TGV from Paris (or Orleans) to Barcelona
 

My wife and I will be leaving Orleans (where we will have a car) and want to take the TGV to Barcelona. We will be spending the night in Orleans, and then would like to catch the 07:15 TGV to Barcelona the next morning.

- would it be best to drop off the rental in Orleans (the night before) and train to Paris Gare Lyon to catch the TGV?
- would it be best to drive from Orleans to Paris Gare Lyon and drop off the rental car there?
- should we avoid the TGV and just train from Orleans to Barcelona? We're looking for the quickest, but if too inconvenient we'll consider alternatives

I was looking at raileurope.com for the TGV tickets. They're not available for June yet, but a current ticket price is $247 / person. Is there a cheaper place to purchase tickets?

Thanks for any help.
Mark

When you are within the booking period, 3 months before your desired date, use this website:

www.captainetrain.com

Avoid Raileurope which will not offer discount train options and typically does not show complete train schedules.

the best way by far is to take the train from Les Aubrais-Orleans - Orleans mainline train station to Paris Austerlitz then either walk across the Pont DeGaulle to Gare de Lyon for direct TGVs to Barcelona - no other rail route makes sense. Taking a regional train from Orelans or Les Aubrais - shuttle train go from Orleans dead-end city centre station to Les Aubrais to meet all mainline trains there.

You may find the regional train (pretty much a flat fare of about 25 euros I think) as cheap as driving as the autoroutes charge high tolls plus gas, etc and you could return your car a day earlier in Orleans and avoid an extra day fee.

For lots of good info on French trains check www.seat61.com - great info on discounted TGV tickets; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com - all sites with lots of informative info and not just a hard sell.

I have lived in Orleans and spent lots of time there - to me it is by far not the best city for tourists - rather boring if you ask me - oh it is a nice enough town like any French town but I'd base in Amboise or some smaller city - Orleans has obnoxious traffic jams and a great cathedral but little else of special interest.

Don't get me wrong - I like Orleans because I consider it my 2nd home but I would not advise folks to spend much time there.

Besides capitainetrain.com check also the official SNCF- French Railways site - www.voyages-sncf.com - same prices - many say capitanetrain is easier for Americans to actually get to work however.

Again the Orelans/Les Aubrais to Paris ticket you may as well buy in Orleans - you can make optional seat reservations and in 2nd class I would advise them if going during morning rush hours - I have this route umpteen times and in the morning 2nd class can be chock full - you may want to splurge a little extra to go first class where there will always be lots of empty seats IME.

To return a car in Orleans you will find all the major companies offices just opposite the in town Orleans train station - none at Les Aubrais - again the 'navettes' or shuttle trains go from Orleans to Les Aubrais and there are also some direct Orleans to Paris trains from the in-town station.

Unless you speak/read French, don't use www.voyages-sncf.com. It tries to boot you over to RailEurope immediately (a new and annoying thing) before you can even type in your origination city. If you do read French, click and close the pop-up window right away and then proceed.

If you use google for your browser it does have a feature that you can enable to have it translate pages for you. I have purchased tickets directly from sncf a few times and the only problem that I have had is with my credit card company. I had to call them to let them know to clear the charge.

Here's a post from another forum about the difficulty this person was having with SNCF and their credit card:

"For the record, I ended up calling 3 (three) credit card companies and advised them of the upcoming purchase on the SNCF website - just as I always inform bank/cc companies about upcoming travel.

In fact, I was on the phone with one of them while the SNCF site was rejecting that very card. The customer service rep saw nothing at her end - no attempted charge, nothing; thus she couldn't offer any help. So that wasn't the problem."

Personally, I'd hate to have to get the 04:58 Orleans-Paris Austerlitz, I'd drop the car off in Orleans to avoid having to drive into Paris, then take the train into Paris (€10, www.capitainetrain.com) and stay at the Mercure right next to the Gare de Lyon (or other nearby hotel) then take the 07:15 TGV next morning.

Paris-Barcelona TGV booked at www.capitainetrain.com starts at €59, but varies like air fares. Make sure you choose an upstairs seat for the best views - you can select this at capitainetrain, not at Rail Europe.

