Bilbao to Marseille Road Trip suggestions

Hello All,
My girlfriend and I are flying into Bilbao in early September and have 10 days for an action packed road trip. Our tentative plan (to which i'd love any suggestions/alterations/tell me we're making the wrong choice/anything :) is to leave from bilbao airport rent a car and drive right to san sebastian. stay that first night, all the next day, eat the best food, stay another night. In the morning we drive east; this is where suggestions are needed. I'm excited to see some pyrenees sites/castles, and we also want some vineyards (remember we'll be driving back, so one or the other could be on either leg). Marseille is our hopeful east-most destination (too far?), so some driving along the Mediterranean is also key. then back to bilbao hopefully for the last 2 days. Any and all help would be great; we're food people, small non-touristy village people, flea market/arts people.

Can't wait to hear what y'all think!

So you have 6 nights to drive through the Pyrenees to Marseille and back it is doable but rather rushed. I would fly into Barcelona and depart Bilbao or vice versa. Especially if you want to drive along the med. You might want to consider heading west instead, the coastline west of Bilbao is stunning and you have the Picos mountains which are beautiful.

If you're small non-touristy village people, why is Marseille a destination?

That's a long way to go in 6 days. You won't have much time to see much. If the Med is key, as opposed to the equally beautiful Atlantic, you're adding a lot of mileage to see it. And even if you absolutely must see the Med and are determined to head east from Bilbao, there's absolutely noo need to go all the way to Marseille. There are countless lovely places on the Med to enjoy LONG before you get to Marseille.

yes, we are now thinking perhaps Marseille is too far; and perhaps settling on Sete? And a stopover in Toulouse? I guess by small village-y i meant more along the drive; stopping off, but we love to stay in cities as well ;) Or staying maybe directly along the Pyrenees and ending somewhere in Costa Brava? So many possible routes, and yes, not much time... What other places along the Med prior to Marseille are your favorites?

Most of the towns along the French part of the Med in the Languedoc region are inside the country and some km far from the sea and beaches. September, your time, will be fine as there are less tourist in this part and you will find easy accommodation in the different villages near by the waterfront. Marseille is not my favorite place to be. With your short time I would not going so far and stay maybe in the Camargue as there are also some very nice places to visite. Sete, Arles, Aigues-Mortes are easy to reach by car. Bigger towns to see are Nimes, Montpellier, Beziers and Narbonne.

A stopover in Toulouse is fine. Have you had a look for the nearby Carcassonne and 'la Cité' ?

Thanks regards! Yes we definitely considered carcossone or foix or any number of the cathar sites. We thought perhaps the first stop after San Sebastián, instead of in Toulouse proper, would be a vineyard or chateau between carcossone and Toulouse so we could do day trips to both, before moving along to the med coast and sete/camargue Arles region. It's tough research as every place loof Le more beautiful than the last! But we surely don't want to try for too much and end up missing it all.

Last June, we started in Bilbao, stayed there for a couple of days (took a group tour into Biaritz and San Sebastián one day;I'm not crazy about group tours but we really enjoyed it, maybe only a dozen of us)then picked up a rental car and drove to Torla for several days at Ordessa National Park. We hiked 2 days and explored some areas nearby as well. We then drove to Barcelona and returned the car at the airport. You don't want or need a car in a city. It's a bit more expensive to return the rental to a different city but it was convenient. Took the bus into the city, stayed for several days before flying to Lisbon. If you only have 10 days, you might consider something like that. The Pyrenees were awesome; we'll be in France this summer with part of that trip also in the (French) Pyrenees. Barcelona has an easily accessible beach if you want to visit that coast.

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