France - driving v. train
 

Last year (Sept - October) we drove around Western Europe and on our next trip we would like to Eurail. How will we go in France, especially in the south? We will only have 2 weeks in the countryside before we head for Paris. Suggestions please!!

The French railsystem is pretty extensive, with buses filling in the blanks. <BR> <BR>Where, exactly, in the south of France? Do you mean Provence/Riviera/Cote d'Azur? Or Biarritz/Pau? Or the Languedoc? Or all? I've done trains throughout the region, but suggestions depend upon your plans.

Elvira, thank you so much for your reply. It is only very early days of planning but we will probably come out of Switzerland and down the eastern border of France, into Spain, then Portugal and back into France via Spain to Toulouse. From there we will head towards Paris on the western side of the country, concentrating on the Loire area. It's all in the air at this stage!

Via train, you should be able to see what you want. Trains from Switzerland to France are numerous; once in France, there are TGV trains that get you quickly from one place to another - and there are the regular trains for stopping along the way. <BR>Once you've sort of hashed out a route, go to www.sncf.com and plunk in your from and to. You'll get the train schedules, sometimes with different via cities, and then fine tune the itinerary. <BR> <BR>My suggestions would be: Avignon, Perpignan/Carcassone, Collieres/Banyuls-sur-Mer, Figueres/Cadaques, Barcelona, San Sebastian, Bordeaux, Loire Valley. Skip Portugal. Unless you do long-haul overnight trains, you won't have time to visit Portugal, and then you'll miss a lot of France and Spain. If you want to visit Portugal, then start in Barcelona, through Madrid, to Portugal, to San Sebastian, to Bordeaux, to the Loire Valley - even then, you're pushing it. If you use the web to plot train times (www.raileurope.com works well), I think you'll see you'll need to cut back on the itinerary (unless you want to just ride the rails and see things from the train window - which isn't a bad idea). <BR> <BR>Enjoy the planning - that's a good 1/3 the fun of the trip!

Elvira, many thanks for all your information! The itinerary you suggest and the websites will be so helpful. I will let you know how I go. Thanks again.