I am travelling this May and have read in the RS France book there are 4 hour TGV train rides daily. Looking at both the Rail Europe and SNCF websites, no 4 hour train rides are listed - just 1 or 2, 5+ hour trains. Since my trip is in May, my experience is that those trains would have been posted by now. Does anyone have any insight into this?
Thanks!
Posted by
Loire Valley
766 posts
How old is the book? If it was written based on information available before mid February, it's a guess.
Guidebooks are guides, not gospels.
Posted by
OP
20 posts
October 2022
Posted by
Loire Valley
766 posts
Problem is that it's a guess based on last year's timetable, assuming this year's will be the same.
Train timetables are all over the place at the moment. It may be that more trains will be announced, it may be that no-one was using the service so it was dropped.
Posted by
Sweden
6421 posts
That seems like a pretty bad guide book if it makes such claims, and you really need to take guide books with a pinch of salt as information can change.
But, the direct Avignon-Bacelona trains have not been running since before the pandemic, although the plan is to resume them this year.
Posted by
OP
20 posts
Thanks, Simon. Since this is a new post, I hope to learn more.
Posted by
OP
20 posts
I have taken that train personally.
Posted by
Loire Valley
766 posts
The problem with guidebooks is that although they are published annually, the information isn't necessarily updated annually.
The Michelin Green Guide for 2009 (I haven't checked the latest, but I'd assume it is the same) describes our village as "nestled in the vineyards", but the last vineyards around the village disappeared before the second world war.
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA
515 posts
I have taken train from Barcelona to Paris which stopped in Avignon. The total train ride was 6.5 hours, and I have taken Paris to Avignon several times, and I think that is about 2.5 hours. So 4 hours is about right from Barcelona to Avignon.
The other thing is that France has frequent train strikes and those might affect time tables.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10208 posts
I'm not sure why you are having difficulties finding this. There are trains running. You take a local from Avignon to Nîmes center and pick up the TGV to Barcelona there. I used SNCF Connect and a dummy date of May 16.
I would take an early TER (local) to Nîmes, see the Roman sites and catch an afternoon train to Barcelona. IDK about lockers though. The TER are open unreserved seats. The BCA train is day, time, seat specific.