Nice to Barcelona?

Given the geography of the French riviera it always takes around 12 hours by train to get to Barcelona from Nice. Flying would be easier but there are no direct flights, you'd have to change in Rome, Paris, Zurich, Munich... By car it would only take 6 hours (net driving time)

you can take the train from Nice to Montpellier stay over night in Montpellier and catch the early Talgo train out of Montpellier to Barcelona.
It goes through the mountains, is direct no changing trains.
Or I also believe there is a later train not sure of the time from montpellier to Barcelona as well if you wanted to do it all in the same day.

If you are trying to look up the schedule and book seats this route for some reason is only available about two months before so you can put in the dates earlier just to check the routes or check SNCF as it is listed there but you can not book that route through them because it is a spanish train.

Timewise, your shortest budget airline route through Paris would be Nice-Orly on easyJet and then Orly-Barcelona on easyJet.

If you want to spend part or most of the day in Paris, you could fly to either Orly or CDG on easyJet and then from either CDG to Barcelona on Vueling or Orly to Barcelona on easyJet.

Has anyone ever flown easyjet or Vuelling? How are they?
Cheers

I've flown easyjet several times between Naples and Venice, and I've been pleased with the airline. It's definitely no frills. Count on paying 2-3 euro for a bottle of water if you need a drink, but assuming you don't need anything, it's definitely an easy and economical way to get around. The seats have a decent amount of legroom and the flight attendants are fairly personable. Also, if you check luggage, look at their rates carefully. It's usually 10 euro or so to check a bag, which is reasonable, considering how cheap the tickets are, but if you go over the weight allowance, they'll kill you on the extra weight fees.

Andy...flown both, and like both, although Vueling is possibly a little nicer. But, as already mentioned, watch for charges for baggage, etc, and go right to the penultimate booking step to compare the real final price before choosing.

Andy,

This is an old thread. The last post before yours happens to be mine and it is dated 17 May 2007.

Here's an update. Currently Vueling flies non-stop between Nice and Barcelona on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. However, the last day of direct service will be 22 June.

Besides going through Paris, there is one more indirect route you could take: easyJet from Nice to Geneva and easyJet from Geneva to Barcelona. Those tickets would have to be booked separately on the easyJet site. Like all budget airlines, you would have to retrieve your bags from your first flight and check in again for your second flight. And if your first flight is late and you miss your second flight, you're out the price of your ticket for the second flight.