Perhaps we should start with a precautionary piece of advice.

Because of current problems affecting flights to and from the UK, it would be best to check with the airline just to see which of their services will operate when you plan to come to stay with us.

The latest as at mid January 2010

The summer timetable starts on the 28th March

Ryanair flies from Luton to Béziers which is the nearest, a 45 minute drive; also to Montpellier, Carcassone, Perpignan and Nimes.
Ryanair also flies from Ireland, Shannon, Dublin and Cork plus Liverpool, East Midlands, direct to Carcassone as well as Liverpool, East Midlands and Luton to Nimes.

In addition Ryanair operates a four times a week flight from Bristol to Béziers but this flight does not operate on a Saturday.

Ryanair existing services will operate as follows
Carcassonne - Liverpool - Wed/Frid/Sun
Carcassonne - Nottingham - Mon/Weds/Frid/Sun
Carcassonne - Stansted - Mon/Wed/Fri/Sun

Ryanair
Bristol /Perpignan -
Bournemouth /Carcassonne on Tuesdays and Saturdays starting June 6th

Béziers is our nearest airport with Montpellier and Carcassonne within an easy drive.
A little further afield but still within an hour and three quarters are Nimes and Perpignan

EasyJet  flies Gatwick / Montpellier – and Luton/Montpellier

Flybe also fly to Perpignan from Southampton.
BMI Baby flies from Manchester to Perpignan.

Whereas it might seem a long way, Gerona airport across the frontier in Spain is just over two and a half hour’s drive from us. Ryanair flies from there most UK regional airports and the latest new departure airports in the UK are Newquay in Cornwall, Manchester and Birmingham.  We recently drove from Béziers city centre to Gerona in a little over one and a half hours and this makes it nearer than Toulouse and a lot easier to access.  The only down side of Gerona is the frontier crossing which most of the time does not delay the journey but at peak times in the summer it can take a little longer.

In addition Toulouse with services also from Bristol with Easyjet and other UK regional airports is just a two and a quarter’s drive from us. 

If you let us know which airport you plan to arrive at, we will let you have instructions as to how to get to us.

Marseille Airport is about a three hour drive terminal to the chateau.  Ryanair and BMI Baby fly there from several UK airports including Manchester. 

If you fly into Marseilles on a Saturday in the summer, you will find the motorway very busy particularly from Nimes to Montpellier.  It is to be avoided on Summer Saturdays and Sundays!!

TGV Train Services

If you are considering travelling by train and putting your car on the train.  You might like to know that there is a Motorail service between Calais and Narbonne.  This train also stops at Toulouse, but Narbonne is the nearest station to us.

In addition there is an Improved Pullman style Motorail service to France from Hertogenbosche just north of Eindhoven to Avignon.  It offers wagons-lits type sleeping cars and a traditional restaurant car. With a departure time of 1807 on a Friday evening and arrival at 0730 in Avignon, it is a more civilised type of train journey; details from www.railsavers.com

Eurostar and SNCF operate a number of trains to Paris and Lille from the UK; our nearest TGV station is in fact Béziers where you can hire a car if booked in advance.  There are over a dozen TGVs operating to Montpellier from Paris Gare du Lyon, plus several from Paris and Lille to Béziers.  You can also collect a hire car there or get a connection to Béziers, which is our nearest mainline station.

By Road

If you are coming all the way by car we will provide you with our advice as to which route to take based on our experience having tried them all.  These details we will mail to you nearer your departure.

Option 1:
Autoroute A16 Calais - Paris - West of Paris / A10 - Orléans / A17 Clermont Ferrand / A75 - (sortie / exit Clermont L'Herault) then take the D908 from Clermont L'Herault to Bedarieux and Herepian (30 minutes) Colombieres (is 10 minutes west of Herepian)

Option 2:
Brittany & Normandy Channel Ports Rennes - Nantes A83 - Niort / A10 - Bordeaux / A62 - Toulouse / A61 - Narbonne / A9 - (sortie / exit Béziers Est) take the D 909 direction Bedarieux and then as per option 1

Anreise

Über die Schweiz Genf Lyon über Strasbourg/Mülhausen Dijon Lyon
Autoroute de Soleil Richtung Orange Autoroute A9 Richtung Nimes Montpellier Béziers. Ausfahrt Béziers Est

Fahren sie auf D909 Richtung ca. 35 km Bedarieux nach Herepian sobald sie links Richtung Lamalou les Bains auf D908, Das Dorf Colombières sur Orb liegt 10 Minuten westlich von Lamalou les Bains Finden sie uns 500 Meter am rechts westliche des Dorfes

Bahn
In den Sommer von vielen deutschen Bahnhöfen direkt nach Narbonne Auto im Zug

Flugreise

mit Lufthansa nach Toulouse etwa zwei und halb Stunde westlich von Colombieres sur Orb
Ganz Neues Ryanair von Frankfurt Hahn täglich nach Montpellier.

Weitere Auskunft bei Chris Elliott
8 rue du Pont 34480 Magalas France
tel/fax 00 33 4 67 36 66 18 e-mail
christopher.elliott@club-internet.fr
www.gitesdecharme.biz