jerome-
I took it from here:
https://bikelondonbarcelona.com/
I emailed the guy on the website to say thanks for the route. Don't think he's on here.I finished up work on a Thursday and got the train to portsmouth for the ferry; rolled off the ferry at Caen Friday AM into the darkness and onto some impressively quiet and or beautiful roads all the way down to Barcelona. Used booking.com and airbnb on the day to find a place to stay. I took a detour to Le Mans, not recommended, should have kept to the route. Nice climb between Albi and Carcassone, after which the seasonal weather went from Autumn back to Summer in southern France. Later on there is a good climb up the Col D'Ares over the pyrenees, would have been fantastic if the weather wasn't appalling.
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Carey
Thanks to everyone for the advice in past weeks. Just back from 9 days cycling to Barcelona via the Pyrenees at Col D'Ares near Ripoll. Can pull out the route if anyone is interested which I found online: Caen, Alençon, Tours, Montmorillon, great B&B at Ségur le Château, Tour de Faure, Albi, Carcassone, Le Boulou, Ripoll, Barcelona.
Back roads most of the way, each day felt like a closed road sportive. Didn't see a pothole til Carcassone. Great food, drinks, cycling, and practicing very rusty french.
Absolutely overthought the luggage situation; once I was in Occitane, I popped into the nearest Marie / La Poste and sent back home about 4kg of stuff I didn't need including powerbanks. Made the rest of the trip extremely light and enjoyable.
Got the fast train to Bilbao and ferry back to Portsmouth, which was better than expected. 9/10.