Haven’t read the whole thread but we got back yesterday from a two week road trip to the Pyrenees.
Long story short, we’re looking for a property to buy and renovate to run as a B&B.
As far as the driving goes, we chose to drive to northern Spain via the tunnel rather than fly to Madrid and rent a car there. The plan was a “nice couple of days driving through France”. The reality was 2 days of around 8 hrs each driving as fast as the speed limit would allow on French motorways. Damn it’s a long way.
Not sure financially how it all came out compared to flying, but the toll roads and petrol costs were pretty big. We stayed in “Hotel B&B” each way, which is a chain of very acceptable roadside Motels.