Rail Trip To Sw France

[thesshhh]

To go by train from Ashford, Kent, to St Jean de Luz in south-west France at the end of May, and return within a fortnight, what's the best route to take, how long would that take, & how much per person?

[ChillDoubt]

http://www.sncf.com/en/trains/tgv

[mushroom25]

Eurostar Ashford Int. to Paris Nord at 06h24, arr 09h32. RER line B Nord to Denfert-Rochereau. Metro Line 6 Denfert-Rochereau to Montparnasse. (you can go Metro line 4 direct from Nord to Montparnasse but you end up doing a humungous walk at the far end). then Paris Montparnasse to St Jean De Luz at 12h28, at St Jean at 18h03.
on Mondays, Fridays and sundays until July there's an overnight option; dep Ashford 14h55 arr 17h53. Metro Line 5 Nord to Austerlitz. then Paris Austerlitz to St Jean De Luz at 21h52, arr 09h02.

[thesshhh]

thank you, Mushroom. Any idea of cost?

[mushroom25]

French rail fares are like airline tickets, that is, the cost is dictated by the market forces of supply and demand. you could get a combined Eurostar/TGV ticket for as little as £69.00 one way, just leaving you with the "Section Urbaine" ticket to buy to cross Paris.
have a look here:-
https://loco2.com/

[Jackdaw33]

Mushroom, are you Buenchico in another guise?

[mushroom25]

no. my parents lived in France for many years and I'm very familiar with this particular journey. :-)

[Buenchico]

Somewhat strangely, the best website for planning travel in England and France is often that of the German railways. (That's because it's the only website which amalgamates the timetables of all European train operators):
https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml

For a sample outbound date of Saturday 27/05, it shows that you can do it with just one change (involving a cross-Paris transfer) as follows:
Depart Ashford International 0655
Arrive Paris Nord 0947
Transfer to Paris Montparnasse (take Metro Line 4 to Montparnasse Bienvenue)
Depart Paris Montparnasse 1228
Arrive St-Jean-de-Luz-Ciboure 1803

(You can actually leave Ashford half an hour later, at 0728, and still arrive in St Jean de Luz at the same time but that involves getting across both Lille and Paris)

[Because only a few Eurostar trains call at Ashford International, you might like to consider departing from Ebbsfleet International instead. It's an easy drive or only about 20 minutes by train]

Returning a fortnight later, you could take the 0940 from St-Jean-de-Luz-Ciboure, arriving Paris Montparnasse 1533. Transfer to Paris Nord for the 1913 departure, arriving Ashford International 2007.
(You can actually arrive 27 minutes earlier if you 1713 Eurostar train to St Pancras International and then go back to Ashford but it's probably not worth bothering with)

The Eurostar website lets you book through fares to many destinations in France but St-Jean-de-Luz-Ciboure doesn't seem to be among them. The SNCF UK website fails to offer any trains for my sample dates
https://uk.voyages-sncf.com/en/
but that might be because it's too early for the fares to be shown. Using earlier dates (in March) suggests a fare of £63 from Paris to St Jean de Luz, and £59.50 back again. The Eurostar website quotes £89.00 from Ashford to Paris, and £36.00 back. So that's a total of £247.50.
http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en

RailEurope also sees the end of May as too far ahead for booking at the moment:
https://www.raileurope.com/index.html
but it could be worth checking later. (NB: Take care when using that website. It uses the American convention for dates, so 05/06/17 is the 6th May, not the 5th of June!)

[Buenchico]

>>> Mushroom, are you Buenchico in another guise?

Actually Mushroom 25, Dzug2 and myself are all merely parts of an ancient British Rail mainframe computer, which nobody ever got around to switching off ;-)

[Jackdaw33]

For heaven's sake, don't ask Chico how to get to Timbuktu because he'll tell you chapter and verse.

[mushroom25]

of course, if economy is the name of the game, fly Stansted to Biarritz with Ryanair, who fly weekends only - Lunchtime departure and late afternoon arrival, and St Jean de Luz is about 25mn from the airport in a taxi. random dates in may show fares between £17,00 and £40,00 each way.