Eurostar direct to S France

[Gardian]

Although we like using the train (Eurostar / TGV) to get from here to the Uk and vice versa, it can be pricey.

In particular, the direct service down to Avignon has usually been particularly pricey + only operaring on Saturdays.

However ......... they've now opened up to 5 days / wk & the prices seem more than reasonable.

Son & DIL have just booked round trip end-June / early-July for £201 for the 2 of them. That's London - Avignon. I normally reckon £200+ per person!

They're clearly pricing it aggressively, though not marketing it so well. Worth looking at for anybody wanting to come down here - low cost flts aint so cheap at that time of the year & for driving you have to think £500 + a hotel en route.

[NormanH]

A good tip thanks.

[Judith]

Is it just the summer - looked for next month and they route via Paris, as ever .... just wish they would also improve the number of trains from our neck of the woods (TGV) which go via Lille rather than Paris, as I have never seen the point of going to Paris unless you needed to, and having to change stations in the process!

[Gardian]

It operates Mon, Fri & Sat, 31/3 - 27/5 & 4/9 - 4/11.

Additionally Thurs & Sun, 28/5 - 3/9.

The biggest snag with it is the 'crack of dawn' departure from St Pancras (07.19), which would be a problem for most unless you live close to the centre of London. Our son is going to take the cheapest hotel he can find close to St P & even paying (say) £100, its a good overall deal.

The train continues to Aix TGV & Marseille.

I believe that on the return leg, you have to disembark (briefly) at Lille Europe for Immigration formalities.

[Gardengirl]

We haven't used the direct train, just those where you change at Lille; definitely don't like the scrum to get up the stairs for security checks before going through to the departure lounge.

Providing all is well following medical checks in the UK at the end of this month, we'll be taking the direct train in Apri. It was a very good price so we felt it was worth the risk of possibly having to move our date and pay a fee for that.

We only booked to go south as we hadn't decided on our return date, but looking at trains to head north, they are looking pricey.

We're staying at the Premier Inn the night before travel in April, and if we decide to take the direct train back we'll probably stay there again as thevtrain doesn't arrive until, after 22h - 23h French time.

[Gardian]

GG ...........

Coming down sounds good - a night on the Town with Mr GG ?

Coming back, you don't have to wait for the direct service. Too late in London.

Better to take a TGV out of Nimes or Avignon mid- morning in to Paris or Lille & connect with a Eurostar to London. Maybe via Paris and a spot of civilised luncheon there?

Look out for the 1st class deals on your return - not necessarily much more expensive & fitting for a couple of your standing!

[Gardengirl]

??? You're very gallant, Gardian.

We have Premier Select tickets for travelling down to Avignon, £110 each. Haven't decided on the return journey, as it's still all so much in the air, but took the 12.53 TGV from Avignon last summer when we were being repatriated and again following my visit in November. It worked out very well, apart from the scrum to get upstairs at Lille!

[Judith]

[quote user="Gardian"]It operates Mon, Fri & Sat, 31/3 - 27/5 & 4/9 - 4/11.

Additionally Thurs & Sun, 28/5 - 3/9.

The biggest snag with it is the 'crack of dawn' departure from St Pancras (07.19), which would be a problem for most unless you live close to the centre of London. Our son is going to take the cheapest hotel he can find close to St P & even paying (say) £100, its a good overall deal.

The train continues to Aix TGV & Marseille.

I believe that on the return leg, you have to disembark (briefly) at Lille Europe for Immigration formalities.[/quote]

Thanks G,

Yes we used it once (about 2000!) but then we lived in C London, so the early start was do-able.  Can't use it on my next trip in April, wrong days, but maybe I can use it when I come over in the summer, though by then I hope to be driving again ...

I managed (last August) to get the Eurostar from Lyon to Ashford on a Thursday, but for the return I was already in Lille (2-part conference in Canterbury and Lille - super!), so just changed at Valence on the return, a much easier change all round. 

You are correct, last August we had to take all our baggage and ourselves off at Lille to be checked through security, and then return to our seats, all well controlled and nicely done ... just ennuyant!

[Blodwyn]

I've stayed at the Premier Inn within easy reach of St. Pancras. Not horrendously expensive, clean and with helpful staff. (I hope they won't be kicked out after Brexit as all were from mainland Europe.)

[Gardengirl]

Yes, we found the Premier Inn at St Pancras fine apart from the over-warm duvet which made sleeping difficult, even with the aircon on. Staff were all very pleasant and helpful, I even tested their first aid skills, just one of those awful paper cuts that hurts like hades and won't stop bleeding. With the agenda apparently decided upon for the brexit talks, at least on the EU side, it would seem that most EU citizens will be probably be OK in the UK.

We decided to do the return trip straight through, so we'll see if the change at Lille is as awful as previously, although Judith gives me hope that it won't be. We'll be staying at the same Premier Inn next Saturday night on our way home, and I'm planning to empty the duvet out of the cover if it's as warm. I did make it known to a member of staff before we left, so it could possibly have been remedied...........

