Hoping some of the more seasoned travelers can help me navigate to find the site or sites for train travel from Bayeux to Bordeaux without going through Paris. I realize this will be a longer trip but would like to avoid switching stations in Paris by taking the slower route. I am having difficulty finding where to book this.
As a secondary question, which sites do people recommend for train travel booking?
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
Any alternate route seems to requires at least 3 connections. There are regional trains departing from Caen to either Le Mans or Tours. Taking one of those all the way doesn't necessarily show up in schedules trying to recommend the fastest connections, so you'd have to piece it together separately. Direct trains to Bordeaux don't depart from either location, but from St Pierre-des-Corps. Slower trains from Tours to Bordeaux are much slower.
If you're really focusing on slower regional trains, then there's no need to book ahead.
Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the Deutsche Bahn train schedule link and tips for using it (not to buy tickets). www.oui.sncf is the French rail site to buy tickets, or multiple other vendors sell at least some of them and may be easier to get credit card approval, (such as RailEurope.com, Trainline.eu, Loco2.com).
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Pete, Your problem is not which site, but which route. You can use "any good rail timetable site", like SNCF or the easier-to-use DB site: https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml
All these sites are programmed to find the quickest route, as in "all roads lead to Rome", "All French rail lines lead to Paris".
You cannot say "not via Paris", you either need to specify the correct "via location, or do the query in two stages to force the route you want.
There is a map of the French rail network here: https://about-france.com/photos-ext/rff-map.jpg
it looks like from Bayeux, you need to go Caen, then south to Argentan, Le Mans and Tours where you pick up the main line from Paris to Bordeaux.
I did a query on the DB site for Bayeux to Bordeaux-St-Jean at 09:00 next Wednesday and it indeed routed me via Paris in 6½ hours.
I then repeated the query, clicked on [Further Options] and "Add intermediate stops" and added "Le Mans" as an intermediate stop. It gave me the following as the first option in just over 8 hours:
Bayeux dep 09:22 TER52616 Caen arr 09:38
Caen dep 10:46 TER57210 Tours arr 13:53
Tours dep 14:08 TGV 8335 Poitiers arr 14:59
Poitiers dep 15:36 TGV 8485 Bordeaux-St-Jean arr 17:26
Does that help?
Depending on date and time of day, you will get different results.
Once you have decided which trains you want, you need to go to SNCF or Trainline to buy tickets, the DB site does not sell French tickets.
Posted by
Paris
6893 posts
Hi,
The route that avoids Paris "only" requires two connections, not three, and you can find it on Oui SNCF if you specify "via Saint Pierre des Corps"
Bayeux -> Caen
Caen -> St Pierre des Corps (near Tours)
St Pierre des Corps -> Bordeaux
But the connections are rarely good, and if something goes wrong en route, there's no plan B. I would advise going through Paris, it isn't too hard on that route; Paris Saint-Lazare to Paris Montparnasse is fairly quick by metro line 13, or cab.