French Rail Connections Timing at Dijon Ville and Cerbere?
 

We'll be changing trains at Dijon Ville for the Nimes-Beaune leg of our trip and there's just 24 minutes at Dijon Ville to move from the TVG to the RE, at Dijon Ville again for the Beaune-Paris Gare de Lyon segment with a 28 minute change time from the RE to the TGV, and a 40 minute change at Cerbere on the Barcelona leg.

I think the latter, 40-minute Cerbere change is probably okay in terms finding the platform, the correct car, etc, but I wonder if the two transfer times at Dijon (allowing for the trains running absolutely on time) are adequate. We may have to deal with our very limited French language abilities, spoken and written, to make the transfers--in fact, even to find where we should go and be.

Really, that's loads of time! I had a five minute transfer on my recent trip to France (at Besancon) and made it with no problems. All you need to do is follow the Sortie (exit) signs to the main hall, find the departure board (usually a big screen over the platform entrance) and head for the correct platform. In some cases you'll find departure boards over the platform accesses as you head for main hall, although with that much time between trains, your outbound train's platform may not be listed yet. In fact, the platform number might not be up on the main board, either. Of course, if you're lugging big bags, it will slow you down a bit, but enough to matter with that much time. When you get to the platform, look for the board that shows the location of the cars for your train, then you'll know where to stand on the platform.

"not enough to matter", aargh.

and if you do miss the connection there will probably be another train within the hour.

Dijon isn't a super huge rail station, but that seems plenty of time to me. I also have had to make rail changes with only 5-10 minutes in some cities. They do usually arrange them so the trains are on adjacent platforms, although you do have to look around and find signs, etc.

Christina is right, Dijon station is not big, platforms go from A to J and they go 2 by 2 (A on its own near the main hall and then B/C E/F G/H and I/J). If you don't have time to compost your ticket search for the controller in your train, they are used to that.
Don't stress and good luck!
Next time take a couple of hours to visit my city! :-)

It will be a breeze. I routinely have less than 10 minutes to change trains and have never missed one. That's typical at small stations. Everything will be very clearly marked in obvious places.

"If you don't have time to compost your ticket search for the controller in your train" Any reason not to compost both of them before boarding the first train? That's what I did.

These are encouraging replies, for sure. I have no idea what "composting" means in this context. Explanations heartily welcomed. Thanks.

compost your ticket - means to self-cancel them in the orange (were yellow or vice versa) validation machines before joining the train.

This makes your tickets non-refundable - on some trains you may not see conductors and this way they make sure you cannot use that ticket again.

Every train i've been on in France lately there is an announcement, in French only, to remind folks who have not composted (validated or cancelled) their tickets before boarding to make sure to find the conductor (controller) before he comes around checking - or then you will be or could be considered riding without a valid ticket and fined, etc.

The only reason not to compost a second connecting ticket at the first station is if there is a strike or whatever and you don't take that train - then your ticket is no longer valid after that day's date i would think.

It's been a time since we've traveled by rail in Europe but we have railpasses for each travel day. I assume that after they're validated (at the first rail station and before our first travel therefrom), we just fill in the date of that day's travel and have the passes ready to be reviewed by train personnel. Correct?

You do have reservations for the TGVs, right? You can't just board a TGV, and some other trains, without a reservation. The SNCF and bahn.de sites will indicate whether reservations are required for specific trains.

I'll order reservations from RailEurope tomorrow (I've checked the site to confirm the train times). I was waiting for the responses from Fodors members re my question about train transfer times before I firmed up the reservations for specific trains on which we'd use our Eurail passes.

I've ordered reservations before from RailEurope (in 2006 to Prague and Vienna). The RickSteves folks note that reservations are less expensive in Europe, but agree that June/July is busy travel and several birds in the hand, etc.

It's been a time since we've traveled by rail in Europe but we have railpasses for each travel day. I assume that after they're validated (at the first rail station and before our first travel therefrom), we just fill in the date of that day's travel and have the passes ready to be reviewed by train personnel. Correct?

Correct - except like thursday says reservations are required on all French TGV (and also Corail TEOZ) trains and these can be rather hard to make with railpasses as even if the train is not full there is a limit on the number of seats they will make available to railpass holders, who may be met with the retort no passholder seats but we will sell you a full fare ticket for that same train.

to save money you should make your reservations when you buy your railpass - otherwise now RE i believe will charge a $18 mailing fee as your order is under $400 or whatever their minimum is to have no fees. Some agents like RickSteves don't even do reservations any more and tell you to go to RailEurope.com - so rather than buying a pass from Steves and reservations from RE you would be better off doing it all from one source like RE that will also make the reservations.

Good tip, Palenque. Unfortunately, our railpases are in hand and I'll be ordering the reservations this morning from RailEurope and paying the mailing fee. I seem to remember we paid a modest premium (over European reservation purchases) plus a FedEx fee. When I think about the flight and hotel costs, these are bearable extra expenses.