We will be traveling by train from Tours to Avignon after dropping off a rental car in Tours (hopefully there is a rental car agency in the train station?) When I looked on Trainline, I see that we will need to go back to Paris from Tours, get from Gare de Lyon to Gare Monparnesse, and catch the TGV to Avignon. This seems horribly stressful to me. Is there a simpler way of traveling from Tours to Avignon? How much time should I allow to get from one Paris station to another - it looks like they are on opposite side of Paris. It would be in the late morning or early afternoon so I assume traffic would be bad. Also wondering if there is a rental car agency at the Avignon station as we plan to rent a car there too. Also look like when we arrive in Avignon, we take another short train to get to the Avignon city. Is this necessary or can we just rent a car when we first arrive at Avignon TGV. Please help - I am so confused and think this will be really stressful.
PS - while in Loire, we will be staying in Amboise. Is there another city near by with a train station or is Tours the best.
Renee
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Hi, Renee. This was my note to you yesterday, specifically to avoid the situation above:
I hope you're aware of this once-daily option that bypasses Paris. The regional train ticket probably can't be booked as early as the TGV and doesn't need to be.
Tours dep 14:18 TER 6322 Train Express Regional Direction: St-Pierre-des-Corps 2nd class only
St-Pierre-des-Corps arr 14:23
Transfer time 9 min.
St-Pierre-des-Corps dep 14:32 TGV 5334 TGV Duplex Direction: Marseille-St-Charles
Avignon TGV arr 18:43
You now specify Amboise, but the regional train connection will be similar. Regional trains run 1 or 2x/hour from Amboise to St-Pierre-des-Corps.
However, I don't see much benefit in taking this train right in between two, separate car rentals. It will probably be cheaper to keep the same car for as long as you need it. But yes, there is car rental at the Avignon TGV station and/or there is a connecting train into the Avignon Centre station.
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7161 posts
Is there a reason you want to return the rental car at Tours and rent another one at Avignon rather than just keeping the car and driving from Tours to Avignon? Since it's about the same amount of time, and maybe easier, to drive that route as it is to take the train, I would just do that. However, if you don't want to do that, you certainly can rent a car when you get to Avignon. There is a short train extension from the TGV station to the station in the town center but if you are arriving at the TGV station and want to rent a car, you should do it right there, that's where all the rental car agencies are.
EDIT: I was typing while Laura was responding, sorry for the duplication of information.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
And if it's important to you, the Avignon TGV car rentals seem to have beaucoup automatic transmission cars.
Posted by
Florida (previously California)
3990 posts
rmk1121, I see the word stressful twice in your initial post and this itinerary really does not have to be stressful. As Laura mentioned, you can bypass Paris with a direct train. In addition to the train that she mentioned, there is a 4:31 train that connects in Lyon and usually some early in the morning. And if none of those work with your schedule, changing train stations in Paris does not have to be "horribly stressfu"l if you allow yourself enough time by taking one of the trains with a long connection time and relaxing and realizing that if you miss your connection, SNCF will put you on the next one and there are relatively frequent trains from Paris to Avignon. I'd have to save a lot of money on the car rental by keeping it in order to want to do the drive from Tours to Avignon. That is a 7.5 hour drive in perfect conditions and the 2:32 train gets you there in a little over 4 hours and the trains that go through Lyon take a little over 4.5 hours and IME the odds of a delay on the road are greater than the odds of a delay on the trains.
Where are you staying in Avignon? In the centre of Avignon? There are rental car locations at the TGV station and in town but the TGV station location has a better selection of cars IMO. If you decide to go to Avignon centre, it will be really easy. Just take the shuttle trains which have a schedule that coordinates with the TGV. It's not a big deal. Now, if you think that this will be stressful because you have lots of luggage to move around, that is something completely different.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
Looks like the drive would be 7-8 hours behind the wheel, not including breaks for food etc. The train is quicker even if it does go through Paris.