We will be driving up from Domme to Paris and will be dropping our rental car off at the Versailles train station so we don't have to drive into the city. I'm sure there are plenty of trains that get you into Paris. We are staying in the 7th so does anyone know which one we need to take. Also does anyone know if there is any luggage storage available if we felt like going to Versailles that particular day? Thanks

I'm not sure I follow you, all trains from a certain train station will go to the same station in Paris, you can't choose to go to one station versus another. They have trains every 15 min or so to/from Versailles. You can take the regular SNCF train from Versailles or the suburban RER light rail line, however. The regular SNCF trains go to Montparnasse. The RER has several stops, I imagine Invalides would be the one you'd want in the 7th, or maybe Champ de Mars or even the Musee d'Orsay stop. You'd have to look at a map to decide which was best for you, and it depends what you intend to do from the station to get to where you are going (taxi or metro, for example, or walk). Both metro lines 6 and 13 go from Montparnasse or the RER C line, but metro line 12 only goes through Montparnasse.

The RER goes from Versailles Rive Gauche station, the regular SNCF trains from the Chantiers station in Versailles. I think there are actually trains from yet another station in Versailles (Rive Droite) but those go to St Lazare so you woudn't want to go there.

Is there a reason you're driving from Domme to Paris (and then just ditching the car)? You can hop on a train in Brive and be in Paris in half the time and at likely less cost. It's a long, boring ride that seems like a waste of time if you're not going to use the car on arrival in Paris (and you probably shouldn't).

To answer your question, though, you probably wouldn't take an SNCF train from Versailles into Paris, you'd take the RER (commuter line) and get off at whatever stop is closest to your hotel. See www.ratp.com to familiarize yourself with how transportation in Paris works. There is some space for luggage on the RER trains, but not like in a regular train car, as they're for commuters, not people going long distance.

But if you just take the train from Brive back to Paris, you won't have an issue with luggage on the RER anyway.

I think you are asking if you can leave luggage at the Versailles rail station while going into the town or the palace. Here is a list posted by Kerouac several years ago of the SNCF stations with luggage lockers:

Angers
Avignon-Centre
Bordeaux
Cannes
Lyon-Part Dieu
Marne la Vallée-Chessy
Marseille
Nantes
Nice
Paris-Austerlitz
Paris-Lyon
Paris-Montparnasse
Paris-Nord
Toulouse

These stations have manual left luggage offices:

Dijon
Lyon-Perrache
Strasbourg

To see the current situation (in French): http://www.voyages-sncf.com/guide/vo...signe_gare.pdf

St. Cirq,

We tried to look up a schedule to go from Brive to Paris but there weren't any decent times for that particular day which is the 21st of May. I don't know if we were looking in the wrong place or not. It seemed like there were only 2 trains, if you could direct me to the correct sight maybe we could change the drop off point of the rental car. Also, the trains we did find were very expensive and my husband said we might as well drive. If I remember correctly it was over 78E each. I thought I remember that one was very very early in the morning and one was really late in the afternoon and nothing in between.

There are loads of trains from Brive to Paris on that day. Leaving aside the ones that involve 2 transfers, you have the option of 8:00 am (122 euro for two adults), 9:03 (130 euro for two), 12:40 (115 euro for two), 15:00 (122 euro for two), and 16:03 (130 euro for two).

Probably a monetary savings no matter which train you take, given the cost of fuel and tolls, never mind 8-9 hours on the road as opposed to a 4- or 5-hour train ride, and ending up in Versailles, from which you have to haul yourself into Paris.

The website for French trains is www.voyages-sncf.com or, if you don't read French, www.tgv-europe.com. You do NOT want to even look at anything on Rail Europe.

Thanks again St. Cirq and everyone for the help

Hi St Cirq

Just to be sure. We are staying in the 7th in Paris. Which station in Paris do we want to take the train from Brive to. Thanks again for help

The train from Brive goes to Paris Gare d'Austerlitz only. It ends there, and you can then take the Metro to your hotel. So if you check the SNCF site, you just enter Brive as Depart, Paris as Arrivee, and it will take you to Austerlitz.

Assuming you have a car while in Domme, you can usually leave it in Brive at one of the car rental agencies there. Most have offices in Brive, and usually there is no extra charge to leave it there even if you have picked it up somewhere else in France.

Have a look at this Google Map. http://g.co/maps/ykdhg
At the Gare Austerlitz you can get on the commuter train called the RER C. By coincidence, it will take you to the 7th and also
to Versailles. Which stop you get off at will depend on your hotel.

Here's another link: http://g.co/maps/cmcjd Along the river you'll see RER stops at Invalides, Pont d'Alma and Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel. Hopefully one will be close enough to your hotel so you can walk.

A cab ride from Austerlitz would be in the 20 euro range.

franvarga, you don't have a choice of stations to arrive at, as in any country. You will arrive at the Gare d'Austerlitz. From there you can choose to take a taxi or the RER/métro to your hotel.

Good morning StCirq,

We changed the return of our rental car to Brive. I am a bit confused about purchasing the train back to Paris from Brive. You stated never to use RailEurope which is where we booked our ticket from the CDGAirport to Avignon, and they're already bought & paid for.I hope the TGV honors our E-tickets, they were expensive. In regards to the tickets from Brive to Paris We don't speak French which I guess can be problematic. I keep getting directed to the raileurope sight and the TGV doesn't have the 9:03 or 12:40 train options that the voyages website does. Is there a problem that we should know about regarding RailEurope?
Thanks again
Fran

Yes, Rail Europe is a reseller that marks up, oftentimes heavily, the actual price of the tickets, then charges you a shipping fee on top of that. If you don't read French, use the www.tgv-europe.com site. Scroll to the bottom and click on Other Countries. Then fill in the departure, destination, etc. You should see all the trains I listed there, and you will be on the TGV-Europe site, not Rail Europe.

The TGV will honor your e-tickets. You will likely end up with e-tickets from Brive to Paris as well. Just make sure you have the same credit card that you used to purchase the tickets online.

Thank you once again. I also just found out that even with the protection plus that we purcheased, RailEurope will not honor our tickets if we miss our connection. Is there any type of ticket that if the unexpected happened we could trade in the tickets for a later train time? I'm now referring to the train ride when we arrive at CDG and have 3 hours to catch our TGV train to avignon. I can cancel The RailEurope tickets up to 2 days prior and get a refund but can't the same day if there's a delay. Maybe I should purchase some kind more flexible ticket. I don't know, hopefully we won't miss our connection and I'm worrying for nothing. Your help is so appreciated, thanks for sharing your expertise in your travels through France. We will purchase the Brive tickets through TGV-Europe. My friend says her google translates maybe we can do it through voyages.com instead, if we can translate.

Well, if you want an exchangeable/refundable ticket, you're not eligible for the deeply discounted PREM fares. But in all likelihood a regular SNCF fare ticket is cheaper than Rail Europe and exchangeable.

I don't think there's very much French language on the www.voyages-sncf.com site that can't be figured out instinctively and/or with the help of an online translation tool. There's also an SNCF telephone you can call to reach and English-speaking operator. At least there used to be. The number was 33(France) 8 92 35 35 35.

Thanks again, StCirq!!