Direct trains from Paris to Caen this fall

I default to the German Bahn site for European trains when first checking things out in an unfamiliar country - but if you already use/know about the SNCF site, I see no point in even looking at the Bahn site. SNCF will be the most accurate.

Just because there's no direct train on a particular day, is there another afternoon train with a change that still works? I wouldn't cross off Caen from my itinerary just because the train will take an extra hour and require a change. There may also be direct buses instead of trains, if that is easier for you. I always prefer trains to buses when given the choice, unless the train is horribly expensive or horribly inconvenient or something.

I'm no expert on French trains, but I think they just don't have the October schedules loaded yet. Take a look at Wednesday, September 6. I see six possibilities between 12:10 and 6:09 PM. You should have decent options in October.

We've been watching the same route for September. From reading other forums, it is our understanding that they 'typically' post 90 days in advance, but that is not a hard/fast rule. Might be 60. Might be less. I also read that sometimes they delay posting when there might be repairs or service on the line, waiting to verify the final times. You also need to view the schedule in French. For some reason they will post ALL the (potential) routes on the French version, that may or may not be listed on the other language versions. The route we want is posted on the French version, but not yet available for purchase, so we're patiently waiting (and hoping) it is still valid.

I have seen direct trains to Rouen, Caen and Bayeux in the past. I searched last year when I went and at first didn't see direct trains beyond Rouen. Later I looked again and realized I had limited my search to a few hour window I wanted to travel and there were no direct trains in that window.

I noticed that some trains for mid-September (Paris to Lyon) were just loaded this week, but the train itself showed on the schedule before that. Good news, I got a very good price on the train that was just made available for booking.

I think they have had track maintenance in Normandie this summer that disrupted schedules. It may be preclude direct trains, because you have to add a connection to get around it. I'm not sure where you can get more information about disruptions other than the SCNF site?

Start by checking non-direct train details and open your search window.

• The Bahn site never sells tickets within France, thus the fares not available message.
• Many trains don't run on exactly the same schedules everyday, but DB will give you the info about when they do run. If you searched for your actual travel date, the results do apply for that date.
• However, the most likely issue, especially on the Saturday, is construction on the line, which has been going on for a while, usually on weekends. This can mean either that the direct train tickets are not opened for sale by SNCF until they are ready to commit to finishing the work, or it could mean that the direct train actually does not run that day. This type of construction detour is a detail that is better reflected by SNCF, and reconfirmed there closer to your travel date. DB doesn't seem to be in the loop about that.

Yeah. Sometimes even the SNCF computers don't know. On July 2nd I arrived at Paris Est for a connection to Troyes. I had bought the ticket just two days earlier at a staffed counter. But at Paris Est, my IC train wasn't on the departure board. It wasn't running that day, which was a Sunday. I was very lucky that there was a train an hour later and that the problem occurred on the third of the three trains I needed to take, not the first or second. I didn't check sncf.com before heading off to the station, so I don't know whether it would still have been showing the canceled train as running.

I have another annoying conection in Paris tomorrow (Saturday). We shall see what happens.