France Travel Answers

First of all: Don't bother with a rail pass. Secondly: Getting around rural France is hard without a car. Would you consider renting a car for your French stay? In that case fly to some nearby airport, rent a car, and drop it off at a TGV station for the trip to Belgium. There is a direct TGV from Bordeaux to Brussels. Otherwhise Dax and Lourdes have TGVs to Paris, and from Paris there is a train to Brussels every half hour for most of the day. These you best book on www.sncf.fr. Brussel To Amsterdam is easy. There is a train every hour, and the ticket you just buy there.

Oh, forget about a Eurail pass. That is a waste of money. 5 days fro 600$ is a lot, and you'll pay extra for reservations. Be aware however that 14th of July is an national holiday in France, which makes travel more expensive. You can take a train from Barcelona to Irun (on the French border) from there get to Hendaye using the Euskotren narrow gauge train which runs every half hour. Take a local train to Dax. (look up schedules on www.bahn.de) Book Barcelona - Irun on www.renfe.es. The local trains you just buy on the spot. Rent a car for a couple of days from Dax to visit the weding and go to Lourdes. Return to Dax for example on the 15th, and take a train to Brussels. Dax - Brussels you can book on www.sncf.fr. There is a bus to Salies de Bearn, and it is in the french railways' booking service, so you could in theory book Hendays - Salies de Bearn, and onwards to Brussel on www.sncf.fr. The bus is infrequent though, which is why I suggest the rental car.

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well lots of travel there, lets see if can give my five cents worth yes its a challenge going to Lourdes, but I guess they made it an effort to get there and enlighten you. 1) Pau I would assume has connections to LOurdes, never taken it, I know for sure you can get there from Toulouse or Tarbes. 2) you can take bus 16 from Salies de Bearn to Orthez, then from there see if has connections to Lourdes probably passing by Pau or Tarbes. 3) train but not Eurail pass, you can book as you go cheaper. It probably needs changes in Paris before going on to Brussels 4) Thalys train or the local connection see the belgium rail site http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/ 5) Eurail is expensive, high commissions as own by European railroads with SNCF of France a big shareholder. low cost airlines might be an option, to check and compare the French railroads and travel site is at www.voyages-sncf.com , you can play in French with all dates and times, locations there, I think once in train section is pretty easy even without French. HOpe it helps your planning

KVB and Gwened, Thank you so much for your prompt responses. I will research your suggestions. KVB, in regards to your question about car rental, I don't actually feel comfortable doing that. While I'm considered a road-warrior in the States, I feel anxious about driving in a foreign country where I have to quickly orient to driving the opposite of the way we drive. With my luck, I might get confused on the road and then accidentally hit a cow or something. ;-/ ~pickles

hey I am from Florida living in France, French-American, car I am the road warrior here, the car is easier here than in NYC where I learned to drive long time ago. you drive on same side where you are going ::) so its an option for real. And have driven all over Europe over the years. Cheers

and here at you the ones I used for 30 years and still going strong for car rentals in Europe; I was once a visitor too. www.autoeurope.com www.kemwel.com car rental brokers with all the majors. cheers

Don't worry to much about renting a car in France. I've done it too, and it is easy. I do't own a car myself because where I live there is a good public transport network, and finding out information about schedules is easy. If only it were as easy in France. In rural France a car is unfortunately essential. However, renting a car quickly becomes expensive if you do it across the border. A one way within France is OK, but for example renting a car in Barcelona and driving it to Amsterdam is going to be very expensive (and tiring). Getting from Barcelona to France by train is a challenge at the moment. This will change in the near future, but at the moment it is far from ideal. You could fly to Bordeaux from Barcelona. There are direct flights to Toulouse too. In each of these places you could rent a car, and afterwards return it and take a train to Brussels. From Bordeaux you even have a direct train to Brussel, so you wouldn't have to change in Paris, which can be a pain.