nkostakis

A great deal of delightful information! You suggest the villages of Olonzac and Minerve in the Minervois area, is Bize-Minervois (came across it in a travel guide) another interesting place to visit? Regarding restaurants, are you by any chance familiar aware of places serving gluten-free dishes? (shamelessly pestering you on) Now, parking. I'm the sort of person that likes to drive as close as possible to my destination, ideally right outside. What difficulties should I prepared to meet in Narbonne/Beziers? General situation, paid /metered municipal, paid private garages...

Since you live in this area, could you suggest any restaurants? Local cuisine, unpretentious is how I like them.

Judith, we'll be sleeping in Narbonee but would like to take short excursions/day trips in the area. Let us say on a radius of 1-1.5 hour drive from Narbonne (one way). One such visit will be to Béziers for the boat tour on the canal. What else would you sugggest? I'd be interested in small villages, local food restaurants & wine, a horse riding farm for my two teenage daughters, nature scenery (no hiking). What "real" (if that means anything any more) France is like. Is that too vague?

I already spotted Novotel Narbonne Sud A9/A61 yesterday as a probable place to stay 🙂 I undestand that chances are I'll (probably) be ok driving to the Spanish border in the morning of the 14th. So, once we got the hard stuff sorted out, let us proceed to the pleasurable: places to visit and where to eat. The floor is yours.

Following your recommendations Judith, I think I'll select either Narbonne or Beziers as our base in France. Michelin proposes the route passing through Perpignan (N22, N20, N116 to Perpignan, from there on via the motorway A9/E15 to Narbonne). The main problem that I can see is road traffic on and after the July 14 holiday (Fri 14- Sat 15-Sun 16) which I wasn't even aware of. Initially I expected we'd be leaving to drive towards Barcelona on the 13th or 14th. If you can shed some light here, how bad can I expect traffic to be? Would things get crowded in Narbonne/Beziers even on the eve (13)?

apologies ssomon, I realised after replying that you were talking about the Andorra to Perpignan road which is indeed very twisty. That's one more reason I received the suggestion of Narbonne instead of Perpignan with relief; much easier roads.

Do you mean the Google Maps travel time (3.5 hrs for 241Km) is not realistic? I see the fastest route uses the N20 ( what speed limit on N roads, in general ?) and a 90 Km final strech on the A61.

Hectorsdad and Judith, thank you both immensely for your very valuable insights. Our 3 teenage kids can't stand long drives (in their book, over two hours) . I guess I could stretch it to choose Narbonne as our base in France. I'll discuss this with the family and see how it flies. A possible issue, there appear to be relatively few hotels there, pricier too (quck Booking.com search), compared to Braziers. Might I also ask for restaurant recommendations in the area? Re tolls on French motorways, can one pay with debit card or cash? Regarding the coastal areas from Narbonne down to Girona: do you think they'd be 'fully' crowded around 10/7? I prefer to avoid large crowds if possible (understanding I can't expect to have my cake and eat it too travelling in mid-July, if it follows the post-pandemic travel spree of 2022)

Having just arrived in the forum, may I wish everyone a healthy and happy year. Please allow me to tap into your wisdom as my experience of France is limited to one holiday in Paris (+Disneyland in 2019). In early July 2023, after spending 4-5 days in Andorra I'm planning a 3-4 day (depending on your suggestions) stay in southwestern France before driving on (we'll have a rental 7-seater) to Barcelona (to spend 3-4 days there before flying home). The idea was to 'discover' quaint, small-town, quiet, 'provincial' France. Wanting to avoid longish driving distances (more than 250 Km) I thought of selecting Perpignan as our base (well Perpignan might not be really provincial but it's a smaller city and I'm hopeful of finding "authentic" villages around). I say Perpignan as it looks like a probably good solution (on a map), however I'm open to suggestions. I have some very (pre?)elementary French that I was taught for 5 years in primary school some 45 years ago. I would very much appreciate all insights/advice you could give me.