM fare on my screen, Robert (though purple, not orange - it said PREM on the icon).

It was highlighted Orange when using Firefox, but did not indicate that it was a PREM fare. The PREM fares I have used in the past seemed to have a bigger discount, but I may be wrong since I don't keep records on the difference in price.

Cheap two-hoppers with easyJet, via GVA or LYS.

An eight hour train journey maya be more than our friends (age 80) can manage. I will find out and then get details from you all on how to book.
Regarding your suggestion DalaLlama: can you translate flight speak for me? Many thanks