Taking car to south of France on train

[HappyPrince]

Has anyone done this? Is it stupidly expensive? Places to stay when we get there? Thoughts please! Thank you

It iS stupidly expensive. Driving in France is usually fine. What sort of holiday are you after? Beach, culture, shopping?

We took the car on the Motorail from Calais to Nice one year (I don't think the trains run from Calais any more) on the plus side you do wake up in the South of France but on the minus side I was travel sick and so was DD1 even though we never have been before. It was a bit of a grim journey and I was very glad that we were driving back up and not getting the train again.

We stayed with keycamp when we got there in Frejus and it was a good base for exploring the whole coast.

We did eurostar(taxi drop off), then sncf 1st class paris to avignon and car hirethis year.The trick is to research the date the tickets are released for each stage and book immediately they are released. This is imperative as the prices go up by the minute/ hour due to there being a limited number of seats at each price range similar to budget airlines such as easyjet.

It is much cheaper to change in Paris rather than direct eurostar, although you will have to get a taxi between stations (easy to queue for 10-15 mins at the taxi rank right outside the station). You won't be able to book the two trains at the same time as they are released on different dates so need to look at timings carefully. See the man at seat 61 website.The 1st class travel in France was very relaxing and comfortable and cheaper than the standard class eurostar.

There is the luberon or the alpilles area close to avignon with lots of rental places and both very pretty with lots to see.

We've done the driving, but in school holidays the traffic jams increase the travel time so much. Also flown but not the most fun. We all enjoyed the rail travel and are planning to continue with rail travel where possible in europe.

Thanks all. We are thinking of exploring the Cevennes National Park so guess Montpelier would be the closest station. I love the idea of being on a train, relaxing with a glass of wine and a croque monsieur! Frankincese, your journey sounds wonderful, if a little tricky to book. Will check out man at 61. Thanks

Not really worth it any more after they stopped running trains from Calais. By the time you've got the station in Paris and done all the logistics, you'd be half way through France anyway.

Why not just take the train and then hire a car. It will probably cost less. You can get to Montpellier using just Two trains with an easy change in Brussels.

We have now decided to drive. Any advice on places to stop along the way with a 10 and a 6 year-old would be great!

We went to the Dordogne last year. We stopped at disneyland Paris then an auberge near Limoges for one night which was fine and had a nice restaurant and pool. I can look it up if you like, it was just literally somewhere to sleep.

The Sarlat area is gorgeous and not too far from the motorway, it might make a good stop off?

On the way back we stayed in the Loire Valley and visited Chambord. Then we headed to Paris itself for a couple of nights. Our kids were younger (8/4) and it was fine. Longest journey was Paris to Limoges which was about 4 hours I think.

We stopped at the novotel Reims a couple of years ago, which was reasonable with the kids able to share our room and a pool for the kids to have a splash in to relax. Troyes looks like a good stopover also.

Really for a stopover you want to be near the motorway for the onward journey and in school holidays you need to get up earlier (we do 4.30am ) to avoid the inevitable jams once you hit Lyon as everyone heads South.
The services are also rammed from 11.30 for lunch stops(literally no car parking spaces),so try stopping earlier then press on. Now when we travelled sans enfants out of school holidays,it was a different matter of uncrowded services and hotel stopovers chosen for the menu and setting.