Thank you Mark. I looked up the trains online.
In April at least they only run Friday and Monday, so thats a bit inconvenient.
The train departs Berlin at 18:31 and arrives Paris at 11:25. Thats only 17 hours and it gives you lots of time to look out the windows in the evening before dark and in the morning after sunrise. Figure 8 hours in bed and 9 enjoying the beauty of it all most of that with sunlight.
The price for a seat started at 69€ and the price for a couple to travel together privately in a real bed was about 400€. The bed would be my standard. DB only has a few direct trains Berlin to Paris (actually I only saw one) and they want 250€ for two seats and the trip takes 7.75 hours. So 400€ on the night vs 250€ on the day means you are paying 150€ for the hotel room meaning the night train really is a bargain. I mean, just try and find a hotel in Berlin or Paris for 150€. And the train comes with the romance of the rails and the clickty clack to rock you to seep at night.
Breakfast even comes with the ticket for those in the upgraded beds (maybe the other tickets too, don’t know). Granola, yogurt, a bun and juice.
These prices are very much better than the prices I saw on the OBB night trains no matter where you were going. I guess its just because of the older equipment .... nothing else. But the equipment in the photos doesnt look any different than the equipment on the night train I rode last year, and I was comfortable, so its just fine for the puropose. But older folks should be aware that reaching that top bunk requires a bit of agility.
You could also compare that to EasyJet which would cost you 230€ for two + 100€ in taxi fares and take 1.8 hours for the flight + 3 hours in travel to and from and pre-boarding time and no breakfast. (we dont consider these things with trains because train stations are free to reach, take no time to reach and no one would want to show up until 5 minutes before the train departs).
