How to travel by train from chinon to dordogne region

Arrange for the car rental ahead of time and pick it up in Brive. Europcar is the common rental agency and I believe that it does not charge a one way fee.

Look at www.sncf.com to see how to get from Chinon to Brive.

You'll have to make at least two changes to get to Brive from Chinon, going through Tours and Vierzon by either train or autocar.

Here's what the options look like:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/billet-train/horaires/resultats?rfrr=undefined_body_cliquerici&hid=YPY


You don't even want to consider trying to get to Sarlat by train.

You can pick up a car anywhere in France and drop it anywhere in France without any extra charges.

You don't even want to consider trying to get to Sarlat by train>

Why not - take a direct TGV from Tours St-Pierre-des-Corps to Lilbourne and transfer to a regional train that terminated in Sarlat - pretty simple IMO. but if I were you I would drive right from Chinon as it is an easy drive by autoroute to Brive-la-Gallard.

In fact Lilbourne train station would be a good place to pick up a car and drive into the Dordogne, hitting en route such gems as Saint-Emilion, one of the cutest wine towns I have encountered and a good first night stop IMO.

For lots of good info on French trains I always highlight these superb IMO sites - www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com and http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id8.html. go to www.voyages-sncf.com to score discounted PREM tickets if you are sure of your train travel time - big savings on TGV lines but not so much on non-TGV lines. Getting to Brive by train from Chinon is a pain - take the main TGV-Atlantique line to Lilbourne or Angouleme even Bordeaux and rent your car to drive thru the Bordeaux wine region to the Dordogne, where Sarlat IMO makes a perfect base.

You can pick up a car anywhere in France and drop it anywhere in France without any extra charges.

Not necessarily. I tried to avoid paying the RR station/airport fee when picking a car up in Bordeaux, and only Herz and Avis were listed as town agencies and both would have required a drop off fee in Limoges that was higher than the RR station/Airport pick up fee. That was through AutoEurope.

<<Why not - take a direct TGV from Tours St-Pierre-des-Corps to Lilbourne and transfer to a regional train that terminated in Sarlat - pretty simple IMO.>>

Because almost all the regional trains stop in Bergerac and then you have to get on a bus. The ones that do go the entire stretch stop every five minutes and take forever.

Didn't know that, Michael, but using AutoEurope I've never been given a Hertz or Avis car rental in France - always Cités or Europcar.

SNcf.com indicates that it would take 9 hours from Chinon to Sarlat. Driving would be faster.

And about 6 hours on average Chinon to Brive. I would think about reorganizing the trip and doing the Loire after the Dordogne.

SNCF - French Railways have a train + auto program where you buy a train ticket and can have an AVIS car waiting at many stations - Lilbourne could be one.

First of all, you need to realise that the Sarlat train station has very restricted access. Trains go there from the west - Bordeaux/Bergerac/Perigueux, etc., but not very many. Nothing arrives from the east, as there are no longer any tracks. It's a nice bicycle path now. (With any luck the bus link from Bergerac should be almost over. They have been working on the train tracks for several years, but that should be finished very soon. But the train is still very slow.)

The reason that Brive is a good choice normally is that it's a direct line down from Paris. It's not near Chinon - it would take 8 hours of travelling and several changes to do that. So that's out.

FYI, the only agency in Sarlat is Europcar but that does assume that you have soem way of getting there.

Why dont you just drive from Chinon?

I have had people deal with Avis and Hertz who could leave their car in a different location from pickup. Worth asking when you book, but normally it's possible.

., but not very many. Nothing arrives from the east, as there are no longer any tracks>

Yes but SNCF buses regularly ply the route Sarlat to Soullac, on a mian line back to Paris so is just the same as the train so going east is just as possible as if the train rolled on the now lifted up tracks - same route but with buses and SNCF tickets (railpasses valid).

It's not true that there are no one way fees - twice in the last year I have had to pay €75 one way drop off fee booking through autoeurope and renting through europcar!!!

Oh and both times were in France!

jamikins,

I assume that the one-way fee was stated in your contract from AutoEurope. If not, you would have had reason to challenge it. It happened to me, and when everything was said and done, because of the confusion, I paid less than I should have for RR station pick-up and the road tax.

'Yes but SNCF buses regularly ply the route Sarlat to Soullac, on a main line back to Paris so is just the same as the train so going east is just as possible as if the train rolled on the now lifted up tracks - same route but with buses and SNCF tickets (railpasses valid).'

I do know this - I live 10 minutes from Souillac. But I also know that sometimes if you say you want to take the train to Sarlat the site will take you over to Bordeaux and back. We had people coming from the south who spent practically the whole day doing this when they could have just taken the train to Souillac. My point still is that it's not on any main route.

Yes they made me aware when I was booking and I had to approve it. I called and asked if there were any ways around it or different companies and was advised no, that this was becoming the norm and more and more companies will be charging it

StCirq what makes you say we might want to reorganize our trip to visit dordogne before the Loire? How would that change the transportation options?
Is there another place you might recommend to rent the car along the way to dordogne? We are thinking of using beynac as a home base.

Because it's really easy to go directly from Paris to the Dordogne by train. And then easy to get from the Dordogne back north to the Loire (you drop the car off in Libourne or Bordeaux and take the TGV to Tours, then rent another car).

The reverse would also be true: Loire first and then the Dordogne. But it assumes the use of a car in the Loire valley, which is not how the OP stated the options originally. Moreover, the intent is to drive to Avignon from the Dordogne.

Well, yes, the problem is Chinon, not the Loire per se. I've never, in many, many visits, tried to do the Loire without a car. I guess in this situation, renting a car for the Loire and then driving it to the Dordogne and then to Avignon is the best solution, though I personally hate those long boring drives, which I often find stressful, and love the convenience of the train.

It is easy to do the Loire, whatever that means sans car and I have done it many times - I go by bike but for most the many many mini-bus tours that leave from towns like Amboise and Tours and presumbly Chinon take you on half-day or full day jaunts to some of the best of the Loire castles. So to say you cannot do justice to the Loire sans car is just misinformation.

And if Chinon does not offer these then a short train or bus ride to Tours will hook them up with any of several companies offering mini-bus tours from the train station there.

I will see if I can drag up some of the companies.

All the input is extremely helpful. It seems like our itinerary needs to be altered if we are to travel by train from Loire to dordogne. I see what st cirq means about takin train from Paris straight to dordogne. The only chink in that is we want to tour France in a sort of circle, ending in Paris. We have a flat in Paris for 5 days at the end of the trip. We could travel eith clockwise or counter clockwise. I don't think it matters that much.
Our goal in taking the train has more to do with experiencing the culture and people than anything else. And maybe avoiding a long drive.

It seems like our itinerary needs to be altered if we are to travel by train from Loire to dordogne- well it is a fairly straight forward trip by train though it will take about six hours from Tours to Sarlat - only one change of train at Lilbourne - six hours may seem long but you can go from Loire to Dordoge in that time - going back to Paris and taking train will be just as long.