I'm hoping to take my girlfriend to Barcelona soon and this sounds like the ideal way to do it. Does anybody know how long it takes and a rough estimate of cost? Or possibly a link?
Because we had to be in Barcelona before 15.00, in order to catch a ship, and it being our first foreign trip by train, we decided we wanted to travel during the day and stay overnight in Barcelona ( just in-case anything went wrong with the overnight train).
We booked the daytime TGV , 14.07 from Paris (Gare de Lyon) to Barcelona, It cost us £74 each in standard. I did manage to book upper-deck seats on the TGV Duplex, But, If I'd been a bit more confident of what I was doing regarding French websites, I might have been able to book First class for not much more on SNCF's website.
I booked Paris- Barcelona as a return using Rail Europe, and just used the options it gave me. It gave me a daytime outward trip, but only a overnight return. I think I've read somewhere since that Rail Europe "push" the train hotel service.
Having booked the Paris-Barcelona leg, I then went on Eurostar's website to book the Darlington to Paris leg. The plan was to leave Darlington(Saturday morning) around 5.00 and connect with 9.30 E*. The 9.30 E* must be busy because the cheapest tickets were around £169 each from Darlington. After a bit of thought, we booked a 11.30 departure from Darlington (Friday), that connected with the 15.00 E* (£64 each), and booked a hotel next to Gare de Lyon for less than £100 for the room. The way we did it meant we got to spend an evening in Paris, and got to see a few of the sights.
The Return journey was by overnight Train hotel which left Barcelona Franca Station at 8.47. Having got off the ship at 9.30am we had spent the day in Barcelona. Please note there are no Left luggage facilities at Barcelona Franca, so we left ours at Barcelona Sants (its a 5 min train ride between the two stations, the metro station at Barcelona Franc is a 5 min walk, so it's best to use the train, which if I remember right is hourly).
About Midnight we stopped near the Spain/France border where a lot bumping and banging went on? Apparently this was where the "Change of Gauge" took place. Going from Paris to Barcelona, I'm guessing this would happen at around 6.30am. We had Breakfast on the train at around 7.00am and arrived in Paris (Gare d'Austerlitz) about 9.00am. Having left Barcelona where the Temp was 22C, it was a bit of a shock get off the train to find Paris was 5C
We were catching the 16.15 E* so we had most of the day to look round Paris. We left the suitcases in left luggage as Gare de Nord. From Paris we connected with the 20.00 from KXG and got into DAR around 22.30.
Darlington to Barcelona can be done in a day. But it means leaving Darlington around 5.30am and Arriving in Barcelona around 20.30, and with a bit more knowledge, it can be done for less than we paid (£64+£74+ £50 hotel= £188 each).
Barcelona to Darlington cost about £106+ £64 = £168 Each (Train Hotel+E* to DAR). We just booked a two berth cabin (First class= no evening meal included) Getting a meal in the restaurant car was no problem as there was room available.
Getting across Paris costs a few Euro's, we bought a Carnet of metro tickets on the outward journey, which left us with a few to use on the return journey.
Having done it once, and seeing how easy it was (My wife and I both have mobility problems which have to be taken into consideration). We would certainly do it again, Only next time I would be more ambitious and experiment using SNCF's website to get better choice's.
