Milton Keynes to Carcassonne in 10 days (recommendations)

[Mrs Trackside]

Trackside and myself are planning on taking the MX5 to Carcassonne in May/June next year. We're not planning on going the direct route, but want to see as much of France as possible in 10 days, so we'll be coming back a different way than we're going.

The plan is to take 4 days/nights to drive down, stay at Carcassonne for 2 days/nights and then 4 day/nights to drive back. We're going to book where we'll be sleeping before we leave.

Does anyone have any suggestions for places/things we shouldn't miss, as well as cheapish B&Bs to stay in?

Already on the list of places to visit (we may not get to them all)

Oradour-sur-Glane
Riems
Mont Saint-Michel
The War Graves in Normandy (I'd like to see my Great Uncle's Grave)
Chartres
La grotte de Lascaux (The Lascaux Cave)

[llewop]

What crossing are you planning on taking? Mont Saint-Michel and Normandy suggest using Portsmouth to Caen or St Malo would be good options. Riems seems a big detour to include with your other ideas - btw: Oradour is awesome - very sobering.

We've used St Malo outbound and Caen return a number of times - the overnight crossing to St Malo is great for then having a good day to travel to your first night stop and any visiting etc you want, but still get a fair way south. Last time we did it we got to La Rochelle for lunchtime - which is worth a visit if you go down/up near the Atlantic coast.

Carrying on from there; Cognac is a great place to visit and tour one of the Cognac houses - Martell is our favourite

Since you mention Lascaux - that whole area is full of history and other caves that are also worth visiting, depending on time and opportunity (check opening times - I think Lascaux might be quite limited) - also the Dordorgne and Lot valleys are both lovely to drive and stay in (we like Cahors and the wine from round there)

Heading vaguely in the direction from there to Carcasonne could take you through the Tarn Gorge area, which is very picturesque.

We love Carcasonne and stay in a lovely hotel there that is a little out of town - not the cheapest place though! The other Cathar castles in the area are also interesting - if you like your Dan Brown there is little village to the south of Carcasonne that has links to the background story behind Da Vinci Code.

Another route north/south to Carcasonne would take you to the Med coast, some great places to visit along that stretch of it like Grand Morte, then head north to pick up the autoroute over the Millau Viaduct - a wonderful road (felt like a grand scale roller coaster heading north to the bridge!) That also takes you towards Massif Central, so volcanoes, Clemond Ferrond etc - depending on whether you've taken in Chartres on your way down or want to head east for Riems you can pick up good routes as you get north of CF.

I'd better stop at that - could ramble on for ages about places we've tried on routes to/from that area, we've ended up in Carcasonne a number of times and if you had a little more time I'd also recommend the Pyrennes - great mountain roads, especially if you like Tour de France and fancy trying to drive up a couple of the hills the madmen cycle up!

[Spokey]

I can definitely recommend a visit to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie along the way. Personally, I didn't think Reims was all that interesting. France seems to be nicer from south of Reims to just north of the Med.

I can definitely recommend lunch or an overnight stay here: http://www.france-voyage.com/hotels-guide/hotel-lo...

And don't go on any peages or anything -- stick to the D routes and just follow your nose.

[Spokey]

Oh, and if you're going via Calais, the route down the Boulogne side of France is much better than the Reims side. And driving through Paris just sucks.

[Mrs Trackside]

Thank you very much for the suggestions. I'm putting all waypoints on a google map at the moment so I can sort out a route later. The only part of the route that's sorted so far is Troyes - Dijon - St Etienne (I think it's going to take me a while to sort out any more!!) We don't want to take the Autoroutes and plan on taking as many bendy back roads as we can.

I think we're going to cut Normandy off the trip and do that another time as it's quite a detour when I look at all the other places we want to visit on a map.

We were planning on avoiding Paris altogether as we want to go there for a weekend another time, although we have considered taking the Chunnel instead of a Ferry. If we do the Ferry we'll go Dover to Calais on the way out and Chunnel to come back. We've only ever been to Le Mans, and I've never planned a road trip before, so being virgins at this type of holiday, we're open to suggestions. Am I better off booking where we're going to stay each night, or what are our chances of finding places on route? Our French is very very basic, although I do plan on brushing up on it with some CDs for a few months before we go.

We have to go to Reims because Trackside wants to take a picture of our car outside the pit garages

[llewop]

Regarding pre-booking: we've done both - so it depends on how much hunting around you fancy doing at the time, also how flexible you want to be! For your fixed target of Carcasonne I would suggest you sort out somewhere, the rest, depends on what you want to do. If all else fails there are plenty of the French equivalent of TravelInns in various forms in most towns so you'll find somewhere.....

Riems pits; been there, done that, so do understand! Since you are also aiming at Calais/tunnel it makes sense, whereas Normandy then becomes the detour!

Don't know the East of the country so well so others may be able to advise, but the area around Avignon/Nimes is worth a stop if you have time.

Have fun - planning it is part of adventure - just don't over estimate what you can do in a day - I've ended up with an awful drive before by not realising how fiddly a road was....

Also, good luck with the packing: what is the boot like on an MX5? 2 weeks in France (and further ..) in an Alfa GTV did mean creative packing and leaving the spare wheel at home! Thankfully the last couple of times were in the OHs BMW 325 so plenty of boot/wine space.....

[thegamekeeper]

Absolute must if you are staying near Carcassonne is Chateau de Cavanac. 5 kms south of old city. The restaurant is one of the all time bargains. We have stayed and eaten there several times, everyone we have ever suggested it to has been back. Great rooms,most with 4 poster beds, lovely pool but the restaurant is incredible. Check out the website and look at menu. 42 euros for the menu tout compris and it means tout compris. There is a bottle of the chateau white, red and rose on the table and its included, whats more if you want more its included. Food cooked on oak oven in restaurant(which is old stables) One of the starters is half a lobster! Should have kept it quiet really, bet we cant get in next time.

Edited by thegamekeeper on Monday 2nd November 17:35

[Mrs Trackside]

Thank you for all the suggestions. I'll sort out a route and get your comments, then I'm going to book some places to stay overnight. I don't think I'm brave enough to just play it by ear when we get there. I'd do it in Italy because I can get by with the language, but knowing our luck, we'd end up having to sleep in a [shudder]tent[/shudder]

[Mrs Trackside]

Me again.

I've got as far as booking our hotel in Carcassonne and I've put some crosses on a map of places to visit, so I've nearly got a route planned.

Originally, the plan was to book our hotels to stop at for each night, but as we've never been to France before, (apart from Le Mans) and I've found oodles of things I want to see/do (I like castles, Roman stuff, volcanoes and caves and I've found an Insect World as well!), all of which can be found between Calais and Carcassonne. I/we don't to tie ourselves down to being in a certain place on a certain day because I like to go exploring and find things off the beaten track, which normally results in some sort of adventure.

So my question is, if we don't book somewhere to stay en route (apart from Carcassonne), what's the likelihood of being able to book a room? I don't really do camping, as I like my luxuries, such being clean and getting some sleep, and an MX5 has limited space, so I don't really want to have to rely on sleeping in a tent!