Travelling to South of France by train

BarnaP

Has anyone any experience of taking the train from London St Pancras to the South of France, maybe Montpellier or that region? I had thought of trying this next Summer for a family holiday of 2 parents and 3 kids (17 down to 11). Seems interesting way of getting there. Is it costly and are there particular options that work best? Thanks

Louche Lad

I did non-stop London to Bordeaux once (there was some sort of special one-off Eurostar service), maybe ten years ago. It went very smoothly - much easier than getting a series of trains or flying. You can get bored after a while, so books/Kindles/games etc. essential.

You can choose which seats you want so you can specify a table for four, plus an extra seat nearby, if you prefer that. Many trains have sockets next to the seats, and possibly you can also choose whether you have the right sort of sockets near you.

Louche Lad

I's assumed you meant the London–Avignon train, but maybe not. Do you know about them? It's around 6 hours direct, and there's about one of those per day.

rojito

Not personally, but google "the man in seat 61". By far and away the best website out there for any train-related travel. In fact, it's up there with the best travel websites fullstop.

Bogger77

use seat61.com as your guide
if direct from London to Lyon or Marseilles, doesn't work for you or is too expensive, you can get direct trains from Lille Europe, avoiding switching trains in Paris for Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, etc. as well as Lyons, Marseilles.

I wouldn't bother with Eurostar to Calais, and starting from there, you'll only end up getting a train to Lille or Paris to continue your journey.

voyages-sncf.com is useful, but choose to collect tickets in France, rather than UK for the best deals
DBahn, the German train company, have the best timetable service, here.

If you do go via Paris, note that the various regions served are divided between stations, but there's some overlaps, so check when booking.

Don't got for the obvious route, you can go from London to Barcelona, changing stations in Paris, but you can London to Lille, Lille to Lyon and then Barcelona. Avoiding the drama of changing train stations in Paris.

Strumms

Some good advice already in this thread which I will try not to repeat aside to say that the seat61 website is a must. Take a look and it will answer any question you have from timetable, to onboard experience etc.

My only worry from your point of view is the kids. It's a lot of travelling and many hours on the train with not a hell of a lot to do. You can load up the iPads with games and bring kindles etc but it's not going to make the journey go all that much quicker. It would be your judgement call if in fact knowing your kids if that many hours on a train would be enjoyable or would the novelty wear off and it would become tiresome all round.

Speaking as an adult who has travelled from London to Paris and then down to Nice on a combination of Eurostar & TGV it certainly is a great way and an interesting way to make the trip. I always maintain that travelling should be enjoyed as part of the holiday rather then just the means to get from A to B. Travelling by train alleviates a lot of the hassle of modern day airports. Although there would be a similar security check at St Pancras it's more efficient and less hassle, plus at the far end you get off the train and exit the station just as if it were conolly station as all checks are done at your point of departure.

If you are going down south in France you will be on the TGV most like the Duplex ie double decker. I have used the voyages SNCF site to book and if you do so well enough in advance you can get cheap first class fares called 'prems'. its well worth it for the long trip, the seats are super comfy and try to go for upstairs so you will have an even better chance to enjoy the immense scenery in comfort which is probably the highlight of the trip.

Also you can bring your own food onboard as well as alcohol and have your own picnic onboard. Try and buy before you get to the station as its pricy there and also on the train which will have its own bar also.

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide.

CelticRambler

SonNo.2 (16 going on 17) did St. Pancras via Lille to central France this year and said he'd much rather fly. Although I like trains and rail travel (Inter-railed for two months in my youth, and still prefer sail-and-rail for Dublin-London trips if I'm not in a hurry) as an adult I find the modern (especially TGV) experience pretty dull, to the point where I'll time my journey so that I can sleep my way through it.

Would I take my teenagers on that trip? No. They're all seasoned travellers, well able to cope with a 12 or 18-hour trek involving cancelled or missed departures, cross-city connections, and last minute changes of all sorts. For them, that's the fun of the journey - they're just not interested in a dumbed-down seamless/stressless 6-hour travel experience with nothing to look at besides their smartphone.

In the light of SonNo.2's comments, we had this same discussion during which the "picnic" and "free wifi" advantages of the rail journey were highlighted. Their response: "we'd get that anyway if took a 'plane and got to where we're going four hours sooner and 'planes are more fun ..."

Ryan Mac Sweeney

Hi there
Just after reading your post yes it sounds like a great holiday especially now as your children are all good ages means that you can now go on these trips. My advice for you would be to first fly to London and then get the Eurostar from London to Paris and then get another traib from Paris to Nice as the French Riveria is meant to be beautiful and Carcassonne is a very educational city as it has lots of castles and your children would learn lots from it. It sounds like a great holiday and it makes a huge difference from the usual package holiday and you also see a lot more and become more cultured and its a great opportunity for your children the difference cultures of these places.