French Village Transport

There are over 30,000 villages in France, each one has a unique ‘personality’ – I always advise people coming here, looking for a place to live, to first and foremost, find the village they like, not the house. Two villages only a few hundred yards apart can be like chalk and cheese.

In our region, Languedoc, villages are all about 3 to 5 km from each other almost on a neat gridlike pattern, this is a comfortable walk and many a happy day can be had walking (at first) from bar to bar, cafe to cafe, discovering the countryside through the vineyards.

Between main towns and cities, public transport by bus is good, but the last leg to the village is not so simple. Most villages have very few bus services a day, often only two a day. So a car is essential if you plan to make frequent trip to discover the hundreds of unique places around Languedoc and the South of France.

I have just had an email exchange about this which is typical of the questions I am asked and where we try to help….

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Tony (et al),

Your place looks pretty good from here. We’re very interested in coming to see you in June of 2010, but a few questions:

We were hoping to spend a week in the north, then finish our tour de France with a week in the south.

How accessible are you to rail? (web link doesn’t work) How about plane, if we wanted to fly out nearby, instead of traveling back to Paris or wherever to get home (US).

How about cyclomoteur rental? Anything close? I remember my old Cady fondly. We’d like to be able to get around a bit.

Jerry

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Hello Jerry

We would love to welcome you next June.

The main rail station of Agde is only a few minutes from us, the TGV goes directly from Paris regularly every day and takes just under 4 hours.

There are flights to the US from Montpellier airport (Delta Airlines, via Paris), under an hours drive from us, and regular flights to Paris from Beziers airport just 20 minutes from us.

The are plenty of cycle rentals around – I will look into cyclomotor rentals, we have never been asked for this before.

Would happily lend you the Cady, but I don’t have it anymore, but at 5 miles to the gallon you needed the 74 gallon tank it had.

I look forward to hearing from you

Tony

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Tony,
thanks for the reply. I’ll look at the TGV. I think you are saying that I can fly into Paris and change to a flight that will take me to Montpelier or Beziers, or vice versa. I’ll look at that also. Is there a good bus route available to get from either Montpelier or Beziers to Nizas?

My Cady, by the way, was a moped by the people who made the Mobylette. I don’t remember the gas tank being that large. I was thinking that we might enjoy the scenery more if we were putting along rather than pumping along. Do they still make Solexes? I have no fond memories of them, but they worked, pretty much.

We’d be coming to France the first week of June and then coming south the second week. Since you are offering such wonderful terms, we might play with that a bit, but I’m bringing my daughter, and I wanted her to see more than just one place, if you see what I mean. At the same time, we didn’t want to spend two weeks rushing from place to place, so…
Cheers,
Jerry

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Hi Jerry,

Our home is in Montblanc a village not far from Nizas, where we used to live. International Flights to Paris arrive at Charles de Gaulle (CDG) – most internal flights are to Orly, the connection is not simple and can take a long time so it is important to make sure any connecting flight is to CDG – Delta, I think is the only one with the same plane to USA from Montpellier (MPL).

The TGV rail links are superb, inexpensive, fast, comfortable and clean – city center to city center – they are quicker than plane all over France.

I was talking about a 1948 Cadillac I used to have and posted on Facebook this week – the mobylettes are much cheaper to run.

Unless you stay city center, where a car is useless and a liability, in just about everywhere else in France a car is important. Public transport, away from railway stations, only works between main cities with perhaps a twice daily link to most villages.

I agree that seeing the countryside by bike is a great way to explore any area of France and there is just so much to see in even a very small area that you do not have to make huge journeys – I have not found any rentals for Mobylettes yet – the Solex stopped in France a long time ago – but they did make them in Russia or somewhere and imported them for amusement a couple of years ago.

Adge rail station is not far from us, we could meet you there, but you should think of hiring transport to discover any part of France outside a city center.

Yes, we are offering some fantastic bargains as we are just starting gain with new accommodation.
Happy to help in any way

Best wishes
Tony