My wife and I are wondering (before we wander) about the possibility of going by train from Tours, France, to Beaune, France, by train but directly in the reverse route Rick listed in France, 2012 tour guide.
Is this still possible this March?
Posted by
Washington DC
27149 posts
Unfortunately, the options are not great. Most of the Tours-Beaune trips not only require a transfer in Paris (and often elsewhere as well), they require you to change train stations in Paris. That's a bit of a pain if you have luggage with you.
However, there's quite a variety of routings available, and some do avoid Paris entirely, though sometimes at the price of an annoyingly-long layover elsewhere. You may like the 11:57 AM departure that gets you to Beaune at 5:28 PM after a change at Nevers (66-minute layover).
I like to use the Deutsche Bahn website for researching schedules, but to compare fares you'll need to go to the SNCF website.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
5612 posts
France is on a kind of spoke system with trains radiating out from Paris. We visited this area with a car. It was nice to have a car for Loire. We enjoyed the drive from Beaune thru Dijon to Amboise. There are some interesting places to stop including Noyers. Also the route from Beaune to Dijon is very pretty, Route de Grand Crus
Posted by
Florida, USA
12172 posts
Like Jules said, in France it's hard to get from one place to another without first getting pulled back through Paris.
I wanted to get from Amboise to Chartres but had the same issue (so visited later as a day trip from Paris).
If you don't want to rent a car, people in France told me about a ride sharing option called Blah Blah Car. I couldn't find the app to add to my phone so haven't tried it.