How can you tell if your tgv is a duplex?

we are traveling to Bordeaux from Paris this summer 2nd class and we are on Coach 18 seats 41 side by side and 45-48 square but do not see on the ticket whether it is a duplex train. Anyone clarify this for us?
thanks

I have taken the TGV various times and only once I wasn't lucky and had to take the duplex.Which is nice if you don't have have personal items to carry upstairs..

read this article it will give you an idea about tgv..

www.tgv-europe.com

<How to tell if your TGV will be a Duplex: Run an enquiry on www.tgv-europe.com and find the train you're planning to travel on. Select any fare, click the 'choose my place' link and click the drop down box that says 'No preference'. If the options include upper and lower decks, it's a Duplex!>

Does it matter?

Does it matter?>

duh yeh

lots better views from the upper etage over the lower level from which you see mainly IME banks of the rail bed and wind blcoks. I guess it is obvious you have never taken a TGV duplex! A world of difference for a tourist but not so important for business types who will be sleeping or working on laptops en route.

By all means try to get an upper level seat.

I've taken dozens of duplex TGVs, Pal. NO big difference at all.

> Does it matter?

Can be a concern about the view as Pal says or can be about the luggage as kismetchimera wrote.

I was going to advise what kismetchimera wrote : how to tell if you TGv is Duplex or not. I would do that.

Also I have seen many tickets TGV for duplex and non duplex. Duplex ones say something like " duo côte à côte - haut " (side by side seats - upper deck). I do have a ticket now that says like this and you can tell this one is duplex. Or it might say "bas" lower deck. No duplex ones say nothing, so if your ticket has no mention, then it's likely to be no duplex.

Also on the TGV lines netween France and Switzerland ( Geneva - Paris, Marseille, etc), the upper deck seats on 2nd cls start from No.61 ( I think, not 51 ). I think it is about the same on Paris - Bourdeaux so if your seats are 40's, even if it is duplex, your seats will be in the lower deck. If your concern is about carrying up the luggage, I would feel safe with your seats.

I hate the lower deck on a duplex, staring at the concrete sound barriers - give me a top deck seat every single time, cosy and up high, with great views over the top of the occasional sound barriers along the line.

And if I'm with my 6 year old, my life wont be worth living if I book us lower deck seats!

It's one reason I book my own tickets direct with SNCF at tgv-europe.com, who allow seat option selection. Rail Europe don't, so you take pot luck with whatever seat you're given, not good enough in my book!

There are toilets and luggage areas both upstairs and downstairs, the cafe-bar and inter-car gangways are at upper deck level, and the stairs are short, wide, shallow and easy - not a problem.

This video shows you around a Duplex, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrXUqOPU9wc

You can various train seat numbering plans here, including Duplex and regular TGV: http://www.seat61.com/train-seat-plans.htm

> There are toilets and luggage areas both upstairs and downstairs, the cafe-bar and inter-car gangways are at upper deck level, and the stairs are short, wide, shallow and easy - not a problem.

Not a problem? It's all up to how large your baggage is and how many of them you carry. I don't find those stairs partucularly wide but wide just enough for a person to carry up suite cases not too large. Maybe Kismetchimera did have problems. She wrote she wasn't lucky to be on upper floor. I have seen some people with huge or numerous pieces of luggage and struggle but they do manage at the end.

When SNCF started running duplex TGV, they advistised ( still does ?), the lower deck seats are for those who prefer to be in quieter environment, maybe hoping to work with computer, the view is less important. The upper decks are for better views, for somewhat "noisier" people, perhaps more for families ... but of course that's no rules.

Yup, the lower deck is quieter (unless you sit next to a chatterbox) because you can't move through the cars down there but only on the upper deck. So it's more like a dead end lounge.
The views are only as good as the landscape is scenic. If you go East from Paris towards Strasbourg, you go through mostly flat and somewhat bland topography. Not that much to write home about. On other lines, it may matter more.

I've taken dozens of duplex TGVs, Pal. NO big difference at all.>

well read what one of your 'real rail experts' <Man in Seat 61 says and he agrees with me - yes read what he says and you will realize that perhaps for you looking at "concrete sound barriers' as Man puts it is fine - but for all the reasons he gives not for the average person.

what difference does it make - well to me and folks like Man in Seat 61 a world of difference -give me a top deck seat every single time, cosy and up high, with great views over the top of the occasional sound barriers along the line," as he said above.

I pity the person who is content with viewing cement sound barriers when you could be seeing the pastoral countryside glide by!

Yup, the lower deck is quieter (unless you sit next to a chatterbox) because you can't move through the cars down there but only on the upper deck. So it's more like a dead end lounge.>

Yeh I can see where some folk would love the atmosphere of a dead-end lounge but the average first-time traveler at least also wants to see what France looks like and IMO it all looks interesting for the novice traveler - all those little villages punctuated by soaring steeples crowning parish churches sitting on the highest point in town. but yes if you do not care about seeing anything outside then you may prefer the coffin-like setting down below.

A chacun ses gouts!

Usually I take the TGV from Paris to visit some members of my family that lives in Provence ..

The view from Paris to Provence others than in few places is not that great anyway..

Besides I have been traveling that route since I were 18 years old..
Therefore the view is not a big deal for me..Now Carrying baggages upstairs is because I have a bad tender back.

You are right PalQ..Without doubt a Chacun son gout..mine is sitting downstair..

You are right PalQ..Without doubt a Chacun son gout..mine is sitting downstair..>

and for good reasons - you have seen the scenery ad nauseum and prefer the coffin-like silence of down below but my only dispute with St Cirq was that she/he/it said there was no difference between the two - and there is, a view Man in Seat 61 so nicely described and for the first-time traveler in France they may well want to see the countryside instead of cement noise blocks - others like you don;t care a bout seeing it and prefer the quiet, etc of down below - but I think we can agree there is a big difference between being down and up, at least for the average traveler and folks like Man in Seat 61.

I always sit downstairs, it is a lot easier just in terms of your luggage, that's why. I don't care about the views which aren't that different except in areas where you are next to some wall or something, most of the time you aren't. I read a lot of the time, anyway.

a chacun son gout!