Trains to South of France

[georgeatasda]

Thinking of travelling from London to S. France, via Paris next Summer.

Has anyone done this? I 've heard you can book only 3 months in advance, not before - does that mean there's a mad panic to book tickets when that day dawns?!

Did anyone get any good deals? How did you find the journey? DCs will be 13 and 10 so hopefully they'll be happily plugged in to something.

Any recommendations of apartments on Cote d'Azur? (Near a station, shared pool and sunshine are key requirements).

Would be grateful for any tips.

Thank you!

there is a brill summer train that runs direct from St Pancras all the way to Avignon. Think it runs every Sat for 6 wks, there and back.

we've taken it twice. Both times booked our seats (got a 4 with a table) around the new year, I think

Tis fab unstressed way to travel (apart from chaos at Avignon picking up hire cars), wasn't all that spendy either

but maybe that's not far enough south for you?

We're doing it this summer - shall I report back? We've done UK to Italy by train before and it all worked out fine. And with DCs your ages, it should be a doddle - mine were 8 and 4 for the Italy trip.

Yes, you can only book 90 days in advance (I think), and the available booking dates are different for Eurostar and the trains through France, so you can't book everything together at the earliest possible date - but it all seems to have worked out OK for us (so far!).

One tip worth knowing about (I got it from my BIL) is that if you book early, first class on the leg through France is only a few euros more than standard - so the two DCs and I will be relaxing in first all the way down to the med and back for only 10 euros more (for all three of us together) each way. I also checked prices on a UK-based website and the French one, with a currency converter, as there are sometimes quite noticeable differences in price

Best tip I can give you is to have a good browse of the Man in Seat 61's website: seat61.com which has loads of really useful advice about the different routes, ways to book and so on.

Train to France is FAB with DCs. You can indeed only book three months in advance, and that's when the best deals are available, but one of the websites (RailEurope?) will send you an email alert when tickets for your dates become available.

Thank you ladies - wow I'm excited already - shame we have a year to wait!!!

Some great suggestions and yes please Expat, please do report back! Happy hols!

We've just been by train from UK to southern Germany via Paris. Very smooth, except for the train crash in the UK on the way home

Book each leg separately - much cheaper. And the Man in Seat 61 is the website or book you need.

Did it with DH 3 years ago when pg and it was wonderful. We broke the journey with 2 nights in Paris on the way down (which was wonderful too of course).

IIRC I booked with the Rail Europe site , it was all very easy and straightforward. We travelled in October and the tix from Paris to Monaco were one way £36 per person in first class and the journey time was 5 hours. The train was immaculate, double decker, all mod cons. Frankly blows all UK trains out of the water even if we were to pay rip off 1st class prices here!

Cannot recommend accommodation but Beaulieu-sur-Mer is beautiful and the train station is right in town, it has a nice beach, markets, port and lovely restaurants. Antibes is also great - busier and more touristy but more nightlife etc.

HTH

Enjoy!

Thank you Thank you Thank you everyone! It sounds like the way to travel!

We want to do a stop-off in Paris too, seaside so we get two hols in one.

Have been to Antibes before and liked it, but Beaulieu-sur-Mer sounds lovely so will look into that.