Driving Nice to Barcelona

Hi All

Me and my fiancee have decided to drive from Nice to Barcelona in late June whilst on our honeymoon.

We%26#39;ve never been to France before (live in australia) and are unsure of the cities. We preferably would like to stay away from %26#39;touristy%26#39; (if that%26#39;s a word) areas and just chill out together, enjoying the places and the people.

We have allowed 3-4 days for the trip and were wondering if anyone could suggest any cities to stop at.

We are really into our food, and would love an area with heaps of local produce.. etc Being our honeymoon, anywhere with nice views, old school charm would be perfect.

We are debating whether or not to book ahead at the cities we decide to stop at, or to leave it all open and book when we arrive.

is it unrealistic to expect vacancies in late June??

Many thanks

Peter %26amp; Marie

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Peter %26amp; Marie, if you can access the LA Times from your computer, see if you can find in their travel section an article written about the Cote d%26#39;Vermillion or Ruby Coast. That is the area west of the Cote d%26#39;Azur and east of Spain. It appeared a few years ago so you may have to access their archives, but the small towns and villages described in the article sound like they might fit your needs. If for some, reason you can%26#39;t get the article from their website, let me know and I will dig thru all my travel stuff and quote you some of the information provided. Also, check out the website www.mappy.com. It gives directions and dead on times for driving from point A to point B. I usually use a map for my directions, but knowing that I am going on a 5 hour trip rather than a 2 hour trip makes a lot of difference in how I plan my vacation days. Let me know if you can%26#39;t get the info from LA Times.

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I think it%26#39;s a great idea you have. It%26#39;s good that you are going to take your time too, because there certainly are many places to see between the two cities.

I%26#39;m going to assume that you will have spent a few days in Nice and will have seen whatever you want to see along the coast - Cannes, Antibes, Nice itself, Villefranche, Eze, Monte Carlo - before setting out for Barcelona (hereinafter referred to as Barca). You really don%26#39;t want to be driving on the coast roads, and those places are much better accessed from a central location. I%26#39;d suggest Villefranche-sur-Mer just a few minutes from Nice by train or bus.

Then, rather than having you hop from one hotel to another when you set out to Barca, I think you%26#39;d be better staying at least a couple of nights - three if you can manage it - in a somewhat central place in Provence. There is a lot to see in and around Avignon, Arles, Nîmes, the Camargue, les Baux, the Pont du Gard. (Google any of these places if the names are unfamiliar to you.)

The first three are good-sized towns with interesting Roman remains (theatres, temples, amphitheatres), museums, the Papal Palace, and so on.

If you were going to look around this part of Provence, St.Rémy would be a good place to base yourselves for a few nights. It%26#39;s quite small, charming, and has several hotels and a good selection of restaurants.

For a slightly different experience you could stay just a little farther north, possibly in L%26#39;Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. This would allow tyou to see one or two of the places I mentioned, but also to get into the upland area of the Lubéron and explore some of its lovely scenery and small and beautiful villages.

Or you could do a %26quot;total immersion%26quot; Lubéron thing for a few days.

These three options probably range in order from most touristy to least touristy. (Les Baux is fascinating but REALLY hiving with tourists in the summer.)

On your way from Nice, you could perhaps stop for lunch and have a quick look round Aix-en-Provence, though unless you are familiar with it finding your way into and parking in Aix can be a bit of a bear.

OK, sooner or later you want to get to Barca, right? And I%26#39;ve got you stuck about a third of the way there.

Well there%26#39;s method to my madness. There%26#39;%26#39;s not really much of interest between the Rhône estuary and the Côte Vermeil that the previous post referred to. So, having seen all you want to - or having just run out of time - you hop on the autoroute, drive all the way practically to the Spanish border, and spend your last night in Collioure, a lovely seaside village in a great setting. It should take you about 3 hours to get there from St. Rémy at a guess.

And from there to Barca in a bit over an hour.

If you really wanted to just ignore the towns (Avignon, Arles, Nîmes) and I%26#39;d understand why you might, then perhaps divide your time between the Lubéron and Collioure - or just in one or the other. But I would urge you to take enough time and make a short detour to see the Pont du Gard which, along with the Pantheon in Rome,, is perhaps the most amazing remnant of ancient Rome anywhere in the world.

If you use the search function at the top of this page under the green bar, and search in the France forums for Collioure, you%26#39;ll find several recent threads with good info on hotels and links to a couple of web sites. You could do the same for the other places I%26#39;ve mentioned.

Besides mappy.com you might find michelin.com useful for route planning, especially if you use their Options feature. You can also check their catalog for maps, of which you will need at least a couple if you are going to do any of these things.

Lastly, I haven%26#39;t mentioned Carcassonne which is a bit off the direct route, but easily doable. It%26#39;s not quite what you are looking for, I think, though impressive, if in a slightly Disney-ish kind of way. And filled to bursting with tourists...

Ask away if you have any questions.

And have a wonderful honeymoon, and an even better marriage!