Train from Paris to Avignon end of May
 

Thanks to all of my fellow fodorites for your tips on our upcoming trip to Provence area end of May. I just wanted to ask about the train. It seems that it's too early to actually book but i wanted to get a sense of the schedule. I am seeing fares for about $200 pp round trip which would mean about $400 or so total for my husband and I. I thought that was a bit high but then again, maybe it isn't. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Maybe the times that i looked at were all sold out on economy fares? Not going to worry about it if that's what it is, but was just wondering if that sounded right.

Thanks very much.

The cheapest, nonrefundable prems tickets will be available on www.tgv-europe.com/en 3 months before your travel date.

IdTGV tickets for May are currently available for sale on idtgv.com. The idTGV schedule is more limited, but perhaps it will work for you. If not, check on the Prem's fares in late February for your trip in late May.

I generally spend about 40€ each way for a trip to Avignon. And that is often for 1st class.

Hi mik,

>...I am seeing fares for about $200 pp round trip...<

That sounds very high.

Where are you looking?

((I))

I was looking on raileurope.com which is what I got when i googled tgv.

Thank you. I thought it sounded very high.

seat61.com/france best tips for you wait for a prem

Good personal experience a beautiful restored nunnery 4 star Clarion Cloitre Saint Louis Hotel is a 4 Star Hotel in ...
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...l-171346-2.cfm
Nice place to stay close to station you can walk.
booking.com

Get off the Raileurope site immediately. Highest prices around.

Go to www.voyages-sncf.com or the tgv site given above. Wait until 3 months from your travel date, go on the site, fill out the form, and pick PREM fares (lowest possible, but nonrefundable and nonexchangeable). You should pay around 40-50 euro at most.

There are countless threads here on Fodors with information about PREM fares and using the SNCF websites.

Terrific information. Thank you so much.

If the train times work for you, the iDTGV fares are usually better than the PREM fares. Here's the link for the English language iDTGV site:

http://www.idtgv.com/en/

This site is easy to navigate and you can print your tickets. As mentioned previously, tickts for May are now on sale.

The next best option would probably be the www.tgv-europe.com/en . On this site, the PREM fare tickets go on sale three months before the date of travel.

iDTGV tickets and PREM fare tickets are non-refundable.

For Paris-Avignon the cheapest Prem's fare on regular TGVs is €25.00. The cheapest fare on iDTGVs is €24.90.

I'm about to hijack this thread based on a comment just made by Maine GG -- apologies in advance, but this is something others might want info about as well, and certainly the OP.

I get weekly offers from TGV ever since I booked PREM tickets online. And to the OP, the PREM tickets prices are GREAT and you can print from the computer!

So I am very intriged by iDTGV. I just looked it up and saw there are 2nd class tickets from 19 euro from Paris to Nice.

The best part is everything is done online, and you can print your tickets (like with the PREMS) from your computer.

So . . . is there anything additional I need to do -- do I need to sign up separately with idTGV or does the fact that I'm already signed up to get promos from TGV make it unnecessary for me to separately sign up.

Thanks for any info!

On the idTGV site, you can create an account (which streamlines the purchase of tickets). On your profile page, there is a box to check if you want promo e-mails. Also, you can like idTGV on Facebook, where they post regularly, and follow them on twitter.

The idTGV site has an English language option, which is very convenient. Another nice feature is that you can select your specific seats. (I am traveling with a group of friends who bought tickets at different times, but we were able to select seats in the same car.). Their customer service also responded quickly to an e-mail I sent.

For our trip, first class tickets cost only a few euros more than second class. I think the second class idTGV tickets were very close to the cost of the cheapest prems ticket, but the first class idTGV tickets were much cheaper than prems tickets. .

But be aware that despite several attempts, I could not use my Capital One MasterCard on the idTGV website last month. Cap One declined the first transaction (even though I had a travel notification on my account). After that, the transactions would go through to capOne and decrease my credit limit, but I didn't get any confirmation from idTGV; idTGV was declining to complete the transaction but not telling me. After several tries a few days apart with the CapOne card, I used a brand new Visa card and my purchase went right through. I had no problem buying tickets on the SNCF site with my CapOne card a year ago, so I was not expecting any problem with the idTGV tickets.

I bought two iDTGV first class tickets from Paris to Lyon last year for €26 each. On my first attempt to purchase them with my Capital One MasterCard, the payment was refused. The next morning it went right through. Why? Who knows.

If you click on my name, you can read about our iDTGV trip in detail in my trip report. I would certainly use iDTGV again.

I am actually in the middle of booking on the idtgv website and it's still saying processing payment...it's been about five minutes. I guess I will contact customer service.

Thanks for the info though. I'm sure I will sort it out. All great tips!

All set! It was actually my error with my credit card number. You may have already addressed this, but now that I have my printed tickets do I need to anything before boarding the train?

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

no, there is nothing you have to do iof you have your ticket and it has a seat number and car number on it. YOu know you have to go to that one.

Just show your printed ticket to the iDTGV agent who will scan the QR code.

iDTGV sent me an email two days before my scheduled train reconfirming the reservation details and advising that boarding would be 20 minutes prior to departure and would close 5 minutes prior to departure. At the Gare de Lyon, our train was a good 5 minutes walk from the waiting area. I was glad we had done a reconaissance of the station layout before the platform/quai was announced.

