daba78

Hi all, me and my wife will travel to provence, french riviera and then off to italy.
I am having a hard time deciding weather to fly to marseille airport via paris, or fly to paris and pick up my rental car, then make my own way to avignon via maybe lyon or dijon. What my concerns are
1- driving after a long flight, mind you a couple of hours wont be so bad
2 -a long somewhat flat boring drive
3 -with a layover i will spend lots of time in an airport
4- I would only have half a day and a night to make a pit stop in lyon or dijon
just wondering what others prefer to do in this situation
train is another option but a little pricey 100 euros
any input helps thanks

mamamia2

If your target is Provence and French Riviera, why not fly to Nice?

StuDudley

If you have a long layover at CDG, (4 1/2 hrs or more), I would take the TGV. It's a 3 hr trip to the Avignon TGV station with departures at 9:59 & 13:50 with no train changes. Departures at 11:58 & 14:09 with a non-Paris train change. These are December schedules - in Summer there may be more trains per day. We've taken the TGV from CDG to Avignon, Aix, & Nimes many times.

I would never drive. We've driven every segment of the autoroute between Paris & Provence (not all at once, or even over 1-2 days), and it's a difficult drive. The sun will be in your face for most of the trip & you'll have lots of delays because of road construction and perhaps commute traffic around Lyon & Paris. Plus the normal pottie, toll booth backups, & lunch breaks.

Stu Dudley

KathyWood

We are in Provence a few times a year and we almost always fly into Marseille. We actually prefer to make our connection in Amsterdam vs. Paris.

I've found that the cost of the additional leg of the flight (to Marseille) adds almost nothing to the cost of just flying to Paris. You don't have to retrieve your bags in Paris or Amsterdam, since they are checked through to Marseille. If your flight is somehow delayed, the airline will re-book you on a later flight to Marseille... if your flight is delayed and you miss the train, unless you had a refundable ticket, you'll have to buy another ticket. Also, I find it just really hard to stay awake while waiting for the train.

All that said, I do know there's something a bit exciting about the train. We're taking the train from CDG to Lyon when we fly over in 2-1/2 weeks, will spend a night in Lyon, then another train to Avignon.

But definitely agree with Stu... don't drive from Paris to Provence. It's a long drive and you would definitely need to stop somewhere to rest up soon into the journey.

When is your trip? If you can buy 90 days in advance, you should get tickets at a very good fare. Did you check on www.capitainetrain.com?

Kathy

joannyc

Save Lyon and Dijon for another trip, I agree with making the connection in Amsterdam instead of
Paris.

kerouac

Just connect directly to Marseille. It will be much cheaper. Avignon is only about 70km from the airport.

StuDudley

>> If your flight is somehow delayed, the airline will re-book you on a later flight to Marseille..<<

I've always been curious about this. If you fly into CDG on AA (for example), but bought a separate AF ticket to Marseille (no affiliation between AA & AF) - will AF put you on the next available flight at no cost???

We've been delayed twice. Once it took all day (> 7 hrs) to wait for an available flight to Nice. We had to retrieve our luggage at CDG and wait for an available flight before we could check them in. The bags went to Geneva.

Stu Dudley

daba78

Thanks for all the help. I think connecting from either paris , amsterdam or frankfurt is my best bet. I will spend a little more time in the airport but it will probably still be cheaper and less stressful than any other options, thanks again

StuDudley

>> I will spend a little more time in the airport<<

I like to schedule a 2 1/2 hr layover. Under 2 hrs makes me a little nervous. Never anything under 1 3/4 hrs.

Stu Dudley

powhatangal

I flew JFK to Marseille via Paris Sept 2013 on Delta. The connection in Paris was tight with only about 1 and 1/2 hours, and the flight was delayed leaving JFK. Upon landing in Paris, there was a Air France employee waiting for the 10 or so people on the flight with the connecting flight to Marseille. She got us quickly through security, but when we arrived at the gate, we were told the aircraft door was shut (even though it was still sitting at the gate) and were not allowed to board.

