Auto train in France

[Mung]

Has anyone used it?
I am thinking of coming back from Toulouse with the autotrain and wondered if it was worth it. They suggest catching a sleeper night train, but with two DCs under 3, I dont fancy it.
Any advice/tips?

Sorry haven't heard of autotrain - is this motorrail? I haven't used the motorrail service but may be able to help with french sleeper trains..we have just returned from skiing and used an overnight sleeper service which worked well..we booked a first class couchette with two sets of bunks- sleeps 4..as long as you don't have to share a sleeper cabin with anyone else it is a fairly good way of travelling..our children aged 5 and 2 slept well and there was lots of luggage space. The thing we found to be difficult with train travel was moving around between stations in paris with 2 children, 7 pieces of luggage and a pushchair!!..had quite a big taxi and left luggage bill by the end.

Thanks Katebee. I have struggled myself before in Paris with luggage and pushchairs.

I was worried about the couchettes, as DD is still in a cot. Can you see any way around that?

One other thing...online I went through the whole booking process and couldn't work out if the fact that I had booked a 1st class couchette meant that it was solely for us. How did you book?

oh and yes...autotrain is like motorail, its just that autotrain goes from Paris and runs all year whereas motorail runs from Calais in the summer months.

Hello Mung
I put the children on the bottom bunks and asked the SNCF staff for a rail (like a bunk rail) on their beds to stop them falling out. However my daughter moved into a bed at home at 2 and was almost 3 when we travelled so she had gone past the stage of trying to climb out..If you think your DD might fall out I suppose the bunks would be just wide enough for you to sleep on a bottom bunk next to her..maybe if you phone rail europe they would be able to advise you on the arrangements for younger children. I booked through rail europe online. However when booking online there seemed no way of ensuring that one had the couchette to oneself so I ended up buying four tickets and am now trying to get reimbursed for my daughter (who should have travelled free). Maybe the best way would be to check online until the prices come out and then phone straightaway to book and by booking on the phone you will hopefully be able to ensure no one else is in the compartment. That's interesting to know about autotrain as I didn't realise there was a year round motorail option in France.
If you do go ahead with the train and need the bedrails try to ask a member of staff before boarding the train as despite being in first class no member of staff came down the train at all when we travelled.

Thanks Katebee. I requested a 'call back' from Rail Europe at the begining of last week and I still haven't heard from them. I did all my research from the SNCF web site in the end.