Thanks all for the iDTGV info! Perfect!

what is Id TGV?

TTT

Just saw your post and wanted to add something that you may not be aware of - several years ago my family took the train from Paris to Avignon. There were four of us and we never left our luggage alone. Somehow when we arrived at our rental house in Gordes my adult daughter didn't have her suitcase. New things for the trip as well as what she had purchased in Paris was gone. We went to Marseille to check for the luggage but it was gone. We don't know when or how it happened but just a tip to beware of. It certainly would not prevent me from taking the train again but certainly has changed the way I pack and how much luggage I travel with.

iDTGV cars are cars on regular TGVs that are set aside to be either quiet cars (designated "zen") or lively cars (designated "zap"). Booking on iDTGVs can be done up to four months in advance. For regular TGVs the limit is three months in advance.

I just checked the website devoted to iDTGV and thank you TimS for noting the advance booking details. Actually, the TGV website claims iDTGV can be booked SIX months in advance, but when I went to do that, it only allowed 4 1/2 months in advance, so you were closer to the real time than the TGV website.

Benitakaren -- could you explain the details a little more? If you took the train to Avignon and never left it alone, how come you didn't notice it was gone at Avignon? How did you get to Gordes from Avignon? And how does Marseille factor into it? Not grilling you, just trying to picture in my mind what happened to avoid the same problem in future. Thanks!

<<we never left our luggage alone. Somehow when we arrived at our rental house in Gordes my adult daughter didn't have her suitcase. New things for the trip as well as what she had purchased in Paris was gone. We went to Marseille to check for the luggage but it was gone. We don't know when or how it happened >>

If you never left your luggage alone, how did this happen? How did you leave the train and go to Gordes before you noticed? Why did you go to Marseilles? How do you even know you lost the suitcase on the train? Something's really peculiar about this story.

FWIW, I've taken hundreds of train rides in France and usually store my luggage unlocked at the end of the railcar I'm sitting in and never had a problem at all.

I will be going from Paris to Avignon in May and want to go by train. What am I doing wrong??--I checked the idtgv and the voyages sncf sites and am coming up with $123 a person and 88 euros per person. I saw one train with a low price but it leaves at night. Is there something I am supposed to click on to find the lower rates?

drkathej,

When the allotted number of discount fare tickets are sold for a specific departure date and time, all that will be left are full fare tickets. What's your travel date?

bookmark

Bookmark

Thursday May 17. Wondering if we should just get the car in Paris and drive to Avignon. What do you think?

You're not doing anything wrong. Paris-Avignon is a very popular route. You aren't finding low fares because the cheapest discount fare tickets are already gone for 17 May. For example, I found a fare of €25.00 for 27 May on voyages-sncf.com.

If you're going to spend a few days in Avignon and won't need a car until you leave there, then taking the train still might be cheaper than paying for rental days you won't need and for parking. If you're going to use Avignon as a base for day trips by car, then picking up the car in Paris might be the better choice. You'll have to do a cost analysis to determine what's best for you.

I am trying to book on the iDTGV site which seems awesome but i can't find the Paris CDG TGV station in the list. The only three paris options are Gard de Lyon, Est, and Montparnasse.

What am I doing wrong?

It seemed on another site it might be called Roissy ... I don't see that in the list either. Thanks for the help!

iDTGV fares are not available on all possible routes. There are iDTGV trains to/from Roissy but if when using www.idtgv.com you do not see Roissy/Charles de Gaulle TGV 2 as an option, then there are no iDTGV trains on the date selected or from the city you have selected.

Thanks. I booked tickets to Avignon $123 per person. When I checked and saw that it is a 6 hour drive, it made the decision much easier.

annie2011,

What is your destination and what is your travel date?

Just looked at this site from last year trying to remember how to book tickets from Paris to Avignon without being sent to the Rail Europe site, Just noticed that there were several comments about my daughter's lost luggage from Paris to Avignon. As I don't want StCirq and Surfergirl to think I am a nut case,

I will try to explain what happened. As I said before I carried too much luggage and am now in the process of looking at my clothes for our May trip with a very different prospective. Last trip, four years ago, arrived at Gare, by cab driver and immediately a man came up to help with luggage. Our driver seemed to give him the luggage so I thought he probably helped people with luggage and we just had to tip him. While we were waiting for our train we stood beside all our luggage. He stood away from us but within sight. When it was time to board he came over and helped us with our luggage. By the way, I am a neurotic baggage counter when I travel and counted our luggage many times at train station and when we were boarding. Had the correct count.

Now this is where the fun begins. After luggage on board we tipped the guy, he wanted more so we gave extra euros. My husband is convinced that the luggage was put in two places. And we inadvertantly left one of the pieces on the train. I am positive that when we were on the platform I recounted all the luggage and the count was correct. Another scenario is that we had all our luggage and while we were loading the car we left a piece of luggage. Didn't notice lost piece until we were settling in the house in Gordes. We called house agent and she called the train station for us to help. Now exactly why we went to the Marseille train station I don't know. Except there was alot of lost there that we saw, just not ours.

So there is what happened. I have read all the wonderful people on Fodor's that can take a 21 inch suitcase for several months. I am not one of you, but wish I could be. But my husband and I will take one bag each with a small carryon. We will each be responsible for our own luggage and we will not take any help from street train porters. Hope this answers your inquiries.