We returned from our 34 day trip in May...we're planning a trip to France and Lucerne...we'd like to use the trains as much as possible for this trip...how do you figure out which train station to use...is there an easy map or? Any recommendations or saved itineraries so we don't have to reinvent the wheel? Thanks!
Flying into Paris
then to Caen(rent car) and Normandy
Loire
Cognac
Bordeaux
Champagne
Lucerne
SNCF is the French train company. Using their website, to find a train, just type in the city you are starting from and the city you want to go to, as well as date of departure and a convenient time. Once you start the search, if a place has more than one train station, the website will tell you which station to go to. But you must use the name of a town or city. Champagne and Loire are regions- you need to be more specific than that.
Well, you have just about every compass direction from Paris covered. Those places are really spread out. How much time do you have? My husband and I have done all that, but in 3+ different trips. Are you interested in Bordeaux the city or the region?
Loire, Champagne, and Bordeaux are harder to cover by train/bus unless you plan on doing a lot of tours.
I have a very tattered map of the French train system. You could google it and print it out. You will likely determine as we did on our first trip that you have to go through Paris to get to many places by train.
France has a lot of cross country lines which are often far better served than is claimed.
Starting from Caen you would catch a TER to Le Mans. From there you can continue on either to Tours or to Nantes via Angers.
From Nantes down the West Coast line to Nantes, then on to Bordeaux.
So far we have avoided the in and out of Paris. From Bordeaux you may go through Paris, but there are direct TGV's to Champagne-Ardennes TGV for local trains in the region. To find those mess around with SNCF Connect, and generally find the Cross Country services mentioned above. Today I see one at 0854 arrive 1255 for instance.
So the whole of this can fairly easily be done without once touching Paris again, if you don't want to.
From the Champagne country I would go to Strasbourg, switch trains to Basel, switch trains for Lucerne- total journey time 4 hours to 4:30.
This is one instance of a map- https://about-france.com/france-rail-map-hi-res.htm
