Hello everyone,
I’m beginning to plan a 40 night trip to Europe in September 2025. Yes, I’ve heaps of time, but I enjoy the planning process and it’s been many years since traveling from Australia to this part of Europe.
my hubby and I are 60 and love good food, walking and the water and nature. Hubby loves to ride a bike. 21 nights France, 19 Portugal.
we plan to fly in/out of Paris. So far, this is what I have, after reading many trip reports here.
Paris 2 nights
Train to Aix, stay 2 nights (not on a Sunday/monday)and then pick up car and stay
in St Rémy 6 nights to explore the area.
Drive to Argeles-Gazot stay 3 nights so hubby can hire a bike and do a couple of rides- hopefully this town has enough for me to occupy myself ( I won’t be driving).
*Stay Carcassonne 1 night en route.
Then drive to La Roque-Gayeac stay 4 or 5 nights as a base to explore the area.
drive to Bordeaux to drop off car and stay 2 or 3 nights (depending on how long staying in previous location). Then fly to Portugal.

Im wondering if these distances are ok? Hubby enjoys driving. Is my split between towns ok? We’ve been to Paris before, so don’t see the need to stay longer there.
i welcome any recent hotel/BnB recommendations and/ or places you loved eating or walking tours.
thanks so much.
Karen

The distances are drive-able so I guess ok in that sense. I'm a little baffled about going all the way to that village of Argeles-Gazot just to ride a bike. It's a village of about 3K population so no, there isn't anything to do there. And no public transportation so you can't go elsewhere. It has some thermal spa thing, I think. But the issue is Carcassonne is not on the way between that village and La Roque-Gaygeac (I presume that's what you mean) so that's the part I don't understand.

Is your husband such a cyclist that he wants to do some of the iconic rides they do in the Tour de France in the Pyrenees? Like col d'Aubisque? I guess I could understand that.

6 days in St Remy is a lot but I guess you have some plans for the surrounding area with your car?

You know Mt Ventoux is one of the classic Tour de France rides, also, and it's right near Aix. Although I think it's pretty challenging and maybe not as scenic as the Pyrenees, anyway. St Remy area is a lot flatter, and there are moderate bike routes in the ALpilles and around St Remy.

""You know Mt Ventoux is one of the classic Tour de France rides, also, and it's right near Aix.""

Bedoin is near Mt Ventoux, and the "base" for climbs up the mountain . Aix is 1 hr 20 mins away from Bedoin. There are several bicycle rental places in Bedoin, Also, the region just east of Bedoin is filled with bicyclists. There is somewhat of a "daily rush hour" bike commute going through Bedoin on the way to & from Mt Ventoux. Then around 5-6 pm, the exhausted riders are downing beers at one of the many cafes along the main drag of Bedoin.

Stu Dudley

When we visited Bedoin for a couple hours one year and stopped for lunch there, we saw tons of cyclists doing exactly what Stu describes: downing beers at the many cafes on the main street. There was a lot of camaraderie and a very happy atmosphere.

Thanks for your reply Christina. I meant to say Carcasonne is on the way to Argeles-Gazot. And yes hubby loves the Tour de France and wishes to do a couple of the famous rides there. However, I’ll now suggest these alternatives mentioned, thanks Stu Dudley.

We stayed in Luz St Saveur, but did not visit Argeles other than to go to the supermarket. The Pyrenees are lovely and we drove over the Col de Tourmalet and the Col d'Aubisque. Bedoin is also very nice. However, unless you stay in a larger base, no small place is going to have enough for you for three or four days while your husband is off cycling, unless there is some public transport. This is my report on our stay in 2016. Scroll through to the Pyrenees section

We stay in self catering, but on the rare time we stay in a hotel, we use the following site. They are smaller hotels in small places and often are family run and have a restaurant.
https://www.logishotels.com/en/

For our rentals we use Gites de France, but they also have chambre d'hotes.
https://www.gites-de-france.com/fr

Bon voyage. We are also Australian and hope to return next year.

OP Kaz,
We'll be staying at a gite in Rhon's recco Luz St Saveur in October (*buying my Speedo tomorrow). Will be happy to share anything that we learn about that, if you might want.
I am done. the Pir Pyier Preynn Pyrre mountains in the south of France

*they have some strange spa rules there LOL!

I neglected to provide the link to my report on our stay. There is some great walking in this area, even though we are not serious hikers.
Country Roads in Autumn. Ten weeks in country France.
We also enjoy planning our trips.

Thanks so much rhon, lots to read.

zebec, that sounds great. Much appreciated.

The col du Tourmalet is a standard or at least frequent part of the Tour de France, as is the col d'Aubisque


The Abbey of Saint-Savin-en-Lavedan can be reached on foot from Argelès-Gazost (3.5 km.)


but I would use the car to get to Gavarnie and the lac d'Estaing

Beautiful photos, looks like a gorgeous walk. Thank you Michael.

Michael's first foto above - so lovely, yeah?
FWIW, the extremely-popular overnight stays up at the Pic du Midi are apparently sold-out til next Xmas and no longer will be offered at all afterwards.

I am done. the spas, the mountains and the walks

That was taken at the pass, not the observatory.

Oui oui oui, je sais, Michel. Its just that the pass is so close by.
I am done. The peerless Pyrenees