Racer042

I have a very specific request for help. We are taking the Chunnel from London to Paris this September and then to Burgundy for 5 days. We are staying at Domaine de la Combotte which is outside Beaune and is a working vineyard and truffle hunting operation with labs! Perfect for us because we love wine and dogs.

Anyway, I want to take a train preferably from Gare du Nord or Gare de l'Est towards Burgundy to a city outside of Paris where we can rent a car. I don't mind driving in Paris, I have done so before, but I like the peace of returning the car outside of Paris and taking a train to Gare du Nord where we hop on the Chunnel back to Paris.

I am having trouble finding the right RER and just know that someone on the forum's has the right answer or will tell me that this is a dumb idea (it is the North train station !) and to drive into Paris.

Thanks in advance.

Racer042

FrenchMystiqueTours

I'm no car rental expert but I know people often say to use www.autoeurope.com or www.kemwel.com to book a rental car. These are brokers who deal with the large rental companies. Often it's possible to pick up in one location and drop off in another with no extra charge.

Why not just take a train to Dijon and rent there? It's just over 1-1/2 hours direct by train from Paris Gare de Lyon. You could drop off there too and then train back to Paris. Maybe there's even a rental agency in Beaune.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Also, there's a direct connection between Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon on the RER D.

Racer042

It's a wimpy reason, I was looking for one less train ride. We are used to the Metro in Paris, but lugging luggage (I have to carry both big bags) I was trying for a train ride out of Gare du Nord. It may not be possible, since the local trains go north from there.

MmePerdu

You can take an SNCF train from Gare de l'Est 50 km to Provins, one of the towns recommended in Annabel Simms' 'An Hour from Paris'. I haven't been there but it sounds like an excellent place to go and one I've been considering. It's also in the direction of Dijon/Beaune. Population 12,000, about 10€ to get there.

FrenchMystiqueTours

If you don't mind leaving from Gare de l'Est you can get closer to Beaune than Provins if you take a train to Troyes. The trip takes about 1-1/2 hours depending on the train and it is direct. If you book 3 months in advance fares are 10€ for this trip. If you book last minute the walk-up fares are 25.40€.

If you decide on this you'll need to use the TGV website to buy/reserve your tickets. For info on these trains use the websites www.tgv-europe.com for schedules and prices. Don't forget to uncheck the box marked "Direct Trains" to see all possible options. If the TGV site redirects you to the RailEurope website then try again and enter "Antarctica" as your ticket collection country. You might also try Great Britain or some other country. The RailEurope website often doesn't show all the trains and generally has higher prices but you can look just to compare. You can buy tickets up to 90 days in advance and the earlier you buy them the cheaper they will be. The discounted tickets are known as PREM tickets but these are non-refundable and can't be exchanged.

Racer042

FrenchMystiqueTours, that is exactly what I was looking for! I believe Gare De l'Est is walking distance from Gare du Nord. It looks like Troyes is about 2.5 hours from Beaune, with maybe a stop at L'Abbey de Fontenay near Montbard while on the way. I bought tickets last year from Paris to Caen and used Canada as the ticket collection country and the fair was half the price as when i put USA. The only hiccup was that I had to stand in line to get the ticket since the automated booths don't accept a US style credit card.

This is exactly the kind of help that people on the forum give.

Many thanks,

Racer042

FrenchMystiqueTours

Glad to help Racer042. I'm not an expert on TGV advice but am merely repeating what has been said by the experts over and over again. I believe it might be possible to print your tickets at home but I'm not sure. Make sure you bring the exact same credit card you purchased your tickets with when you pick them up if yu can't print at home.

Oh, Gare de l'Est is only about 1 block away from Gare du Nord so you can walk there as long as your bags aren't too cumbersome. There is a set of stairs to walk down once you arrive at Gare de l'Est, however. There are always taxis though (if they don't mind driving only 1 block).

MmePerdu

I bought several tickets on the SNCF (not TGV) website a few months ago and was able to print them all. http://www.voyages-sncf.com/

And just a note on terminology, the term "TGV" is not synonymous with all French trains. The train to Troyes is, I believe, an "intercites", not a TGV which is the designation for fast long distance trains only. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong about this.

StCirq

You're right. TGV = train à grande vitesse (high-speed train). The Intercités trains are medium-distance trains, also referred to as Corails.

Racer042

I did print a ticket for the train from Paris to Caen last year, but still had to stand in line to redeem it for a real ticket. If I had a euro style credit card, I could have redeemed it at a kiosk. If I am missing a way to avoid standing in line, I would love to be proved wrong.

easytraveler

I would not attempt the steps between the Gare de l'est and the Gare du Nord (along rue de l'Alsace) with two heavy bags. Even with one small suitcase, it was quite a job maneuvering those steps.

There's another way around the steps. Here's seat61's directions, from the Gard du Nord to the Gard de l'Est:

"...to avoid the long flight of steps, walk out of the Gare du Nord and across the road into the Boulevard de Denain straight ahead of you, turn left into the Boulevard de Magenta, then left again into the Rue du 8 Mai 1945. This route is a bit longer, but gives level access from one station to the other."

http://www.seat61.com/Paris-metro.htm

I prefer to go along the rue de Fauberge Saint-Denis (think that's the street).

Check out the path on Google maps. Unfortunately, the map doesn't show the long flight of steps.

Here's the best picture of those steps that I could find. The painting shows the actual height of those steps.

http://buttes-chaumont.blogspot.com/...e-de-lest.html

apersuader65

Racer042: I printed our tickets to Caen last March at home from the www.voyages-sncf.com website. Wasn't aware of the need to get "real" tickets. Handed the ticket 'checker' on the train all four of our groups passports with their respective ticket inside for verification. His response was simply "Merci monsier."

So long as the tickets are actually printed - each ticket should have all of the train information on it, with kind of a watermark of the passengers name in the background of the ticket - it should work fine.