TimS

aarathi23,

Here are the best Prem's still available for 13 September:

€17 for departures at 15:13, 16:46, and 17:16.

€38 for the departure at 07:46.

€40 for the departure at 09:16.

Here's how to book in English at www.voyages-sncf.com. Click on the "Train" tab (between "Accueil" and "Hotel&quot at the top of the page. On the new page you get go to the browser field at the very top of the screen and click anywhere in the long URL you see there. Find LANG=FR and change it to LANG=UK. Do not change anything else. Hit the Enter key and you'll be taken to a booking page in English. Leave France as the default country for ticket retrieval, do NOT choose cancellation insurance, and proceed with booking and printing your Prem's tickets.

crazyfortravel

I booked ITGV tickets Paris to Avignon for travel on Jun 4th and paid 38 Euros for two in second class.

We returned on Jun 12th and paid 88 Euros for two in First class...Prems.

aarathi23

We got there in the end! 120 Euro for 2 return tickets from Paris to Avignon, 2nd class. We're coming back on the double decker train, and we've opted for the upper deck!

Phew!

Funny thing is in the last 5 mins, (as I was swapping between the sncf website and the tgv-europe website), the return ticket went up by 5 euro, thankfully I had already the cheaper alternatively booked, so went straight ahead and decided to not play around anymore!

Now if I can only get my hotels sorted

Thanks everyone for all your help on this

yk

For the record, if you use www.tgv-europe.com website, you need to select your country of residence as GREAT BRITAIN. If you choose France, it'll send you back to sncf.com. But if you choose GREAT BRITAIN, it will stay as an English interface of sncf but everything remains in English.

janyceh

I just printed out PREM tkts return Paris/Reims for 22 September on the tgv-europe site. Changed country to Great Britain. Easy! The hard part was finding the PREM fares for that week. Thank you Fodorites for all you good information.

Jan

lilaki

hi fodorites,

i just booked my tickets on sncf ... PREMs were 50 euros for both of us one way. i was hoping for 34 euros but no such luck. oh well. thanks to everyone for your help!

for some reason, we didn't get a chance to specify seating at all (one of my mock bookings allowed us to specify seats). the system generated two seats on the UPPER DECK ...

so now, what will we do with our luggage? do we haul our luggage up to the upper deck? is that reasonable with suitcases? i'm re-thinking the whole bike-lock thing if we're going to be separated from our luggage...

thanks again!

lilaki

D'OH ... just went back to the site and realized that there is indeed a way to select seats (or at least make some specifications) ...

so, for future reference, after you click the radio button for the selected price/ticket, an option appears at the bottom saying "choisir ma place" (right next to the green 'button' called "valider cet aller".

i guess i was too excited to book my ticket.

does anyone know if we can change our seats?? and if so, how would we do this?

and if NOT, then what about the luggage concerns?

THANK YOU!

lilaki

anyone out there for this one?

thank you!

kappa

No you can't. Your ticket is non-changeable. RE: luggage, I wrote already above : With double decker TGV, overhead rack is really narrow. Good for small bags but too small even for carry-on size wheelers. .... Double decker TGV also has luggage racks in the middle (near seats 70's or 80's)

lilaki

hi kappa,

thanks for your response.

since we'll be separated from our luggage, do you know if we'll be able to move down to the lower level once the train departs paris? in otherwords, since it's a direct trip and no one else will be boarding after paris, will anyone stop us if we go down and sit in the empty seats on the lower deck?

Christina

Being a direct trip doesn't mean no one else can board, it just means you don't transfer to another train anywhere.

There are a few TGVs to Avignon that are nonstop, I think, but most stop in Valence. If you do have one without stops (how did you find that out?), you should be able to move to an empty seat with no problem. I move sometimes, just within the same car, if I'm facing a direction I don't like and there are free seats. I don't know why you'd want to move to the lower level that much, it's not usually as nice in terms of view, and why haul your luggage up and then back down?

Tail cars aren't that big that you aren't usually within eyesight of your luggage. I always am, as there are places at the end of the cars, as well as in various other points between seats. I just make sure I get there early to put it where I want. I suppose there are some seats on one end that would be apart from the luggage if you had it at the opposite end of the car.

ut I've never heard of any TGV from Paris to Avignon that didn't have any stops. I think they always stop in Valence

lilaki

hi christina,

our seats are on the upper deck in car 8.

i have emailed SNCF to see if we can at least change our seats ... i haven't heard back (even though the website stated i should get a response the next business day) and i'm doubtful that we'll be able to change our seats.

as far as i understood, the train is direct from paris to avignon - there was no mention of valence. but that just makes me more worried (i.e. someone getting on the train and then running off with my luggage in valence)...

