I am grappling with the problem that surfaced on natylou's thread about Normandy and Brittany. St. Cirq and PalenQ provided help on how to get West from CDG without having to make a change in Paris. I'm wondering if there is something I'm missing that could help me with a similar problem. So if they or others know some tricks for my situation I'd sure like to hear them. Here's my situation.

We will be flying in and out of CDG. Plan is to go to Bordeaux, then La Rochelle and then back staying a night or two in Paris, latter all to avoid making a short change there. I've researched on Bahn.de and can only find CDG to Bordeaux with an RER connection in Paris. Tried routing through Marne le Valle to avoid that, but no use. On way back we'd prefer to stop in Rennes for a day or two rather than Paris (will be in Paris on an earlier trip) but can't find way back from Rennes without RER change in Paris before getting to CDG.

PalenQ, St. Cirq or others in the know, please clue me into the magic that you've found to go through Rennes (or other) to get to my destinations without the stops in Paris. Will really appreciate the help. Happy to do all the clicking around to get the ultimate answer, just need the magic clues about which places to route through instead of Paris--and maybe which sites to use. Thanks.

This should be easy. What are your dates, how many people traveling, any discount cards?

According to Rome2Rio there are direct trains from CDG to Bordeaux. Check oui.SNCF

Yes, there are plenty of direct TGVs from CDG to Bordeaux, I do this all the time. If she gives me the info I asked her for I'm sure I can plan this for her with no hitches.

@StCirq - no doubt. But once she knows about Rome2Rio she is less likely to need help in the future. Teaching someone to fish.....

Thanks, St. Cirq. We don't go until end of August/early Sept. and I don't think schedules are available for exact dates yet. What I try to do is set up a schedule of where we want to be when and on what days and check current train schedules for similar days to get an idea of what to expect re: approx schedule, length of journey, stops and amount of time at stops to be sure we can make it with luggage and flight times, etc. What I'm looking at is coming into CDG about 6 a.m. on a Monday, to catch a train to Bordeaux. As far as I can tell the only options include a stop in Paris with an RER ride to another station. On the way back I ran into similar problems returning to CDG from La Rochelle on a Friday and so decided I would stay in Paris for 2 days before returning on a Sunday flight from CDG--though I'd much prefer to go from La Rochelle to Rennes on that Friday, spend 2 days in Rennes and train from Rennes to CDG on A Sunday to catch a flight that doesn't leave until 3:40 p.m. I hope you know some magic routing that would make this possible without sending me twice into Paris when, for once, I'd rather not go there. Thanks for trying to help. Hope I'm not being too confusing. I have some kind of block when it comes to planning train travel.

My forte is train travel in France, so never fear.

You haven't told me when you'd be coming back from Rennes (or wherever) to CDG. The precise dates aren't necessary, but I do need to know day of the week and sort of which week/month of the year.

thursdays, I'll give you that Rome2Rio has improved a lot over the past few years, but I do not give it high stars for being accurate, generally. For one thing, it never knows about the difference in bus schedules from one season to the next. I'm very skeptical about relying on it.

I agree that one should never rely blindly on R2R, but it is a good starting point. I also use google maps, but it isn't very useful for this question. Of course, the actual railway websites are the best resource. I used to just use bahn.de, but have discovered it is not totally reliable, either.

Sorry, our trip back from Rennes would be on a Sunday, probably Sept. 8 if I can get myself reasonably assured that we could get a train from there to CDG in time to make a 3:24 p.m. flight out.

I've been using Bahn.de and trainline. Should I switch to sncf/oui?

OUIGO!!!! Why has no-one mentioned this key issue?

From 9 December 2018, various Lille-CDG-Bordeaux trains have been converted into SNCF's 'Lo-Cost' subsidiary Ouigo, with no catering, no first class, limited legroom, luggage limits, extra bag fees, half hour check-ins, but low fares from €19.

These Ouigo trains disappear from the 'regular train' database used by Bahn.de, and they cease to be bookable with through tickets or on booking systems such as Loco2 and Raileurope.com. SNCF plans to convert up to 25% of it's high-speed TGV traffic into this new lo-cost Ouigo subsidiary.

Although the first Ouigo trains were additional, overlaid on existing services which was fine, now they're converting 'real' trains into Ouigo trains and knocking 'holes' in the 'real' train service, Example: The first train of the day from Nice to Paris has been Ouigo-ised, 05:57 arriving 11:45, so the first 'real' TGV with your actual catering and first class isn;t till 10am and doesn;t reach Paris until after 4pm! Ye gods!

Ouigo trains can only be booked at oui.sncf, trainline.eu and ouigo.com - they won't show on bahn.de

Miss the train and your ticket is worthless, so allow for a 2-hour flights delay just in case, as well as the two hours landing and disembarking.

Wow. We're hearing from the ACTUAL ManinSeat61. I feel honored. So it's not just me who is having trouble making the old system work. the whole system is changing. Thanks so much for tipping us onto this change and the new sites to use. I'm off to check it out.

Just hang in there for a couple of months, Julie. None of us can know what's going to happen yet.

Thanks, that's kinda my assessment as well. I started researching all the sites and got worn out. Each one seemed to show something a little different. Now thinking it may be easier to switch from Rennes to Nantes for our last two days. It seems to have better connections to CDG for our flight out.

I do appreciate everyone's help on this. I am likely to be back closer to the actual travel date. I'm thinking I can book flights and hotels in Bordeaux and La Rochelle and leave the last two days open until I'm closer to the date. I can always spend those last two days in Paris if I can't work something easy out for Rennes or Nantes.

Again my thanks for all the help you've given me. I'm off to conquer my fear of train booking another day.