Eurostar:  For a holiday in Paris Eurostar is excellent.  It whisks you from London’s magnificently refurbished St Pancras Station into the middle of Paris at the Gare du Nord in just two and a quarter hours. This really is a much better way to relax on your way to Paris than travelling by air as the latter normally involves arriving in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport which is rather inconveniently situated to the north east of the capital. Paris as a destination however, is only one of many options open to travellers on Eurostar. Lille (1 hour 20 mins) in its own right is a great place to visit as well as serving as a useful point of departure for many destinations in France including for example Dijon and Montpellier. An important consideration in choosing to make onward connections at Lille rather than Paris is that in the former there is no need to change stations, thus reducing transfer times. In the summer there is an excellent direct service from London to Avignon taking six and a half hours while winter has a ski train direct to the Alps.

Of course for those living south of London it is possible to take the train from either Ashford or the new Ebbsfleet station.

Motorail:  A train service for those wishing to travel to the south of France with their own car.  We've not used it so we would be delighted to hear from anyone who has.  Basically you put your car on a transporter and then have a cabin on the train where you can rest whilst you speed towards your destination.  If you can afford it and prefer to take your own car (rather than taking a budget flight and hiring one) then this is an option worth considering.  Personally we really enjoy driving in France as the traffic is usually much lighter than in the UK and overnight stops can make the whole journey less stressful.

Train travel within France

The main website for train travel within France is that of SNCF. Their website is www.voyages-sncf.com. This website can in fact be viewed in English, although finding the icon to do so is a bit tricky – it is somewhat hidden at the bottom left of the screen! You can travel by train using many of the different train companies that operate in France - Corail, Thalys, Teoz, Eurostar and TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse). Train travel in France is comfortable, clean and very affordable and is consequently a popular way to travel.

As a family we have booked tickets on line (using the above website) on several occasions and found the service to be excellent - tickets have been sent to us at our home address with no problems. Just make sure that you leave a few days for them to reach you before you set off on your holiday.  You can also look at the very comprehensive site - www.raileurope.com.

Paris Métro

Several French cities have a métro service, including Paris, Toulouse, Lille, Rennes, Marseille and Lyon. These are efficient and good value.

General Info: The Paris Métro is first class with over 350 stations and nowhere further than 500 metres from a station. Many of the station entrances (see right) were designed in the Art Nouveau style by Hector Guimard and are popular tourist attractions in their own right!  The Métro comprises 2 systems – the Métro or underground trains (16 lines) and the RER (5 lines lettered A-E). The former is similar to the London underground while the latter is more like a suburban train system with larger, usually double-decker trains that run from one side of Paris to the other, often over-ground. For example there is an RER service that goes out to Disneyland (LINK) in Marne-la-Vallée to the east of the city.

Buying tickets: To travel you need to buy ‘une billet’ (a ticket). These can be bought either at the ticket office or the self-service ticket machines with instructions available in English. Buying a ‘Carnet’, a book of 10 tickets is cheaper than buying tickets individually. Single tickets cost  €1.50 while a carnet costs €11.10. Tickets are valid for 1.5 hours from the time of purchase and are for use on one continuous journey (with any number of changes) within that time frame, providing you stay on your chosen mode of transport – metro-metro, or bus-bus. Alternatively you can buy a one day pass for zones 1-2 for €5.60 known as a ‘Carte Mobilis’ or a ‘Carte Paris Visite’ for €8.50 for zones 1-3. Children aged between 4-10 are half price. You can use Métro tickets on the funicular railway at Sacre Coeur.

Using the metro: When travelling on the Métro you need to decide which station you wish to get to and then check the name of the station at the END of the line in the direction in which you will be travelling as this determines which train you get. So, for example, imagine that you have arrived on Eurostar at the Gare du Nord and you wish to head south to Les Halles near The Seine River. This is line 4 so you must follow signs and trains in the direction of Porte d’Orléans which is the last station at the southern end of the line. Should you have wished to travel north on line 4 then you would have followed signs in the direction of Porte de Clignancourt. RER trains operate a similar procedure.

Motorail Update

As mentioned in the box above we've no personal experience of Motorail at France For Families.  However we have heard from one visitor who does not recommend the experience.  It seems to be related mainly to old rolling stock and uncomfortable sleeping couchettes, although the staff do their best to be helpful.

Frankly, if you don't mind driving, we'd always go by car as there are so many decent autoroutes heading south these days, with many options for overnight stays.  Providing you avoid peak Saturdays in late July and August then you should be OK.