since we can't haul our luggage up to the upper deck, i'm assuming we will need to stow our luggage on the lower deck. i'm uneasy about leaving our luggage unattended and out of sight. (as an aside, i spent a summer in europe as a kid - family vacation - and all of our luggage got stolen out of our rental car ... as an adult, i'm constantly paranoid about luggage theft).

since it seems i can't change my seats, i just want to know if i can just wait for the train to fill up, and then take any of the empty seats on the lower deck. does someone walk around the car to check your tickets after boarding? who do you show your tickets to and when?

worst case scenario if the train is completely full and we can't change seats, i'm planning to bring a bike lock and one of us will just head down to the lower deck every once in a while and definitely before the train pulls into any stations (i.e. valence). and yes, i know i'm being paranoid. but that feeling of losing all our luggage in italy when i was a kid is not something i really want to re-live!

thanks!!

crazyfortravel

We had no stops on the Paris-Avignon train that left at 8:04AM on Jun 4th. We had anticipated that there would be stops (assumed there would be) but Avignon TGV station was the first stop.

We were on the upper level of an ITGV car in second class and there was a luggage rack on that level at the end of our car. It was a little awkward getting the luggage up the stairs but we managed.

Coming back Avignon to Paris the train at 9:32AM on June 12th was also non stop. We were in first class on the bottom level. Both times when we got on the train, someone was in our seats. They quickly moved when I showed them our confirmation.

Prior to boarding the ITGV section, we had to show our train tickets in Paris and they validated them. When we got on in Avignon, no one checked our tickets but someone did come around the car at a later time to check them and ask to see our passport since we had internet printed tickets.

We saw several people move to other seats once the train got going. I think the only no-no would be to try and take a first class seat if you've paid for second class...otherwise I'm sure it's fine once the train has pulled out from the station. Both trains were rather full so there weren't many empty seats but in October that may be different.

When we travelled the overnight train once from France to Italy, we brought a small set of chains and locks so we could attach the luggage to the rack for piece of mind.

Kelly

lilaki

hi crazyfortravel,

whew! i feel much better now. we're on the 9:16 am train from paris...which apparently takes 2 hr 40 mins to avignon. i remember seeing that the 8:04 am journey was 2 hr 39 mins long ... which hopefully means that there won't be a 1 minute stop in valence for the 9:16 am journey!

do you know how big your suitcases are?? i can deal with one flight of awkward stairs with my suitcase if it means sitting near my luggage (or at least on the same level)!

thank you!!!

kappa

With your experience, I would not call you paranoid. Yes, why not use a chain lock even just for a peace of your mind?

Aboslutely no problem changing seats as long as you find one that's not occupied. Only you have to be ready to move away when somebody comes along with the seat reservation. People do that all the time. I do too.

Go to the following site and check if there are stops before Avignon TGV station. This is Swiss railway site but it does give the info. Enter from Paris & to Avignon, date, time and you will get a list of trains. Find yours and click on the train no (e.g. TGV9857). You will get the intermediate stops if there are. I just tried it myself and got a few Paris - Avignon with out stops inbetween so that can be not that extraordinary. Christina is right however a "direct" train usually only means you don't have to change trains (but there are stops inbetween.)

http://www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm

kappa

Ok, TGV 6107, right? That one does not stop at Valence. Avignon is the first stop at 11:59, then on to Aix-en-Provence and terminus, Marseille.

lilaki

hi kappa - thanks for an excellent site. i just went on and entered all of the information. there are NO intermediate stops for our journey! yay!

so, if our luggage fits, we'll haul it up the stairs to the second level. and if not, then we'll wait around on the first level for everyone else to take their seats. and if the first level is full, we'll still have our bike locks to chain up our luggage.

whew.

thank you everyone for all of your help!!

fodorites to the rescue! and amazing how i still haven't received a response back from SNCF!

crazyfortravel

We had one 24 inch with wheels, One large duffle with wheels, a small tote bag and a small back pack. I took the two small bags and god love my husband...he carried the larger ones up the stairs.

The stairs were fairly wide so it wasn't too bad at all.

I'm sure your train is likely non-stop. We did see some trains that took over 3 hours and those are likely the ones that make a stop.

lilaki

hi crazyfortravel,

thanks for the luggage info. we will have two small backpacks and two large-ish suitcases. not sure of the exact measurements but they'll be checked on a plane so they can't exceed that size!

worst case, if we can't carry them up the stairs (one of us will run up ahead to check the upper deck situation), then we'll leave them on the lower deck and we'll hope for empty seats. and if there are none, then we'll have our locks with us so we'll be covered. and since it's a direct train, i feel better about things already!

thanks again!

lilaki

hi folks,

i just received an e-mail from SNCF and they confirmed that we will be able to take our luggage to the upper deck! whew!

thanks to everyone for all of their help!