Loop of West France into Spain

Solasgeal

Hi all,

Planning on taking the ferry from Rosslare to Roscoff this summer. We have two weeks and are loosely planning on travelling down the west coast - La Rochelle - skipping Bordeaux as have been there twice before - Biarritz/Bayonne (which is best?) - San Sebastian (visiting Bilbao while here) - Carcassone - Loire Valley - back to Roscoff.

We tend to travel faster than maybe others would, and like scenery, nice picturesque towns, restaurants, vineyards, not so much interested in museums etc.

Would anybody have any recommendations on the route or where to stay (in particular cottage/farmhouse available for 1/2 night rentals)?

Thanks for any info!

zagmund

We stayed near Biarritz a few year back. The coast is nice, but the town itself (as much as we could see of it) wasn't much. The immediate area was a strip (along the coast road) of small towns which have morphed into a sort of US edge of town strips, only many, many kilometers long. In other words, not unduly nice. The town itself appeared to be like Dalkey, but without the village. A lot of tiny winding streets with houses that the rich people live in but you can't see inside and you can't see the beach and you can't see . . . you get the picture. There may well be a village in there, but I couldn't find it even when I went looking for it.

Just down the road are two great towns though. St Jean de Luz on the French side has some great history (I'm told) and a great beach and Hondarribia on the Spanish side has a great Parador which is well worth a visit. Both towns are great for the food & evening stroll thing. San Sebastian airport is actually in Hondarribia, so you could do worse than base yourself there for a couple of days.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=biarritz&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=43.375109,-1.714554&spn=0.098324,0.239811&sll=34.885931,-95.712891&sspn=55.534914,122.783203&t=h&z=13 - Hondarribia in the bottom left, St Jean de Luz in the top right. Zoom out once and you have Biarritz & San Sebastian/Donostia.

z

Tipperary animal lover

Did that loop many years ago, we used camp sites and b&b farmhouses etc its a lovely drive, make sure go to the islands of La Rochelle .... Il de re and lie d'oleron. Sorry cant think of names but we just arrived at a village/ town and asked around and had no bother finding a place. Even in busy cities like La Rochelle and Bayonne( found Bayonne better to stay in as more to do than Biarritz but Biarritz was good for beach).

Stab*City

I'm toying with doing the same trip more or less. Did you book the ferry? What company? Any travel/drive tips? First timer. What kind of petrol costs would you be talking? I'm thinking of heading to barcalona and back.

Solasgeal

Thanks zagmund and Tipp animal lover, good tip on maybe not staying in Biarritz and rather visiting it from maybe St jean da Luz.
Would anybody have any recommendations for where to stop travelling back up inland from Toulousse back to Roscoff?
I'm a first-timer for the trip too stabcity, have booked the ferry to Roscoff with Irish Ferries

Stab*City

Cool.. Im just in the getting ideas together stage. im looking at maybe end of July-start of August.

munchkin_utd

After driving to Spain, if you dont fancy driving the whole way through France again to catch the ferry back to Ireland then Stena does a landbridge (combi-ticket) from Bilbao/Sanander in Spain to England plus the Irish sea crossing to Ireland for similar prices to what the ferry would cost from France to Ireland direct (after driving the whole way back the way ye came.)
heres the prices :
http://www.stenaline.ie/europe

The drive from Portsmouth to Fishguard (for Rosslare) is actually grand, motorway and dual carraigway the whole way until the last few km to the port.