We will land in CDG and need to train to Tours to pick up a tour. My question , is Tours train station and the Saint Pierre station the same? We will arrive in CDG from Milan and it doesn’t indicate which terminal on our tickets so not sure where we would get the train to Tours. Any thoughts on which terminal the train would leave from and would the SNCF site be best or the OIU site for tickets. I’m understand 120 days out for booking is best which is in a few days for us. Thanks
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7765 posts
St. Pierre des Corps is a modern TGV station that is NOT the same station as conventional trains in Tours. But it is the accepted gateway to the Loire valley from CDG and Paris. If you were hoping to, say, walk to a hotel in Tours, then this answer may be important. But I don't think it is otherwise a negative. We had our car rental reservation just steps from the St. Pierre des Corps station, and it worked out fine. However, the rental office closed strictly at Noon for a 2-hour lunch, which can impact morning arrivals at CDG, as it did us. You should find rental office hours online if you book directly with a car rental company. I don't know about discounters and consolidators like Expedia.
I will also note that the cigarette lighter fuse turned out to be burned out, and I did not notice it until we were miles away from the rental station. So we went back, since we needed navigation power for our entire visit. But that has nothing to do with Tours versus St. Pierre des Corps!
Posted by
Loire Valley
815 posts
Where do you get the 120 day figure from? Tickets are currently available for travel up to 11 September. There's no telling when the autumn tickets will be released. That could be as late as the end of July.
4 trains a day travel direct from CDG to Saint Pierre des Corps. More TGV services are available from Gare Montparnasse, some of which continue on to Tours. There are also intercity trains which leave from Paris Austerlitz which serve both stations. The TGVs at CDG leaves from near terminal 2, and there are any number of signs at all terminal that will point you in the right direction
Posted by
OP
Saskatchewan
307 posts
I got the 120 days out from this forum. As we are landing in CDG, we are not looking for trains leaving from Paris, just the ones who go from Paris through CDG to Tours. As we are being picked up and driven to our hotel in Tours, it looks like the best bet would be a ticket to Tours station. Would the SNCF or OIU site for tickets.? I was doing some looking and it says Oct 4 forward are unavailable which leads me to believe the 120 days out may be correct.
Posted by
OP
Saskatchewan
307 posts
this is what I got from the forum… advice about getting the SNCF App to buy your train tickets. The App seems to work more smoothly and it speeds up the online ticket-buying process. www.SNCF-connect.com is where you’ll get the best deals for the TGV trains throughout France by buying your ticket 120 days ahead of your travel date. This is when the “Prem’s “ tickets first go on sale online at discounts of 70% to 80% off the regular TGV fares. This quickly can save you hundreds of euros even if you’re only going to a few destinations in France.