We were booked on the next outgoing flight to Marseille (about a 2 hour wait) and were given a voucher for a sandwich and drink in the terminal.

I then took the train from Marseille to Avignon.

kerouac

If you are "ticketed through" in one transaction, it doesn't matter if you completely change airlines. The airlines are obliged to cooperate to get you to where you are going no matter what happens. Having worked in the finance office of an airline for 34 years, I can assure you that we had all sorts of charts on how expenses were to be split between the airlines in case of unexpected hotel accommodation, meal vouchers or rebooking on other flights (sometimes a third airline). Factors involved include who is the first carrier, the longest leg of the trip, the reason for a delay, etc. I really see far too much dithering here about the consequences of missing a connection even if is the fault of the airline, ATC, weather or volcanoes. But keep in mind that you are only totally protected in the case of "connections." If you buy two or more totally separate tickets in individual transactions, they become separate trips and have no protection in case of missed flights unless you paid for some really complete travel insurance.

Christina

I've flown into Marseille when my end point was Aix, of course, because it isn't that far from their airport. But if you are going to Avignon and you can get there direct from CDG, I'd probably take the train. That seems a lot quicker than flying into Marseille and then renting a car? Of course that depends on how long you'd have to wait for the train at CDG, also.

Of course an airline isn't going to get you to your endpoint if your way of getting there wasn't related to them. All they know is you had a ticket to Paris, period.

kerouac

Avignon also has an airport with flights from CDG if you want to start your trip there.

StuDudley

So the answer to my question is that I will have to pay for the missed flight to Marseille on AF, if AA was 3 hrs late arriving. I haven't used a travel agent in decades, so I don't know of they can issue one ticket for AA to Paris & AF to Marseille. If I booked this itinerary online, it would be 1 ticket on AA & another on AF.

Stu Dudley

grandmere

Not to hijack this thread, but I'm curious as to why people prefer connecting in Amsterdam over CDG? For one thing, I assume it's people who can fly non-stop to Schiphol; in my dreams, here in Pgh.! We're lucky to have a few non-stops a week (and only during high season) to CDG!

mamamia2

Am I missing something here, Stu? I went to Travelocity (just to pick a travel site), and looked for flights from Chicago to Marseille with one stop (no direct flight, of course). There are quite a few, thru Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, or London (maybe few more). Each of those would be written as a single ticket, each will assure your arrival even if there's a delay in the transatlantic flight.
Of course, if one buys separate tickets there's no reason for the 2nd carrier to accommodate a passenger late for his flight....

StuDudley

Fortunately for the OP, lots of US airlines and their European partners fly to Marseille
AA/BA
UA/LUF
Delta/AF
KLM

Try Perpignan in France, and only Delta/AF flies there. So if the passenger needs to take AA, UA, or US Airways from the US (because of FF preferences) - there are no flights to Perpignan that are listed by Travelocity other than Delta/AF. The flyer would have to take a United flight to CDG (for example), and then an AF flight to Perpignan. United/AF are not partners, thus two separate tickets.

I haven't booked a FF flight in years, but the last time I did (AA) and wanted to go to Biarritz (AF) - I had to buy two tickets

I picked a bad itinerary in my Marseille destination example. Sorry!!!

Stu Dudley

joannyc

Grandmere, I prefer AMS to not have to go through the nightmare that is CDG with a connection. KLM flies nonstop from JFK to AMS and then you can connect without the hassle to NCE on a reasonably timed connection in a more easily traversed airport
.

KathyWood

We like the Amsterdam airport... although it's big, it's well organized and efficient. And if you have a few hours to wait, there are interesting shops, places to eat or rest, and even a museum.

From where we live, we fly to Detroit to AMS vs. Atlanta to CDG. Atlanta is so much busier... more flights but seems more can go wrong. And coming home, the immigration/customs process is easier in Detroit because there aren't as many international flights.

Kathy

bvlenci

My husband absolutely refuses to ever again connect through CDG. I myself don't much care for Schiphol, but it's just the ambience that gets on my nerves; we've never had a problem there.

The train ride from Paris to Avignon is enjoyable.