Nice to Barcelona - Interesting Places along the Way?

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spro

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Am travelling from Nice to Barcelona in the next couple of weeks.

Was wondering if there are any interesting sites to visit enroute.

Most likely will spend a one day each in Monte Carlo and Cannes, but then will have about 6 days to get to Barcelona

Would welcome any insight. Thanks
 
Have just returned from 2nd visit to Portiragnes Plage near Beziers(between Montpellier and Narbonne), beautiful area along the Canal du Midi, great for walking and cycling.
 
I visited St Tropez in August. Difficult to get to and not much to see, very disappointing.
 
Not worth a whole day in Monaco - a few hours tops -if you only have a week on such a great route. Even Cannes can be done in half a day. Nearby Antibes also worth a couple of hours.

If you had whole week in provence then worth spending longer in the above and many other places. But not when you have to get to Barcelona by such a attraction-filled route..

not sure if you're travelling my car or train. You don't have time to do any of these places justice, so you may have to skip a few. AixenProvence, Marseilles, Arles, Narbonne ( Plus side-trip to Carcassonne).

After Perpignan, (o.k. but not great)head for coast -Port Vendres- stick to coast for beautiful Costa Brava drive and at San Fileu head inland to Girona before arrving at Barcelona.

Whenever I plan these trips my wife cuts them in half and says she isnt spending all day every day touring around, visiting cities and scenery and ending up exhausted whilst i dig up another boring fact about such-and-such a place. My teenage daughter will have jumped out of the car after one day.

So it depends on whether you are travelling with family , or whether you want to enjoy yourself!

this is a great route -whether by car or train. Worth planning.
 
Here are some ideas for the Languedoc & Roussillon region of southern France:

If you have a car Avignon is nice town en-route which is worth a visit. If you stay here there’s a cheap hotel in the centre called Hotel de l’Horloge which I recommend.

With Avignon as a base you could make the short trip to Pont du Gard (a big roman aqueduct – take a look at this and see if it tickles your fancy). There are some sleepy hilltop villages near to Avignon which have the feel of rural France and don’t seem to have been touched by the tourist trail (Bonnieux, Lacoste, Menerbes & Rousillon – there’s an interesting ochre trail here).

I think Montpellier is also worth a visit, it’s a nice city (be warned the museums are closed on Mondays). Hotel du Palais is another well located budget hotel that I’d give the thumbs up. From Montpellier you could travel inland a bit to Circque de Navacelles (a spectacular ox-bow canyon, stunning views from the top).

Avoid Porte la Nouvelle (it’s a ghost town off season) but there is an ‘African Reserve’ near Sigean which is a drive through safari park where you can get very close to the lions and other animals. The website isn’t great but the park itself is a good way to spend a few hours (unless you’ve been on a real safari!).

Narbonne is okay, beautiful but it’s fairly quiet. As somebody already mentioned, Carcasonne is a beautiful town and I think it’s worth the detour inland to wander through the winding, narrow streets of the walled ‘old city’ (city it ain’t, maybe in the old days). The ‘lower town’ is nice too and you can see the Canal du Midi which passes through.
 
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