sscarrot

My family really wants to go visit the Castle at Guedelon! We are coming from Geneva via train. After our one night visit in the area we will continue on to Paris.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get there using public transportation?

Do any hotels offer a van to take us to Guedelon or pick us up at the train station to get to our hotel?

If we take a taxi, the closet train station is in Cosne sur Loire, which seems like a small station and there wouldn't be a taxi hanging around or a place to pick up a rent a car. Any suggestions on how to make that happen without a cell phone?

Is getting to Cosne sur Loire from Geneva to long and diffcult?. Would it be faster to travel from Geneva to Auxerre? Then is there a small train to St. Fargeau?

All suggestions are welcome!

kerouac

There is no public transportation to Guédelon, and its website makes this very clear. Cosne-sur-Loire is indeed the closest train station, but it is 26 km away.

The site recommends trying BlaBla Car ride sharing services to get there.

Alternately, there is one bus trip a month from Paris to Guédelon. The fare last year was 58 euros for the round trip, including entry to Guédelon and the château of Saint Fargeau.

Christina

I haven't been there, but I've never been in a train station in France that didn't have at least one clerk working there. You could ask them to call you a taxi (at Cosne sur Loire). You might want to print out a list of them to have handy, like this

http://www.itaxis.fr/cosne-cours-sur-loire-58200.htm

Most like like one guy, Allo Taxi looks like the main company.

You can reserve online by sending an email here http://www.allotaxi-val-de-loire.com/

kerouac

Keep in mind that Cosnes is not exactly a hotbed of rail activity. On the up side, there are direct trains to Paris from there. The last one of the day leaves at 19:02 and the one before that is at 14:54.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Why not make this easy and take a train from Geneva to some place large enough in the general vicinity that would be large enough to have a car rental place at or near the train station. Coming from Geneva to this area by train will likely require at least one transfer. Be sure to buy your train tickets 3 months in advance for the cheapest prices and do not use the RailEurope website. See seat61.com for excellent rail travel info. Use autoeurope.com for car rental info. I very much enjoyed my visit to Guedelon and I'm sure you will too.

Christina

That's a good idea. That would probably be Auxerre, and it's only about 10 km farther way than Cosne-sur-Loire is, anyway. But Montbard is on the TGV line and you could get there from Geneva with only one change in Lyon. There are rental car locaitions in both places, but definitely at the Montbard TGV station.

Guedelon is about 60 km from Montbard. However, renting a car for one day could be very expensive, you'd have to check that out. But given you could do what you want and get to/from the hotel and train station, etc., I'd definitley consider that.

grandmere

I took the train from Paris to Cosne-sur-Loire en route to Sancerre. I was to be met by a driver from the B&B and somehow he did not show up. Anyway, I could not find a taxi--eventually did get in touch with B&B, who sent a car. Bottom line: as Christina suggested, take info with you and ask clerk at station to call a taxi. It is definitely not a 'hotbed of rail activity", as Kerouac says! Au contraire!