Paris to Venice by Train - Help Again
 

I asked a question on this topic yesterday and got great information.
My brother and I are going to take the night train (Hopefully Artesia) from Pais to Venice.

We want to book a double first class. In other words a compartment for two only. However, I saw the layout for these trains and they appear to have triple bunks. The SNCF English web site is quite vague on whether there would be a third person sharing the compartment. It says:

"You will be split between several compartments exclusively reserved for you."

eg - it says for instance "coach 92 seats 22 lower and 26 upper are availabe.
OK this is the same compartment - but there are three bunks in these Artesia trains.

Will the third bunk be sold to a stranger?

I don't want to book unless I can get this resolved.

And no we do not want to be adventurous

Thanks again.

t

I'm no train expert but it sounds like there is confusion between the first class double cabin (just two people), and a 'couchette' which would be 3 or 6 in bunks.

Perhaps the specific train you are looking at doesn't offer private doubles, but only couchettes?

These trains have T3 compartments which can be configured to have one, two or three berths, depending on the fare you pay. If you book it as a two-berth compartment, the middle bunk will be folded away. If you book two berths in a three-berth compartment, you will be sharing with a third person of the same sex. The fare per person in a two-berth is higher than in a three-berth.
Couchettes have four or six berths in a compartment.

Geoff, that is exactly the answer I was hoping for - Thank you for your help.