Town near MSM to drop off car and get direct train to Paris?
Feb 24th, 2003, 04:46 PM
#1
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Town near MSM to drop off car and get direct train to Paris?
After staying in Bayeux for 5 days, we're planning to spend last night before returning to Paris in Mont St. Michel. I'd like to find a not-too-lg. town heading east where we could both drop off our Autoeurope car and get a direct train to Paris. Anyone have any ideas? Perhaps we have to drive all the way back to Caen? Merci!
Feb 24th, 2003, 06:17 PM
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I would try Pontorson or Dol de Bretagne. If that didn't work, I'd go for any fair-sized nearby town. AutoEurope has pickup and drop-off affiliates in amazing places. The worst-case scenario would be some big town like Fougeres.
Feb 25th, 2003, 07:46 AM
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Bonjour, grandmere! You can do as Keith suggests and turn in your car in Rennes. According to viamichelin, that is 42 mi. and takes 1h06 (I’d add a bit to that to be safe.) There are TGVs leaving Rennes at 9:05, 11:05 and 12:05 that get to Paris in 2h05 to 2h20. But Rennes is a pretty big city.
The main train line from Brittany to Paris (TGV) runs from Brest, through Rennes, Laval, LeMans and on to Paris. If you don’t want to drive to one of those, you will need to find a town where you can turn in your car and get decent connections to one of those towns to pick up the TGV. A lot depends on how big a hurry you are in to get to Paris and how much driving you want to do.
I did a little checking for you, coordinating the info on the Autoeurope site and the SNCF site. You can turn in your car very near St. Michel in Avranches, but the train from there goes to Rennes to get the TGV and the whole trip takes about 4 hours (9:18 to 13:25). Another possibility: you can get a bus from Fougères to Laval and from there the TGV to Paris, total trip 2h50, leaving Fougères at 10:35 and arriving Paris at 13:25. Problem is that Autoeurope website doesn’t show a drop-off point in Fougeres. (You might call them to see if they have one that isn’t shown on the website.) I checked Fougères because it would be a neat place to visit if you have the time: it has a castle within a walled town.
Another choice, and I personally like this one, would be to leave MSM early, drive to Fougères, spend an hour or so there, then drive on to Alencon (a fairly large town, but not as big as Rennes). You could turn in your car there, get the train to LeMans and on to Paris. There is a train that leaves Alencon at 11:45 and arrives in Paris at 13:25 (same as above). Another leaves Alencon at 12:50 and arrives in Paris at 15:10 (1/2 hr. stop in LeMans). Driving time from MSM to Alencon is 2h20, so you would have to leave very early if you wanted to stop in Fougères. There may be other combinations that I haven’t found. Have fun in France!
The main train line from Brittany to Paris (TGV) runs from Brest, through Rennes, Laval, LeMans and on to Paris. If you don’t want to drive to one of those, you will need to find a town where you can turn in your car and get decent connections to one of those towns to pick up the TGV. A lot depends on how big a hurry you are in to get to Paris and how much driving you want to do.
I did a little checking for you, coordinating the info on the Autoeurope site and the SNCF site. You can turn in your car very near St. Michel in Avranches, but the train from there goes to Rennes to get the TGV and the whole trip takes about 4 hours (9:18 to 13:25). Another possibility: you can get a bus from Fougères to Laval and from there the TGV to Paris, total trip 2h50, leaving Fougères at 10:35 and arriving Paris at 13:25. Problem is that Autoeurope website doesn’t show a drop-off point in Fougeres. (You might call them to see if they have one that isn’t shown on the website.) I checked Fougères because it would be a neat place to visit if you have the time: it has a castle within a walled town.
Another choice, and I personally like this one, would be to leave MSM early, drive to Fougères, spend an hour or so there, then drive on to Alencon (a fairly large town, but not as big as Rennes). You could turn in your car there, get the train to LeMans and on to Paris. There is a train that leaves Alencon at 11:45 and arrives in Paris at 13:25 (same as above). Another leaves Alencon at 12:50 and arrives in Paris at 15:10 (1/2 hr. stop in LeMans). Driving time from MSM to Alencon is 2h20, so you would have to leave very early if you wanted to stop in Fougères. There may be other combinations that I haven’t found. Have fun in France!
Feb 25th, 2003, 05:15 PM
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Betty1 (are you Betty C from before?), thanks for doing so much of the work! I like your suggestions as well as those of Keith. I'm probably trying to "have it both ways": avoid hassle of finding drop off in large town and also not have to put luggage on and off too many trains! Right now I'm leaning towards Rennes train station. Thanks, all!
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