If you see much higher prices, a top tip to to split ticket at Perpignan. I've seen only full-price (€170) shown for Paris-Barcelona, but when I book Paris-Perpignan and Perpignan-Barcelona on exactly the same TGV, it's €69 + €29! You just have to switch seats (and, if your car number differs by 10 or more, TGV units from rear unit to front unit) at Perpignan.

I have had the same experience as FrenchMystique. I had successfully individually purchased two Navigo purchases (monthly pass) but the same credit card was rejected for the 3rd pass.

I called the bank in the US, they had not rejected the purchase. I next called Visa directly. They had not rejected the purchase nor had they any evidence of a 3rd attempted purchase. The only entity that could have rejected the card was the RATP batch processor.

For those using foreign credit cards, difficulties often arise not from your local bank, not from the credit card company, but from the vendors own card processing people. These people can put card use restrictions into place by limiting transaction amount totals and by blocking frequency of transaction requests.

The SNCF credit card processors do the same thing which is why using the www.voyages-sncf.com is so very difficult no matter what travel alerts a credit card user gives to his bank.

Luckily, the captainetrain.com website is not as restrictive on credit card purchases and is the best way to obtain train tickets.

The CORRECT address is capitainetrain.com

and stay at the Mercure right next to the Gare de Lyon (or other nearby hotel)>

I like the IBIS hotel right by the Gare de Lyon too - www.accorhotels.com.

(and, if your car number differs by 10 or more, TGV units from rear unit to front unit) at Perpignan.>

since TGVs have two locomotives I abelieve that are coupled in the middle and can be uncoupled to make a shorter train - cannot walk thru the whole train but must get off and back on the other half. Minor hassle but if doing that check out beforehand what other car you will be moving to.

There is another route to Lyon from Orleans - changing at Vierzon just south of Orleans to trains direct to Lyon - but besides being perhaps a bit easier than changing stations in Paris that route takes much longer I believe and may involve an additional change of trains.

There is a direct train from Vierzon to Lyon that takes just over 4 hours - about an hour slower than going via Paris - a regional train if you have not purchased some TGV discount that route via Vierzon and Bourges could well be cheaper on a walk up basis.

Thanks of the replies everyone.

I think our best bet would be to drop off the car in Orleans the day before and then train into Paris and stay at the Mercure (or nearby) as PalenQ and MIS61 suggest).

We'll only be in Orleans for a night, on our way from Tours, and thought we'd stop there to see Chambord.

Mark

Don't know when I will need it, but so glad all of the experts on trains and France post on Fodor's - great for those who are there only once in a while. Thanks.

We'll only be in Orleans for a night, on our way from Tours, and thought we'd stop there to see Chambord.>

Blois would be a nicer city and is very close to Chambord - if you get a hotel in Orleans center then on weekdays at evening expect a huge huge traffic snarl all over the city.

Blois has a famous castle and trains to Paris and major car rental returns - average person will enjoy Blois much more than much much bigger Orleans even if only for a night.

voyages-sncf does not automatically send you to Raileurope if you don't do anything, it specifically asks you very clearly in a big box on the homepage if you want to go to Raileurope, or do you want to stay on voyages-sncf.com. You couldn't miss that option, it covers up the whole page and you have to choose before you can do anything, it is very clear you are choosing. I think it's a big improvement as you are doing the choosing directly and it is very clear what you are choosing, previously I think you got switched based on the language you chose or if you said you were in another country as a choice, not sure, but I know some people didn't realize that's what they were choosing (to go to Raileurope).

www.capitainetrain.com is now the favored booking engine for Americans - everyone says it is easier to use and you don't get shifted over to RailEurope. Same trains same fares I think - just a private alternate booking service to compete with www.voyages-sncf.com - the French State Railways online booking site so so many find hard to get to work upon first encounters.

rather than driving into Paris or taking the train there how about driving towards Lyon to join the TGV line there - Bourges is one sweet town en route - I've driven that route and it is rather bucolic - little villages everywhere, etc. Just a thought.

and maybe instead of staying in Orleans drive say to Bourges - all together a nicer smaller city with a great cathedral, etc and go on to the nearest TGV station - negating any need to change train stations in Paris.

Indeed consider taking the regional train Orleans-Vierzon-Lyon as well - something different and only takes an hour longer or so.