Hello,
My wife and I are planning a 2.5 weeks trip to France. We plan on flying into Paris, then immediately leave for other parts of the country (Normandy, Alsace, Provence in any order) and then ending in Paris.
I looked at the train schedules on Bahn.de and it looks like it's a 5.5 to 8 hour train ride between Normandy, Alsace and Provence because all trains go through Paris. I found no direct night trains where you leave at night and arrive in the morning without transferring in the middle.
I would like to avoid spending most of the day riding the train and would like to reduce wasted time. I see there are train schedules where you basically get to Paris late at night, and then you have to wait until the morning to take the second leg to get to your destination. Hence my (possibly stupid) question: can you sleep in the Paris train stations? Even if you technically can, is this advisable? If this is not advisable, then is there a better way to travel between these regions?
We are both in our late-20's and we will be backpacking (one carry on sized backpack each). We won't be carrying anything valuable other than a netbook and a point-and-shoot camera.
Thanks!
Eric