Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Help from an expert...

I am driving to France from Girona and I have read about so many places that I don%26#39;t know which to drop from my itinerary. I will be leaving hotel at Girona next monday at around 6 am, and be back in Barcelona on Thursday at around 6pm. So I only have 3 and 1/2 days.





These are the places which I was going to drive through. Which would you drop? And which can I just drive through without stopping? And which would you spent the night in? And is there somewhere I missed?





Girona, Montpellier, Arles, Cassis, Saint Tropez, Cannes, Antibes, Gourdon, Saint Paul de Vence, Nice, St Jean Cap Ferrat, Villefranche-sur-mer, Monaco, Montecarlo, Breil-sur-Roya, Tende, Entrevaux, Isle sur la Sorgue, Avignon, Nimes, Parc national des Cévennes, Rodez, Aveyron, Albi, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Narbonne, Barcelona.





Thanks a lot



David






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I%26#39;d say if you didn%26#39;t hang around too much you%26#39;ve got a good itinerary for a one month trip, a leisurely one for two months. In 3.5 days? No way.





My suggestion? Confine yourself to southwest France — the Côte Vermeille and Collioure, Perpignan, Peyrepertuse and Quéribus (if you even have time for those), Fontfroide, Carcassonne, maybe as far as Albi. There%26#39;s also a few worthwhile places between the frontier and Barcelona including the Dali museum at Figueres if that would be of interest. There is no way you can cover all the places you list in the time you have unless all you are going to do is take a snapshot of the sign with each place%26#39;s name as you dash by...




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My personal comments would be for a first sifting. Then you route has to make some geographical sense. So debatable means not necessarily but if on your route and time for lunch...



Plan your trip with Google maps for example as you can add stop after stop visualise the route and get a time estimate. Then you can be more critical your self.





- Girona: ? never been



- Montpelleir: great city, love it, but would skip considering limited time.



- Arles: for the Roman ruins, keep



- Saint Tropez: skip, no easy road in and out uses a lot of time. Unless you need some glitz along the way...



- Cannes: skip



- Antibes: skip



- Gourdon: ?



- St Paul de Vence: keep



- Nice: keep if time to go in the old city



- St Jean Cap Ferrat: skip



- Villefranche: skip



- Monaco = Montecarlo: skip



- Breil-sur-Roya: ?



- Tende: ?



- Entrevaux: ?



- Isle sur la Sorgue: keep



- Avignon: Yes, keep



- Nimes: debatable but skip



- Parc national des Cévennes: very big! Skip unless you can drive through and not add 2 days to your journey



- Rodez: ? but probably skip



- Aveyron: a region, so unless driving through...



- Albi: debatable but the cathedral if time



- Toulouse: debatable, needs time to visit



- Carcassonne: absolutely keep



- Narbonne: skip




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Forgot Cassis: keep, rather than St Tropez. The only draw back is that it takes you off the A8 40km each way so about 20 mn. Might be good for dinner and sleep?




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Driving non stop from Barcelona to Nice on the motorway will take you at least 6 hours. Plus 6 hours to get back. That%26#39;s a whole day out of 3 and 1/2.



Your itinerary is far too ambitious. As Irishrover indicates, stick to the area between Montpellier, Toulouse and Barcelona. You could stop in Girona and Figueres, follow the coast from Rosas to Collioure, then to Carcassonne via Perpignan, Estagel and Quillan (Cathar castles on the way). Either go to Toulouse and Albi or to Montpellier, Aigues Mortes, Agde and Sète. You might have time to see the Millau bridge.



Forget about Provence.




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In my book, six hours driving with a decent lunch thrown in is a whole day all by itself, so Barcelona to Nice and back is two days. As splendid as they may be for getting from A to B, autoroutes are not designed to be scenic. On vacation I try to avoid them whenever possible. Many of the places you mention are in any case some distance from the closest autoroute, so you%26#39;d have to add a fair bit of time to the point to point time just to get to them.




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I would go as far as Arles, no further. And stay overnight there.




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Thanks a lot for your help especially Lougari. I am removing most places which you suggested to skip.

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