Despite a couple of "wrong" turns, our 3 day road trip through the French countryside was a great success. Embarassingly, we actually ended up at the wrong ocean, (the Atlantic at Bordeaux instead of the Mediterranean). The reality was that it only added 3 or 4 hours of road time campared to the more direct route.
Having no agenda, no reservations and having done little research on the spots along the way made each "find" even more memorably. One afternoon while driving Southeast along the French/Spanish border, we decided to stop for lunch at the next town. Exiting from the autoroute, we suddenly came across the hilltop medieval village of Carcassonne, with huge castle(s) dominating over the valley. We had a great time exploring this amazing place.