Venice to Paris?

How long do you have in between? Do you want to just do 1 night somewhere, or do you want to take 3-4 nights? If I was doing it, I'd probably go to Milan area for a night, then on to Nice/Avignon and take the high speed train from Avignon, but it would help to know how many nights you are setting aside to get from Venice to Paris...

Hi, Betsy.

The Loire Valley is not really on the way. Most trains go via Paris where you have to change stations before heading back south to the Loire. There's one exception, which works if you're stretching this out over several days. TGV #5368-9 departs Marseille about 12:30 p.m. with stops at Aix, Avignon, and Lyon, to destination St.-Pierre-des-Corps. From there, it's a 20-minute connection to Amboise.

Of course you could also route via Milan and Switzerland. If you only wanted to get directly between Venice and Paris, we'd recommend a budget flight (www.skyscanner.com).

How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it.

We've flown EasyJet on a couple of occasions on that route. From Venice Marco Polo they fly into both CDG and ORY in about an 1.5 hours.

The Loire is not really an option en route - you are best to travel there through Paris.
Your most efficient routing is ...
Venice > Milan > Switzerland > Paris
TGV Lyria offers a choice of options from Switzerland to Paris.
http://www.tgv-lyria.com/en/booking/timetables-and-fares/routes

Venice to Verona to Milan to Geneva to Lyon to Paris seems pretty direct by train. I assume you are planning on several nights for this. You'll probably need to go through Milan, so spend a night there. I don't know if Geneva's worth stopping, but you could go from Milan to Lyon with less than 6 hours on the train. See Burgundy.

It really depends on how long your trip is and how long you've allowed for transiting time. If you've got a few days set aside and you're going to slowly travel over there with time to see a few things on the way that's one thing - but if you're just looking to get from Paris to Venice in a day or so, I'd fly that route. It's quick and easy - I've considered other options between those cities but both times I've done that specific transfer we just ended up for the simplicity of flying into Orly from Venice.

I did this trip in 2005:

Paris (3 nights)
Beaune (2 nights)
Annecy (2 nights)
Arles (2 nights)
Nice (2 nights)
Vernazza (4 nights)
Venice (3 nights)

All by train - we had a great time. The Loire is better seen with a car than by train.

-Matt

Thank you for all the ideas! At this point we have not made much of a plan beyond those two cities and that we will have probably 7-8 days to spend including the time in Venice and Paris.

7-8 days including Venice and Paris? You barely have time for Venice and Paris and, if you're absolutely committed to those two cities, you should fly.

Agreed with Valerie.

The train from Venice to Paris is nice, especially if you want to explore towns like Padua, Verona and the Lakes region.
Otherwise, it will take you too much time to get from Venice to Paris by train, so I recommend you cut to the chase and use EasyJet, which is a cheap flight and will get you to Orly airport in 90 minutes.
The Loire valley is in the opposite direction, so you'd have to start over from Paris if you wanted to visit this region.

What Valerie said.

end of story.

I'll second Chani, backing up Kim, agreeing with Valerie.

We used Air France and flew from Venice to Paris. Venice airport is very nice & the flight was quick, convenient and not very expensive. If I had limited time, I would fly.