France was on both of our wish lists for the trip, and when I asked Jordan what, specifically, he wanted to see, he told me he wanted to sit in Bordeaux and drink Bordeaux. That, and he wanted to go to Carcassonne since we love the board game so much.
Jordan is pretty easy to work with on trip planning since he essentially leaves it up to me. That put me in ultra research mode as I tried to figure out where we should go, and how we should get there. We had committed to a housesitting gig in Sauverny (near Geneva, in the northeast of France) 3 weeks later, so I had a time limit to adhere to, and I knew I wanted to experience the quintessential French adventure – complete with Chateaux, lavender fields, and baguettes.
The Mode of Transportation:
Wanting the freedom to stop in the middle of nowhere and explore the Chateaux that were out in the countryside, we decided that a car rental, though a bit pricey, would ultimately give us the most room for exploring. You can absolutely do this route with trains/public transport. It’s just a little tougher to stay in the outskirts (and save money) or visit out-of-the-way places on your schedule.
The Planning:
I found an awesome website called inspirock that let me put in destinations, and would suggest a route and sights along the way. This ended up being absolutely essential for us.
The Itinerary:
If you’re wanting a full experience of Southern France, you can’t go wrong with this itinerary – with a few caveats I’ll include below. This is pretty much the idyllic France experience.
- Carcassonne
- Bordeaux
- Sarlat Le Caneda
- Rocamadour
- Albi
- Montpellier
- Marseille
- Cassis
- Aix-en-Provence
- Avignon
Notes and Caveats:
- We skipped Toulouse (it had been originally on our list) in favour of Albi instead. I had read reviews that weren’t too favourable on Toulouse.
- On the way out of Bordeaux and to Sarlat we stopped by St. Emilion – which was beautiful. Absolutely recommended.
- We didn’t get to enjoy enough of Albi because we found that one of our AirBNB’s had left us with a flea problem, so our time in Albi was centered around trying to boil all our clothing and de-flea. Not fun.
- Montpellier & Marseille were both letdowns – Montpellier moreso, but both were disappointing and I wouldn’t do them in hindsight.
- On our way to Marseille from Montpellier we stopped through Aigues-Mortes (which was incredible) and through the national park of Camargue – both of which we loved.
- We missed Cassis, and only drove through Aix-en-Provence because time was starting to run out and we had a long drive from Avignon up to Sauverny
Highlights:
- Carcassonne was every bit what we had hoped for – a fairytale castle with a little village surrounding it. We dined in a little bistro and drank the most delicious table wine (for 2 euro a half litre)
- Bordeaux was absolutely gorgeous. We stayed in an airbnb French farmhouse just outside, giving us the ability to explore some of the Chateaux in the area. The city of Bordeaux, however, is incredible and somewhere I would absolutely recommend visiting.
- St Emilion, though not on our original itinerary, was recommended by our Air BNB host. It’s a beautiful medieval town and we stopped through and did a walking tour – I would have happily stayed an extra day or two there
- Sarlat La Caneda is also an incredible medieval town and one I wish we had spent more time in. It was the perfect stereotypical French provincial town and is not to be missed.
- Rocamadour is a great day trip, and we did it on our way from Sarlat to Albi. You only need a few hours to climb to the monastery and explore the village, but it’s absolutely worth visiting.
- Avignon is a gorgeous city and the bridge should not be the only thing you visit (because there’s not much there for the bridge, anyhow). We went further afield in search of the rolling lavendar fields and had a picnic in the middle of nowhere, after getting lost in several sleepy hamlets – which was awesome.