It’s the Mrs’ birthday weekend after next and I’m thinking a arranging a last minute trip. Any thoughts on the aforementioned locations or recommendations for somewhere else nearby? I can get a cheap return flight to Bordeaux or Beziers. Looking for a bit of culture, architecture, good food and nightlife etc although a beach wouldn’t be bad if the temps are still approaching the mid twenties.

Bordeaux is a good choice, enjoy it if you go.

Montpellier is lovely and would be my slight preference over Bordeaux, either place research restaurants in advance and book one special one for Saturday dinner.

If you want beaches you might consider Biarritz or Cannes.

Cheers, leaning towards that option as it means avoiding Ryanair.

Edit, nice one Jam, food for thought.

Definitely no RyanAir 😉

you can fly direct to montpellier with easyjet .

Beziers is not that close to montpellier . but bezier airport is not far from the Cap d’ Agde .

If you go to montpellier , la Grande motte is nice and a few minutes away . it was 28c today .

San sebastian worth a look too, looking at a 3/3.5 hour journey or so on the TGV/Euskotren(change at irun/hendaye) though. Really nice spot though, old town/pintxos and beaches are great. plus some hills. Bordeaux is really nice too, but it’s vineyard land and all very flat about there, so not the most exciting train jourey, landscape gets interesting once you get by around biarrtz(nice spot too.).

Think other options getting there would be flight to barca/san seb, or flight to bilbao/euskotren.

“Y’a pas photo, Bordeaux”, dit Madame. Arcachon is easy to get to from Bordeaux. Or hire bikes and ride the cycle path to Lacanau, or the Roger Lapébie path to the Entre Deux Mers vinyards.

http://www.lexpress.fr/emploi/le-palmares-2017-des-villes-ou-il-fait-bon-vivre-et-travailler_1866011.html

https://www.ville-ideale.fr/classements.php

If you do go to Montpellier, go for a drink at Analog Bar. Run by friends (originally from N Ireland) who I worked with many years ago.

Give them my love if you do go – wonderful people.

We stayed at a mates house near Montpellier some years ago. Some lovely places around the coast from there.

Weekend after next is a ‘puente’ in Spain, so San Sebastián (and Bordeaux) will be busy. I’ve just booked a hotel in BDX and there wasn’t a lot of choice.

flight to bilbao/euskotren.

Airport bus is 15eur, every hour. Takes about an hour. Euskotren is best avoided, unless you want an extremely long, boring but scenic route on hard plastic seats.

ourmaninthenorth – Member
If you do go to Montpellier, go for a drink at Analog Bar. Run by friends (originally from N Ireland) who I worked with many years ago.

I may have frequented that establishment too often when I lived in town 🙂 It’s a great bar and has a very good selection of beers. Kevin did the right thing leaving the tourist trap Irish pub to start up his own venture.

If you’re looking for a fancy meal, may I recommend Le Pastis. It’s very small and you will have to book well in advance

Bordeaux is a good choice

Funny that – I found it a horrible place – meant to stay there for two nights but after a few hours we went back to the camp site, took our tent down and hopped on a train to somewhere else. This was 1990 so things may have changed.

This was 1990 so things may have changed.

I stayed there in 87 and returned after Juppé had worked his magic.

In 87 I was dropped off on the quai which was run down warehouses, bars you wouldn’t go in and professional ladies doing business. Now it’s this:

It’s clean, tidy, prosperous and chic. I enjoy just wandering around window shopping and shopping.

Not far from Beziers Carcasonne is nice. A little touristy but reasonably so given how stunning it is. There’s also some nice coast down that way too, especially as you get near the Spanish border. Camargue the other way is good, too. I was swimming in that bit of the Med a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty chilly, though.

We went to Aubeterre sur Dronne, a 90 min drive from Bordeaux. It is stunning, lovely restaurants and I would recommend.

Thanks everyone, flights to Bordeaux booked along with a nice Airbnb in the centre, apparently a quiet street as it’s full of antique shops. Just scoping out some fancy restaurants now.