Husband & I (age 60+) are returning for our 2nd trip to France & adding Belgium for about 3 weeks total, arriving early morning Aug 19. We're planning the following & welcome any assistance, recommendations, tips for our itinerary, specifically all the TRAIN travel portions, i.e., Which trains should I take or avoid? Senior discount? Should I buy a rail pass? Thanks so much! Aug 19-20: Paris sights Aug 21 (Tues): Chartres Day Trip (Morning Train/afternoon return to Paris) Aug 22 (Wed): Reims Day trip (Morning Train /afternoon return to Paris) Aug 23 (Thu): Paris sights Aug 24 (Fri): Early Train Paris to Caen, Rent Avis car in Caen@ Train Station; Drive to & overnite in Mont St Michel Aug 25 (Sat): See Mont in a.m., depart MSM @ Noon, drive to Bayeux (2 nites) Aug 26 (Sun): Spend day in Bayeux with afternoon 4 hour Overlord Normandy Tour Aug 27 (Mon): Morning Drive from Bayeux, stop in Beauvais, continue drive to Rouen, overnite Aug 28 (Tues): Drive Rouen to Amiens, return car at Avis in Amiens, overnite Aug 29 (Wed): Morning Train Amiens to Lille, change trains, continue to Bruges, Belgium (3 nites) Aug 30-31 (Thu-Fri): Bruges Sep 1 (Sat): Morning train to Ghent (3 nites) Sep 2, 3 (Sun-Mon): Ghent Sep 4 (Tues): Morning train to Brussels (2 nites in Brussels) Sep 5 (Wed): Brussels sights
Sep 6 (Thur): Noon flight Brussels to USA Looked at Rail Europe, at Rick's Train Tips, am still a bit confused, so any assistance or tips with the trains would be most appreciated.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Rail Europe's timetables are incomplete because it only shows routes for which it sells tickets. The German Rail site is the best one for detailed timetables. Point-to-point tickets will cost less than a railpass, especially if you book in advance and get discount fares. Paris-Chartres: The 2nd class fare is €14.60 each way. No discount fare possible. Paris-Reims: The standard 2nd class fare is €34.00 each way. The best Prem's fare is €15.00. Paris-Caen: Major work on the tracks between Paris and Caen will begin in mid-July and continue beyond August. The earliest you could leave Paris is 08:20, you'll have to connect in Rouen, and you'll arrive in Caen at 11:37. You might want to pick up your car in Paris. If you take the train, the standard 2nd class fare is €40.70. The best discount fare is €34.90. Amiens-Lille: The 2nd class fare is €20.20. No discount fare possible. Lille-Brugge: The 2nd class fare is €18.00. Brugge-Gent: The 2nd class fare is €6.20. Gent-Brussels: The 2nd class fare is €8.50.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
Jan, for the best timetable on the Web, don't bother with Rail Europe. They only show some of the trains. Reality check your plans at the German rail site instead:
http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml
Posted by
Lewiston, Idaho, USA
2092 posts
Jan, Rick's planning maps (see his Travel Store) are great for figuring your stops. (For example to go from Bayeux to Beauvais, you'll bypass Rouen!) viamichelin.com and the DeutschBahn are excellent for trip planning even though you won't be in Germany.
Posted by
OP
Arlington, VA, USA
123 posts
wow...good info everyone. Guess I really need to get working on my research...especially the issue for the Paris to Caen trip. Would hate to be on the train for over 4 hours and go thru Rouen. Had no idea about the construction. I'm still having trouble/confusion about the Amiens/Lille/Bruges leg of my plan. Looks like that route also stops in Krotuijc (or something like that). thanks everyone...
Posted by
OP
Arlington, VA, USA
123 posts
Also to Darcy: I made an error on my itinerary. We are actually planning to drive from Bayeux to Rouen then stop in Beauvais on the way to Amiens. Thanks!
Posted by
OP
Arlington, VA, USA
123 posts
Tim: In doing a bit more checking, I'm thinking perhaps we could take the Paris Montparnasse train to Rennes (instead of Caen) which is about 2 hours, and rent our car there, then drive up to MSM. Do you think that would work?
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Jan, Taking the train to Rennes, picking up a car there, and then driving to Mont-Saint-Michel should work fine. There are three direct trains/day from Lille Flandres to Brugge. For all other departure times you'll need to make a connection in Kortrijk. The fare is the same either way.
Posted by
OP
Arlington, VA, USA
123 posts
Thanks again Tim. Now we're also looking at changing our itinerary around quite a bit, as follows: Thinking of extending our stay in Paris to about 8 days, and do Rouen and Amiens as Day trips from Paris, also staying only 2 nights each in Bruges & Ghent. We would have to move our booked hotels and turn in the car in Bayeux and do a train to Bruges (probably via Caen). I think I'm just trying to lessen some of the 1 night stays (Amiens & Rouen) as well as lessen our driving time and instead rely more on trains. Any thoughts on this?
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Jan, To get from either Bayeux or Caen to Brugge requires going via Paris. So you'll have the same track repair issues to contend with. I did a timetable check and found that the trip will require 4-5 connections and take 8-9 hours.
Posted by
OP
Arlington, VA, USA
123 posts
Yikes! Yes, Tim, I too looked into that and found the same issues. So, we'll stick to our itinerary and train from Paris to Rennes, rent Avis car at train station, drive to MSM (overnite); Drive next day to Bayeux (2 nites) then drive to Rouen from there. Are you familiar with the car rental situation at Rennes? (i.e., distance from train, access to road to MSM?, ease/difficulty of drive to MSM?) Also - any tips for our driving experience into Rouen? We're staying at the Mercure Rouen Centre Cathedral (unless you can recommend a better/more accessible option in Rouen?) By the way: You're an absolute gem to provide such a plethoria of info and prompt responses. Can't thank you enough!
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
I haven't been to either Rennes or Rouen. According to the Hertz site, the outlet in Rennes is on Place de la Gare which is the street in front of the train station. Viamichelin.com has three suggested driving routes from Rennes to Mont-Saint-Michel. Two of them are mostly on autoroutes (freeways). The most direct route is on the D 175. The estimated driving times are nearly the same for all three. Since driving the D 175 doesn't take any longer, that would be my choice. Why pay tolls if you don't save any time by taking the autoroute? All I know about Rouen is that many people have said that the cathedral is truly beautiful. Thanks for using the word "plethora"! It's a favorite word in my family, so much so that we often intentionally use it as kind of an inside joke.