If anyone else stays there or nearby on a Sunday night and wants a good meal, we had the splendid 3 course Sunday roast at The Gilbert Scott restaurant just over the road at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, which has the name Marcus Wareing attached to it - don't know how much involvement that ever means. It's served through to the evening, which is when we ate, a huge pleasure to be in such a fabulous room, with a pianist playing beautifully and to enjoy such an excellent meal.

Well worth the £35 in such a place in London, with the service charge on top plus £2 to help preserve the building.

[Judith]

GG

Dining at the St P hotel (I visited it on an open day when it was still a construction site) - a super place - and well worth the money for a nice evening meal.  Parts of the area around there are just a little seedy still!

If you are on what will be a "through" train, and you really have only to get off and on at Lille with baggage for the passport and security check, because you are now on an international route and different rules apply, they will escort you and help as needed.  They asked us to go carriage by carriage to help reduce the crush. I usually go first class for such distances if I can as you get a meal on the train and you are well treated, and it quite often not very much more than second class and far more comfortable.

When we had to do it last  year, all the passengers were friendly and chatting to each other in the queue, we were, after all, all in the same boat!

[Gardengirl]

That sounds fine, Judith, no crush if going coach by coach, thank you for that info. We're going Standard Premier, so we'll have some sort of meal for dinner, maybe 'tea' after boarding too. Breakfast and lunch on the way down weren't bad at all.

We've just been looking at trains for when we return; thought we'd add a few extra days on in England but that then brings us to nearly the end of May, so prices are a lot higher as is the hotel. Back to the drawing board........

[Gardengirl]

We travelled back on Saturday and, as Judith said, plenty of help was at hand at Lille with luggage or anything else if needed. All Standard Premier carriages moved together as there were only a few people in each. It was all very civilised, with coffee and snacks brought round once we were back in our seats.

The only thing that wasn't good was that the train was old and creaked and swayed a lot more than the Eurostar we travelled down on; I felt unsteady for a good couple of hours after arriving at St Pancras.

We've already booked to travel south in a couple of weeks time and our return to the UK in July, Standard Premier at £99 each for each leg.

[Judith]

GG

So pleased it all worked out so well for you.  Having help with luggage makes it all so much easier ... carrying luggage is the thing I like least on train / air holidays ... hence why I now take the car whenever I can ...

Doesn't look as though I'll be able to get back to the UK, since the works to remedy the flood damage in the house in January will be starting soon and I need to be here to supervise. Maybe by October we'll be straight again - fingers crossed, but too late to use the Avignon direct service I suspect.

[Gardengirl]

Sorting out after flood damage really can take time; friends of ours had an enormous amount of damage following flooding and it seemed to take forever.

Eurostar direct to Avignon is showing for our September trip down and mid-October trip back to England plus up to 4th November, all those dates on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, I think it was.

I'm hoping they will run some right through the window - a forlorn hope, probably.

[Judith]

GG, 

Thanks, we still cannot find half the stuff which was moved in a rush, and the papers, though mine are now dry, are all mingled together (I'm slowly going through trying to put like with like when I have a few spare moments.  OH has still not got to the bottom of  his wet stuff, as he had to help me lift t hings - I was due for a hip replacement 2 weeks later so couldn't get upstairs carrying anything but the smallest of piles.

Happily, 12 weeks on from the op, I am now doing very well, but yesterday night, looking in a bottom drawer of a plastic drawer set for something, found a whole drawer (empty thankfully) still full of water.  Cannot get down to get it out - yet!

I'm now driving reasonably well and slowly driving further distances in the car to test the legs, but still think driving all the way to the UK will be too much this year.  So yes, I'll look at that Avignon service ... could be a way forward this year.

[Gardian]

All this lark at Lille, where you have to de-train, go upstairs with your luggage in order to pass through UK Border Control and then re-embark ........ got me thinking.

As a teenager (seems like only yesterday!), I can remember travelling on one of the TEE expresses between Holland and Paris. Then, there used to be on-board Customs officials who came round to check your passports. You find yourself wondering why that wouldn't be feasible now?

Manpower-wise, it wouldn't be any different to what used to happen when the direct service just came as far as Avignon. Then, a couple of Border bods had a table set up for them at the (dedicated) platform entrance and they travelled on the train there & back.

I suppose that the answer is that the UK is very happy to retain the controls on French soil, but of course this may well change in a year or two! I wonder though what would happen now if a coachload of would-be immigrants fetched up at Lille? Would they be handed over to the French - presumably so, otherwise there's no point whatsoever in what currently happens. What would the French then do with them?

Its a complex and difficult world.

[Gardian]

Having met at Avignon and subsequently seen off visitors from the direct service, I now realise that the issue is security for the Eurotunnel transit.

If of course, security checks for all domestic TGV passengers were to become compulsory (sadly, not so far-fetched), then travelling Border Control would become feasible. The problem for SNCF is that security checks for all passengers would require massive and very costly infrastructure changes at all TGV stations. Hard to imagine, but without doubt chaotic if it were to happen.

It must have been (maybe is) under consideration.