TVG to Avignon

The 12:27 sounds about right.

Given your stated interest in clearing customers, I suspect you wrote this in a hurry and didn't really proofread it.

But, having acknowledged that, I thought I'd note that it's not TVG -- it's TGV, which is French for Train à Grande Vitesse (high speed train). It might make it easier for you to communicate.

I mention that because when I first moved to France I would occasionally mess up the letters for SNCF (the French rail authority), calling it SCNF, and people had no idea what I was talking about. You'd think they would, but pile that error on top of my thick American accent and, well, communication wasn't happening.

Have a good trip. I hope the road reconstruction work in central Avignon is more or less finished and the garbage strike is settled by the time you get there.

Yes, Clearing Customs and TGV. Thanks!

No problem. If you're going to buy some wine, may I suggest a nice Côtes du Rhône (coat dew roan)? My (and probably a lot of people's) go-to Rhône red is a Côtes du Rhône produced by E. Guigal, south of Lyon. It's a reliable choice, usually in the 7€ to 9€ range. Here's what the bottle looks like, with the year in the red circle above the shoulder: http://www.lcbo.com/content/dam/lcbo/products/259721.jpg/jcr:content/renditions/cq5dam.web.1280.1280.jpeg

I believe they're selling the 2014 right now.

Granted, I'm no wine expert and I suspect any reader who is would be chuckling over their Chateauneuf-du-Pape right now, but there it is.

This is a quibble but fits the tone of the thread: "Customs" has become a generic term for border entry. But it is security and immigration processes that take the time. The customs check is a walk-through at a door marked "nothing to declare" (barring an occasion spot-check of luggage). Anyhow your plan sounds easy. If there isn't a wine shop or grocery store around Gare de Lyon you could try Place d'Aligre. There are several wine shops, including a branch of the Nicolas chain, around the market. But I'd ask the taxi to drop me at the adjacent Le Baron Rouge, 1 rue Théophile Roussel, a neighbourhood institution. It's tiny, crowded, sells wine by the jug out of casks as well as bottles, and serves light lunches. You should have time to enjoy yourself and then walk to the gare, half a kilometer or about 15 minutes if you don't get distracted by the neighbourhood. Seating in the gare itself is painfully hard to find. Boarding the train starts about 20 minutes before departure.
The ride to Avignon is also pleasant, at head-spinning speed. The TGV station is on the outskirts of the walled city with a five-minute shuttle into the centre.
lebaronrouge.net

Southam that is exactly the info I'm looking for. Sounds like we'd have sufficient time to clear anything they throw at me, get luggage, and still sneak in a quick lunch. Great advice. Now if the plane is late, can't account for that. Probably best to get a flexible ticket.

Hope this isn't for the holiday weekend of May 28-21!

What Holiday are you referring to?

Whit Monday -- May 21st

No, we should be fine, thanks though, was pretty sure I check all holidays. Is that a major one?