Train from U.K. to Carcassonne

[Jonzjob]

Has anyone any ideas of what the journey from the U.K. to Carcassonne is like? How long and what cost? I'm not really sure where to start checking...

OH has a cousin that's not keen on flying, but she wants to come over to see us. The time it takes isn't a problem as she is retired, like us!!! If it means that we collect her from Toulouse, par de problem.. The TGV would be preferable.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

John.

[Ecossais]

John,

 

I rarely travel by train, but came across this Swiss website when planning a trip from UK to France!  I’m sure there must be similar French or English sites which will work out cross-border rail journeys, but this one seems user-friendly, is in English, gives good details about connecting trains and will even produce an itinerary for you in Adobe Acrobat format to print off.

 

http://www.sbb.ch/en/

 

It will accept London as the departure point and either Carcassonne or Toulouse as the destination.  Note it defaults to the current time for the departure, I suggest you change it to something like 0700 (unless your wife’s cousin fancies a stop-over in Paris?)

 

London Waterloo > Marne-La-Vallee-Chessy > Toulouse (9½ hours) looks the simplest route.

 

Hope this helps you.

 

 

 

[BJSLIV]

You can research / book London - Toulouse on Eurostar.com. fares seem to start at around £110 return with a cross Paris transfer to contend with.

[GRT17]

I would strongly advise her to take a taxi across Paris. Join the taxi queue outside Gare du Nord which when I have used it, seems to move fairly quickly. Taxi is the easiest, especially with luggage and not too expensive.

Gill

 

[Tom]

I've been on the non TGV train direct from Carcassonne to Paris Austerlitz. It's a long journey, nearly 8 hours, but it is the cheapest option. There is an overnight sleeper on this route as well 

The quickest route from Paris is the TGV changing at Montpellier rather than Toulouse.   

[JohnM]

You can book / enquire about trains from Waterloo to anywhere in France by using http://www.raileurope.co.uk which is an english "front end" to the sncf website. However, it will not let you see / book a journey with more than 2 changes, so you have to ring them (or book each stage separately). The good thing about ringing them is that I've always found them very helpful - one guy spent about 20 minutes f**ting about in order to get me the best price. Ended up travelling first class for £10 more than second, but got a meal included on Eurostar each way. He was well worth the £6.50 booking fee.

 

[Alcazar]

Just had a quick look at the sncf website, (www.sncf.fr), and it gave me the following:

Lille Europe, d:1217 (TGV)

Narbonne, a: 1804

Narbonne, d: 1847 (TER) [Train Express Regional]

Carcassonne, a: 1920

Note: no cross-Paris transfer.

I can think of better places to spend an hour than Narbonne station, but at least it has a waiting room, decent cafe etc., and is a safe place to wait, (I've actually spent many an hour there, but am a train watcher).

Trains form Waterloo int leave at  0839, arriving Lille Europe at 1126, giving you an hour or so to look around the shopping centre.

Prices were €187 London-Lille(about 150 miles) and €128 Lille Carcassonne (about 800 miles) (Rip off UK again!)

Alcazar

[GRT17]

Alcazar,

In my haste to reply I completely forgot about the Lille Europe option, good suggestion.

Gill

(99/17)