Venice-Paris, or Paris-Venice?
 

For a fall trip to France and Italy, I would like to travel by sleeper (train) between Venice and Paris. If I'm reading the timetable correctly, I would have to make a late night change of trains in Milan if I go Venice-Paris, but if I take the sleeper from Paris to Venice, it's smooth sailing all the way into Venice.

Anybody know if this is true? I plan to fly into one of those cities and fly home from the other.

are you sure it's a train change and not just a stop where you don't have to get off?

It's definitely not just a stop. It seems to indicate that I would have to board the Rome to Paris sleeper in Milan. At one time, the entire Venice car was hooked onto the Rome-Paris express or vice-versa, with no disembarking, but apparently that has changed. Can't understand why.

20:11 from Venezia Mestre arrives Paris Gare de Lyon 8:02.

No connections and it runs daily.

OOps - change that to arrives Paris Bercy station.

... and arrives at 08:23


The Venice - Gare de Lyon does have one change but you make up time by the 2nd connection being TGV.

I did Venice/Paris... We took a normal afternoon train to Milan, then changed on to the sleeper train early evening, which took us to Paris by early morning.

Thanks for your information. I'm going to hit the timetables again and try to nail this down. If I have to go to Mestre station to get the through sleeper to Paris instead of boarding it in Venice, I'll do it.

Hi Logan,

Did you know that you could fly between Venice VCE and Paris Orly on www.mayair.com?

((I))

The mestre station is 10 minute ride from SL station in Venice and trains run every 15 minutes or so. Also, I think it might be easier to fly into Venice and re-group from jet lag than doing Paris first.

I agree with the Venice first plan, rosexmke--because it is so much easier to fly home from Paris than from Venice, where you have to get up at the crack of dawn to take an expensive ride to the airport for that early flight. And that is why I hoped I was mistaken in reading that I can't take a change-free sleeper from Venice to Paris.
Apparently I WAS mistaken.

It may be easier to fly, but I've taken the night train from Paris to Venice, and it was one of the most memorable parts of our 23-day trip across Europe in 2003.

We slept in 2nd class and shared our berth with a teacher and his wife...they had a bunch of high school boys with them on a "field trip" to Verona, and those boys were not from Paris, so they had extremely limited (if any) contact with Americans and were absolutely fascinated with us. We had a lovely time practicing our French with them and sending them into peals of laughter...then listening to their attempts at English. It was unforgettable, and not something that would happen on the quicker flight.

The train stops in a few spots -- including a passport check at the time in Switzerland at midnight. But waking up at 9 a.m. in Venice was so neat...I walked out of the train station onto the first canal, and watched as a postcard popped to life.

Take the train.

Jules

I would visit Paris first, then Venice.
Not only because of the train connections but because I feel it would be much better to end your trip in Venice.

Paris is an amazing city with so much to see. It will however be tiring, hopping on and off the metro to see all the major sites is hard work!

Venice on the other hand is tiny in comparisson. It can be taken at a much slower pace and [as long as it's not ridiculously busy] is a wonderfully relaxing city to wander around.

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Venice Travelogue & Paris Photojournal
http://www.colin-julie.com/travel.htm