Jessica

Hello! I am trying to take a train from paris to Irun, Spain and am interested in the TGV train, which the train schedules say leave from train station Mont 1 et 2. Problem is that I cannot seem to find this station in any of my research into the trains! Please email me directly if you know where this station is: [email protected]. Thank you so much for your help!

Ursula

Jessica,'Mont' stands most probably for 'Montparnasse'.

mark

Dear Jessica

I would hazard a guess that it means Montparnasse station.

best regards

mark
parishuttle

Andre

Jessica,

Mont is the abbreviation for Montparnasse!

There are 2 structures straddling the tracks (Montparnasse 1 and 2), but that's irrelevant for you.

Just ask the cab driver to take you to the Gare Montparnasse TGV or take the metro/bus to Montparnasse-Bienvenüe (no, the "ü" is not a spelling error ;-)).

Bon voyage,
Andre

Bob Brown

My guess is that the reference is to Montparnasse 1 and 2. Trains to Irun leave from Montparnasse. I am not quite sure what the et 2 means, but the SNCF system shows several TGV trains leaving from Montparnasse for Irun.

Sue

André, why is there a tréma over the u? I have only seen it in French in cases where according to pronunciation rules the u would normally be silent (to make a g hard)(catalogue), but because u in the the root word should be pronounced the tréma is added ; for example ambigüe.

Andre

Aha!

Sue, I was waiting for someone to ask me that question - a great excuse for me to make a pedantic post ;-)

Fulgence Bienvenüe is the engineer who designed the Paris metro - the station is simply named after him!

Andre

Sue

Andre, you were of course hinting that someone should ask, you know, but that's an interesting tidbit. I always wondered why the Bienvenue (never noticed the tréma) after Montparnasse. Surely it wasn't to welcome the voyagers!