Finally using trains instead of planes!
After 22 years of living in the Guisane valley, which boasts the beautiful ski and summer resort of Serre Chevalier and my home town Briançon (itself a UNESCO World Heritage site), I finally used the Eurostar London – Paris and then hopped on two trains to get home!
I usually do this journey with BA or Ryanair from Stansted (UK) or Gatwick (UK) to Turin airport in Italy which is a two hour drive back home, but on 29th May 2024 I had my parents with me. Mum and dad prefer to avoid airports and “all that hustle and bustle and always feeling rushed”…
I would do this journey in a day, but dad doesn’t do early… So, we settled for a relaxed two-day trip which went as follows:
Wednesday 29th May 2024
09:30 Woke from a well-earned lay-in at my cheap and cheerful hotel just 200 metres from St Pancras International station (I paid £54 for a single room which turned out to be a triple, although the view was nothing to speak of at all!)
11:00 Met parents at St Pancras for a very expensive brunch but it was convenient and we were able to sit for well over an hour catching up (respect for travelling with those who are a little older and like to be well in advance for everything!) There are many lovely shops at St Pancras International. We bought some treats at M&S Food and some little gifts for the children.
13:45 Security and Passport control: QR codes were specified as essential – on phones or printed – but staff were on hand too thankfully because our printed QR codes were too large for the scanners! Once through security, which was surprisingly similar to airports, we then joined hundreds of people in an extremely full waiting area. Our platform number eventually appeared on the big screen and then followed a chock-a-block few minutes navigating a loose queue and conveyor escalator to reach the platform. I felt this could have been more relaxing, probably at a less busy time of day, but we would soon be able to sit on the train and feel like we were getting somewhere.
14:00 Boarding, carriage number easily identified. Very easy! Seats very easy to find. No leg room whatsoever however, just like any budget airline flight. Bags safely stored with no fuss thankfully, and extra space above our heads for smaller items and coats.
14:31 Train departed St Pancras, for Paris Gare du Nord. Packed out. Here we go… two hours and 27 minutes and we’ll be in Paris!
17:58 Arrival in Paris, Gare du Nord! Staff spotted those amongst us who needed taxis in a bid to avoid using the Paris Metro so we were directed towards a very well managed taxi bay… with another queue. Within ten minutes we were in our taxi and 37€ later we arrived at our hotel near Gare de Lyon. Phew!
20:00 Wonderful tapas meal at Zai Zai café in Bercy district. Absolutely delicious.
Thursday 30th May 2024
10:30 Arrived Gare de Lyon and… coffee. We were well over an hour early but everyone was happy… Nothing much to say about Gare de Lyon, I would avoid arriving there so early if we were to do this trip again!
11:30 Platform announced and we headed to the Valence TGV train. Suitcases stashed, all was very easy. More leg room, less busy, got my BE USEFUL book out and started absorbing Arnie’s advice through his life story.
11:46 Train departed from Gare de Lyon to Valence.
13:57 Arrived Valence. Brilliant trip. Didn’t see much though as this was a high speed train and pretty hard to focus on the views. We had just over 30 minutes to find the next train which was a little worrying but it was extremely easy because our Briançon train was listed right at the top of the first screen we were presented with. Straight to the platform, lovely bright, airy, well-looked after station and I even had time to queue up for a quiche, pizza and lemon tart (no, not all for me!)
14:26 Train departed for Briançon! This was going to be a long one, almost five hours with quite a few stops, but beautiful scenery I was told. It was a little tedious but we were reading, catching up and checking out the views – particularly those further south before we headed more east and then up towards the mountains and Briançon.
19:23 Arrived Briançon and headed home to the beautiful Cité Vauban. It was a long trip, especially felt it in the last few hours but we were delayed by around 20 minutes. Having had two serious lie-ins in the same number of days though, I wasn’t complaining.
London to Briançon by train over two days : it was an extremely relaxing way to travel and I would definitely do it agan. Next time though – all in one day. Although would I regret it?
How much did we pay?
170,30€ per person in total
Eurostar one-way Standard tickets London to Paris Gare du Nord
98€ each
Baggage included: Suitcase no larger than 85cm long or wide, and a small bag per person
TGV Paris Gare du Nord to Valence
29€ each + 10€ supplement for one suitcase
Baggage included: A small bag per person, we paid 10€ supplement for a suitcase which was larger than the allowance
Valence to Briançon
43,30€ each
Baggage included: Any standard luggage
Buying train tickets for travel from London to Briançon, French Alps:
We used the Eurostar and The Train Line websites to book (around three months in advance of travel.)