Long Eurail trip boring?
 

We are wondering whether to go to South France from Normandy. Can you do anything interesting on such a long Eurail ride, or will it seem like precious vacation time wasted?

I'm wondering why you call it a "Eurail ride" and what route are you taking? Are you using a Eurail pass, and if so, what is your itinerary?

I guess we'll have to take the Eurail from Bayeux to Paris, and Paris to Nice. We're wanting to stay in a smaller city near Nice - maybe Antibes. That's a long time on trains. I wonder if we should get a sleeper berth and travel at night. My husband,son & I do have Eurail passes. We have zero experience w/Europe and Eurail. Thanks!

Maren,<BR><BR>There are two schools of thought here:<BR><BR>1. Do train travel during the day so you will be able to view the beautiful scenery as you go flying by.<BR><BR>2. Travel at night so you can save daylight hours for your destination, and because there isn't any beautiful scenery. However at night, you may have connecting trains and amy get little sleep. We have traveled overnight using a rail pass and reserved a first class compartment, however even that did not guarantee a good night sleep, although it did provide much more security.<BR><BR>I would suggest that you go to a travel site like DER tours or Rail Europe and look at the schedules for the departures and arrivals and then decide.<BR><BR>US

Nine hours is a long time to spend on a train if your vacation is 10 days; in that case, take the overnight train (you save the cost of a hotel room so count that in the price).<BR><BR>If your vacation is longer, then the experience of a leisurely train ride could be enjoyable. There's usually a snack bar (not the greatest food in the world, but it's someplace to wander) and certainly you'll have a chance to read, write postcards and in your journal, nap, and probably end up chatting with fellow travelers. If your son is young, he might get restless on such a long trip. Older, and he'll be able to find stuff to do (bring cards, boardgame, Gameboy, etc.) and also chat with the other travelers.<BR><BR>French trains are run by the SNCF, and the train to Nice is a high-speed train, so seeing the countryside is sort of iffy - not that things whizz by in a blur, but you're past stuff before you have a chance to really look at it. Still, it's a fun experience if you've never done train travel.<BR><BR>I'm assuming that, since you've bought Eurail passes, you'll be traveling to other parts of Europe. If that's so, then it'll be just another train ride, and I'd say take the overnight train.

It's a fun night trip. There's only one night train from Paris to Nice, leaving at 10:30 p.m. from Paris = Gare de Lyon, and arriving in Nice at 6:44 the next morning. To make that connection, you should take the 5:20 train from Bayeaux, change trains in Caen, then arrive in Paris - Gare St. Lazare at 7:37. From there, get over to the Gare de Lyons.<BR>The Thomas Cook Timetable does NOT indicate that the Paris/Nice train is a sleeper train (i.e. with sleeping compartments). Does anyone know? Ben?

I have to think that there are any number of cheaper faster flights than taking the train, from Nice, Montpellier, Marseilles or Nimes.<BR><BR>Try Air Liberte.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

We have Eurail passes, and need to go from Bayeux to Nice at the end of May. I may look into sleeper berths. If none are available, I wonder if it's safe to sleep sitting in a first class train car on an overnight train to Nice? Should I look into air travel to Nice? Any opinions are coveted!

See if you can get a compartment that only sleeps 3 people, I don't think you would like to share with a stranger when you travel at night with a child. When I traveled with my children on the night train Paris-Rome last year I felt safer knowing that we shared with no strangers.

The reference library of a city near you may have the Thomas Cook European Timetable. Table 360 shows the Blue Train, from Paris Austerlitz at 2117 to Antibes at 0742, with 1 and 2 berth sleepers and 4 and 6 berth couchettes, but I am afraid with no 3 berth sleepers. For a note on couychettes and sleepers, and on how to get the best from a night on a train please see http://www.twenj.com/tipsnighttrains.htm. On busy nights they add a train with couchettes from Paris Austerlitz at 21ac32 to Antibes at 0855. Connections Monday to Friday are Bayeux 1719, Caen 1736 to 1743, buffet car train, Paris St Lazare 1937. At weekends you leave Bayeaux earlier, sometimes by bus to Caen.<BR><BR>Shannon: Thank you for referring to me on this. I am a bit thrown by your times: please can you tell me the date of the copy of Cooks you have, and the table number ?<BR><BR>In second class the Blue Train offers 2 berth sleepers and crowded 6 berth couchettes, while first class offers single sleepers and 4 berth couchettes. To avoid sharing with a stranger you would book one 2-berth and one single sleeper. I must say I travel repeatedly overnight with strangers. All sleepers are either family or single-sex, so I travel with strange men, and nothing untoward has happened over decades - except that I do sometimes wake people who snore and tell them they are snoring. So you may well decide to travel in two 2-berth sleepers, mother and child in one, father with a stranger in the other.<BR><BR>By day people usually take TGVs, Trains a Grande Vitesse, High Speed Trains, and the scenery does indeed pass you fast. A solution is to pick deliberately a slower train on a lesser line, shown on table 333. That is the Cevenol buffet car express from Paris Gare de Lyon at 0847 through good country to Marseille at 1916, then a TGV (but slowed down by old-style tacks) along the Riviera from Marseille at 1950 to Antibes at 2210. This is easy if you spend a night in Paris, but to connect direct from Normandy you leave Caen, thirty kilometres from Bayeaux, at 0509, not Sundays, and reach Paris St Lazare at 0724.<BR><BR>Please write if I can help further. Welcome to Europe.<BR><BR>Ben Haines, London<BR>