France and Channel Hopping Discussion

Discussions regarding holidays and channel hopping in France.
HELP...
6 Posts
Reply
'The Man in Seat 61' is invaluable for anybody wanting to travel by train and you'll find all sorts of info on travelling in France by train here:

http://www.seat61.com/France-trains.htm#.URdiEHwgGSM

But a quick check suggests that you can't get a direct train - you'll have to go via Paris with the train from Metz arriving at Gare de l'Est and the train for Disneyland leaving from the Gare de Lyon but that shouldn't be too difficult via the Metro. The problem is the same as for visitors to the UK traveling from, for example, Birmingham and wanting to go to Kent - they arrive at one terminus and have to leave from another because there are no/few train lines that transit through the city. Blame the 19C developers of our train system - I assume the same happened in France.

I suggest that you have a look at:

http://www.raileurope.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=39

Rail Europe is the UK office of SNCF and the above website is in English and reasonably easy to use. However, you can't book a direct ticket on the website because of the Metro transfer - you would have to book Metz-Paris and then Paris- Marne la Valle as two separate journeys. So it might be easier to ring them and speak to a real person. Or if you live in the London area, actually go to their offices and buy the tickets over the counter. Full details are on their website at the link above.

SM
Reply
Hello,
Thank you so much for the quick reply and information provided. You have just confirmed what I thought. Although I did not know about needing the metro... Oh it all sounds daunting. I did look at the TGV? But it was about 75 euro's which I thought was a lot. I will check the sites you have forwarded, thank you so much. The 3rd of March is going to be a trickey day I feel...! :-)
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Hi Ruth, crossing Paris on the Metro should be no more daunting than crossing London on the Underground - just make sure that you allow yourself plenty of time to make the connection so as to keep the anxiety levels low :D As for cost that will depend a lot on what time of day you want to travel - a bit like here, there is a huge variation in ticket prices depending on when you travel. Rather than messing around with the website yourself, I'd ring Rail Europe and have a chat because they will know which trains will be the cheapest.

SM
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Yes, I was just looking at that, they are open tomorrow. From what I can gather the trains are quite frequent from Gare de Lyon to the DLP stop, but I will call tomorrow to see the best option.

Thank you for your help :cheers
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Best rail site for European rail travel for getting timetables is http://www.deutschebahn.de - not just for German railways but everywhere and available in English. You can't book tickets but you can see what exists for your planned route.

Just a little point ... tickets are only sold from 92 days before the date of travel so it might be a bit soon to get your tickets depending on the date of the wedding.
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