No experience with trains - we always drive, so scheduling has been a challenge. I just scheduled the Eurostar from Paris to England on 8/31 (leaves at 1 pm). Now I have to get from Rouen to Paris - we are planning to drop the car in Roeun and take the train. For some reason I thought there would be a train going every hour (shows my poor planning skills!). Now I see there are only trains very early in the morning 5:26 a.m. Has anyone done this before? I have no other choices, right?
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
There are 27 trains/day from Rouen to Paris. New timetables will go into effect throughout much of Europe on 13 June. I expect that the reason you only found one departure time is because you used a site whose timetables haven't been updated.
The standard 2nd class fare is €20.50. If you book well in advance (up to three months allowed) at www.tgv-europe.com, you can get a Prem's fare of €10.00. Prem's tickets are non-exchangeable and non-refundable so you need to be able to commit to a specific departure date and time. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares, choose Great Britain as your country of residence.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
I shall refrain from "whammying" you, Ed, because you are absolutely correct! All trains from Rouen to Paris arrive at Gare Saint-Lazare.
Posted by
Northern California
118 posts
Hi Sharon,
Tim is right about the timetables, but also remember that Paris has 6 train stations, so if you're using a specific one (like Gare St Lazare) for your ticket search, you're not going to see all of the trains going to Paris that day -- only the ones going to that one station. So just check your search terms carefully. :) Good luck! Rouen is a great city!
Emma
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Subject to being whammied by Tim, Saint-Lazare is probably the only way to come in from Rouen. Unless there's some trick out around Pontoise?
Posted by
San Francisco, CA
180 posts
We took the train from Rouen to Paris and found it VERY easy. We parked the car at the train station, (so we could leave our stuff in the trunk), walked around the city for a few hours (did Rick's walking tour), then moved the car to the drop off spot (remember to fill it up on the way into the city!) and bought train tickets for the next train.
It was a very easy trip into Paris.
Posted by
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
48 posts
Hey Sharon!
n 2004 we had a car for a week in
Normandy. It was very easy to drop the car off, and walk to the train station. Our car rental place was only about 10-15 minutes on foot. I believe that we bought the tickets ahead of time, but waited until we were in France. The trains do go from Rouen to Gare St. Lazare. Our train stopped at several towns. As it turned out we sat near many college students who were eager to practice their English on us. One young lady even helpd us when we got to Paris. She hold us how to get ont the metro so we could get to our apartment in the Morais part of the city.
Have a GREAT time!
Posted by
OP
Santa Rosa, CA, USA
1446 posts
Thank you everyone! Your comments have made me feel a lot less nervous. Sounds as if it will work just fine.