schnauzer

I have booked all my other train tickets on SNCF without a hiccup, my last trip is from Brive to Paris on Sat 6th July. I have been away and only just got home so couldn't do it immediately they came on sale. I have put in all the info and there doesn't appear to be many options available. There is also a message coming up saying "Les trains pour cet été ne sont pas encore tous ouverts à la réservation." which doesn't make sense as it is well within the three month lead time normally available. There are tickets available cheaply on 2nd class at 1318 but I was hoping to go a little earlier.

Question - do I book the 1318 and be done with it? I have to return the hire car around 10.00 so didn't really want to hang around for that length of time, or wait and see if more trains become available risking the current cheap prices??

I have booked heaps of trains and never had this message come up within the 3 month period. Yes, I have double checked my dates. Is anyone else getting this message?

Is Brive a decent enough town to check out for the intervening hours - I was rather hoping to be in Paris to do the wandering around. Dang....

Thanks for any advice,
Schnauzer

StCirq

Yes, I've seen this message, and it purportedly has to do with "perturbations et travaux" on those lines. But oddly enough, if you delve further into the site to see the dates for perturbations and construction, there is nothing to indicate work on the early parts of July. Maybe they just can't know right now what work will take place which days in the first couple of weeks of July or not? Don't know, but definitely got that message and it's about work on the tracks. Just keep trying is all I can suggest. Or call them.

schnauzer

Thanks StCirq, thought I was going mental. Calling from Australia is always a bit tricky!! Also I will have a rental car and will have been staying in Sarlat for the last 3 nights. I had planned to drive to Brive, drop the car and hop on the train. Now I have looked at Google maps, put in Brive TGV and it is telling me it is 43 minutes away - can't be right, tried again and now it is saying 10 mins please tell me the second one is right!!

I found a thread from last year where someone else was trying to travel from Brive to Paris on the same day and had the same problems!! Just unlucky I guess. With your vast experience do you know if there should be any trains between the 9.00am and the 1.18 one?: seems like a long gap to me.

Do you feel Brive would be worth a wander around if I have to fill in time... can't see much choice at this stage. I am picking up the car at about 10.00am so need to drop it off at about the same time.

Any more help would be great.
thanks, schnauzer

hetismij2

Can't help with the train tickets but my Dutch routeplanner puts the drive time at 50 minutes from Sarlat to Brive.

Loco2com

Even on weekdays there is a 9am direct train and then not another direct train until 114pm. So it looks like this is just the timetable of the TGV from Toulouse to Paris Austerlitz which calls at Brive along the way.

However SNCF is undertaking a lot of track work and I was just searching this route the other day for 9th May and there are no direct trains so looks like there is periodical maintenance.

schnauzer

Thanks for the replies, sounds like I have picked the wrong line with the wrong date - dang. The drive time was not from Sarlat to the TGV at Brive but between Brive TGV and Brive township itself. In other words is it a quick taxi ride for a look around and an early lunch. Had a look at some Google images and it certainly looks pleasant enough.

Carlux any recommendations for lunch?

cheers,
schnauzer