Longer Eurostar Breaks
On the subject of slightly longer
Eurostar breaks, I thought I'd write about the time we decided to visit Orleans, in the Northwest of France. Having been on Eurostar breaks to Paris several times before, we wanted to see a bit more of the French countryside and in particular the Loire valley. I did a bit of research and discovered it was possible to book a through train ticket just like other Eurostar breaks, with the high speed TGV train to Orleans included.
Eurostar breaks to Orleans, France
The way it works is just like many other
Eurostar deals. You get a set of tickets that cover the main Eurostar journey from London to Paris, and then the onward connection from Paris to Orleans. I think we were allowed about an hour and a half to get across Paris from teh Gare du Nord to Gare Montparnasse, which is more than enough really. Because Montparnasse isn't an international Station like St Pancras or gare du Nord in Paris, there's no need to turn up at least half an hour before the train departure time and check in a bit like at an airport. You just have to validate or "compost" your ticket, which is something that happens on french railways a lot. I don;t know why, I suppose it's a bit like clicking in with an Oystercard except that you've already paid for the exact journey at that time.
My research had shown that there was a nice place to stay down by the riverside just out of town at Orleans and I'd printed out the address to give to a taxi driver, never having visited that particular city before. It worked very well, and we had a lovely time walking back into the interesting historic city of Orleans along the riverbank several times during our break. Realistically you have to allow the best part of a day to travel from door to door, but it's not an unpleasant journey with an opportunity for a lunch break in Paris depending on what time you set out. I wouldn't try to do this for a weekend, that's better suited to short
Paris breaks but for longer Eurostar breaks in France, Orleans is throughly recommended.
