French Trip - Opinions please

[LouJ]

Am having a French "bash" soon and have put together the following ideas.

Day 1 - Morning in Toulouse. Then take the 1310 to Bordeaux. Late afternoon and evening in Bordeaux.

Day 2 - a few hours in Bordeaux and then take 1022 Bordeaux to Nantes with diesel haulage. Arrive Nantes 1436. Rest of the day in Nantes.

Day 3 - 0706 TGV from Nantes to St Pierre des Corps arrive 0837. Depart on 0929 to Caen - loco hauled intercity. Arrive Caen 1210. Depart Caen 1408 arrive Paris St Lazare 1616 OR depart 1608 arrive Paris 1816. Then depart Paris on Eurostar at 1913 to STP.

My normal method of operation is start at first light and continue until I can't see what's going on!

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas that might improve the itinerary? All help appreciated.

 

[TGV]

My only suggestion is take a good book for your 50 minute wait at St Pierre des Corps. There's nothing to do in or round the station except a couple of quiet cafes. If you're an active spotter you'll be spoiled for choice as loads of things freight and passenger go through there, including of course TGV's, but if you're not of the bobble-hatted notebook persuasion, then yeah, a good book, or some amusing apps for your phone to kill that 50 minutes!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Don't forget the 30 minute check in deadline for Eurostar; are you confident your arrival at St Lazare will be in on time and that you can get across to Gare du Nord and up to the check in gates in only 23 minutes? You cannot rely on being allowed through late...

If you haven't already booked the Eurostar I'd suggest getting the 20.13 instead.

 

[Gordon]

BTW how soon is 'soon'. Depending on that may depend on whether you see the last of the BB9300s working around Bordeaux. At present some still work Toulouse - Bordeaux trains (including your 13.10 from Toulouse) and evening rush hour trains around Bordeaux.

You might consider stopping off along the way between Bordeaux and Nantes (I stopped off at Lucon in 2005 to phot the train departing and the next one arriving).

If you got off the morning train at La Roche sur Yon you could photograpoh the nextsouthbound train at La Roche sur Youn and then carry on on the afternoon northbound train.

La Roche sur Yon station building is still inscribed 'Napoléon-Vendée', the name bestowed upon the town between 1848 - 1870. The town itself is interesting as it is laid out in a military fashion in a US-style grid pattern.

There would probably be time to go into Tours station (which is architecturally notable) on the navette - worth doing as the ageing Z5300 units which sound like ancient trams (or streetcars!) are slated for retirement.


I agree that I would find the proposed connection St Lazare - Eurostar too tight. If it was me I'd be on tenterhooks all day, spoiling the other journeys.

My only suggestion is take a good book for your 50 minute wait at St Pierre des Corps. There's nothing to do

I think from what I have seen of Lou's website Lou is a railway photographer so 50 minutes at St Pierre des Corps might not be enough!




.

 

[LouJ]

Will be going 15th August so might miss the older electrics from Bordeaux. have changed the second overnight from nantes to Tours to give me more time there and will catch the 1408 from caen and spend any spare time Lazare station.

Thanks for your input.

 

[TGV]

I think from what I have seen of Lou's website Lou is a railway photographer so 50 minutes at St Pierre des Corps might not be enough!




.

Ah - well in which case - book yourself into the Kyriad hotel - immediately adjacent to the station. Most of the rooms overlook the line and the back of the entrance to the depot and SNCF Technicentre. It's like railway porn.

I was just thinking that if you're more into the journey then SPDC is a poor place to spend any time - it's like a French Doncaster.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Was it just me who read the thread title at first as 'French Trip - Onions please"?

 

[Gordon]

have changed the second overnight from nantes to Tours to give me more time there Thanks for your input.

A decent plan imho, as my other comment was going to be that Nantes is perhaps less interesting (passenger train wise) these days than Tours

 

[sdx]

Hi, and welcome to France.

I support what Peter said: arriving in St. Lazare at 18.16 seems too late to catch the 19.13 Eurostar.

RER "E" looks as the easiest way to go to "Gare du Nord", but:
1. the connections are long in both stations (many escalator flights and corridors in St. Lazare, the "E" station is nearly outside the station, on the other side than the Eurostar terminal, in Gare du Nord).
2. Trains may run at 10 mn interval, even during peak hour!
3. You will need a "metro" ticket; usually, SNCF gives a free one (called "contremarque") when you have a connection between two of their trains, but Eurostar is not SNCF...

 

[LouJ]

Everything worked very well for this trip. Standard TGV Montparnasse to Toulouse - didn't see much of railway interest on the way although it is a nice ride. Toulouse was superb - plenty of traffic including freight. 9300 class still active. A number of specials heading to Lourdes added some variety.

Bordeaux was also good. Diesel locos on some trains to Brive and virtually everything to La Rochelle and Nantes. Had a great ride behind double headed 67400s up to Nantes with some sections still controlled by wonderful old semaphore signals over jointed wooden sleepered track!

Nantes was worth an hour. St Pierre des Corps (near Tours) was superb - plenty of action with locos leaving and arriving at the depot. Still plenty of loco haled main line trains and the shuttle to Tours was worth the ride on the old Z5400 emus.

Tours to Caen on a x72500 was a pleasant trip. Nothing of note at le Mans although Caen did provide 15000 and 26000 classes on 11 coach trains to and from Paris. Was lucky to get a 15000 back to Paris St Lazare which did a superb job sprinting back to the capital. Particularly liked the high speed dash through the Paris suburbs with plenty of loco haled suburban trains behind the new e-loks.

Great trip and thanks for your input.

Will published some pictures on my websiote as soon as I find time to process all the images.