Driving suggestions Annecy to Carcassonne

In early October we (2 70+ active but not hikers) are spending a month driving from Munich across northern Italy and then into France. We will start the France portion at Annecy and want to do a a loop out into what for us is a largely unknown area south of Lyon and Clermont-Ferrand, east of Toulouse, north of Montpelier. (And yes, I realize that's a rather large area...) We will eventually hit Carcassonne and then wend our way back to Nice through Nimes and Arles. We've lived and driven in France and seen a lot of Provence, but know little about the area I've mentioned. We like scenic roads, small towns, comfortable inns, local food and lots of history, particularly Neolithic and Medieval. My request is for gems, favorites, places you'd go back to and any overall sense of how you'd tackle a journey through that area.

Hi
From Annecy, I would go through Ardeche :
- visit the Chauvet cave (it's a replica of the cave with prehistoric paintings and opened this year). In Ardeche, you have plenty scenic roads (for example along Gorges de l'Ardeche) and small typical villages (Balazuc, Labeaume...).
- then drive through Gorges du Tarn (scenic road, old villages) to Millau (bridge, it's modern but impressive)
- south through Larzac plateau (Templar village of La Couvertoirade) to Montpellier and/or Carcassonne. North of Montpellier, consider a visit to Saint Guilhem du Desert

From Millau, an option is a larger loop to Albi (on the way, villages as Saint Rome du Tarn and Saint Sernin sur Rance are nice). Then visit Albi and Cordes and then down to Carcassonne.

While can not even start to tell you the route to take, but we did a coach tour towards the Brenner Pass a couple of years ago, and there was an accident on the highway, and to miss the traffic jam our driver took the old route.

And what an eye opener it was, far more scenic that the highway and the route to take if you want to see things, it is far slower that the highway but instead of a village you see in the far distance, you see it up close and some of its people.

Don't put any time pressure on yourselfs, take your time and do the back roads, it is way more fun.

Another vote for the Viaduct du Millau...I followed its construction on line and made a major detour to drive over it (and see it from both sides) on the next trip after it was finished.
What I appreciated was that in addition to the spectacular engineering/architecture was that it was built in such a way that the terrain was restored completely after the bridge's construction (except for the vista point).
If you're not familiar with the Michelin website for maps, do check it out:
www.viamichelin.com
Michelin was making maps since they started making tires and I still prefer their site to any others.
When you input an origin and destination you will have the choice (further down on the page) to select the routes (Michelin recommended, fastest, most economical, etc). To have a better understanding of you budget you can select vehicle (gas, diesel), model and it will calculate the cost of fuel.
You can select highways only or avoid highways (the pay highways, peasge) and there are other options as well.

We weren't that excited by Albi. The cathedral is an interesting monolithic structure (built to demonstrate the church's strength over the heretics) but it lacks grace and wonder and the 'old town' seemed to have little that was different from other larger cities; chain clothing stores..nothing to interest either of us. For the time it took to drive us to drive there from near Carcassonne (Mirepoix, my favorite small town) it was an afternoon wasted.
Since it was hot we went to two local show caves (beautiful but no cave art)
http://www.all-free-photos.com/show/showgal.php?idgal=grottes&lang=en; it's always cool inside. There is a wealth of caves (grottes) in the Languedoc:
http://www.showcaves.com/english/fr/region/Languedoc.html
Most of the area you'll be in falls in the Languedoc-Roussillon region; here's an into to the area:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/languedoc-roussillon
Here's a commercial site (I've used it and found the info to be accurate)
http://www.creme-de-languedoc.com/Languedoc/geography/departments.php
Here are the individual department tourism sites which will have listings for all sorts of places (inn, hotels, restos, etc)
Aude: http://www.audetourisme.com/en/index.php
Herault: http://www.destination-languedoc.co.uk/-1-2.html
Garde: http://www.gardtourism.com/
Lozere: I can't find an English version, here's the French one, you could use an online translation service: http://www.lozere-tourisme.com/

I've driven through most of the Languedoc but I've stayed (13 visits over 10 years) in the Aude and Ariege (Midi-Pyrenees) departments. The two caves mentioned are in the Aude...Carcassonne is the department seat of Aude and quite stunning with the old Cite on the hill...but I loved being/driving alongside the Canal du Midi, exploring the various vineyards ( incredible reds, almost unknown elsewhere but AOC and deservedly so)
We really like Montolieu (a town of bookstores)

http://www.discover-carcassonne.com/en/montolieu-village-books-9
not all that far from the caves or another place we like Caunes Minervois (more vineyards and an almost unknown romanesque chapel (Notre Dame du Cros) which has some of the famous pink marble (used in the Chateau de Versailles and Paris Opera) and the quarries are nearby also.
I've rented a gite in Caunes a couple times and found much to like. Here's a very good guide to local restaurants from the people who do the Caunes site (I've agreed with many of their recommendations, esp the one in the Cite):
http://www.caunes-minervois.com/restau.htm
Hope this gives you things to think about.
Have you used chambres d'hotes before? If so, there are listings under the Gites-de-France label which offer unique choices and more afforable than most hotels...let me know if you want more info.

Before eventually heading to l'Ardèche, don't miss Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval in Hauterives (Drôme).
http://www.facteurcheval.com
In Ardèche, don't only focus on the Ardèche river but also on it's side rivers such as La Baume and Chassezac.
From there you can head south to follow river Cèze before driving to the Cévennes and on to Millau.

No time to continue now, maybe later..

This site could be of interest for you http://www.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/monuments/monument-s-map/
When you open it click on the name of the department you will passing by and you get some information about historical places to visit, open for the public. If you click on one or another point of interest for you, you will see the period of each place, the plan to go, the time of opening and the price for entrance. Have a nice trip.

Thanks for the insights -- we are tentatively following your route, bypassing Albi as we've been there before. Thanks very much for your help!

Thanks, sfgirl, for the detailed thoughts and the resources, particularly Michelin, which I hadn't thought to use.

The Palais Ideal sounds like a marvelous spot. Thanks for the ideas!

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