Transfer from Paris to Rouen

[gent]

We are on the Azamara Baltic cruise leaving Rouen on 2 July. We'll be in Paris for a few days before and need to get to the port in Rouen. The only viable method I can see is via train. No problem except the last train leaves just after 6AM and gets to Rouen about 8. We'd like to spend the morning in Paris before we head for the ship. Does anyone know of any alternative methods (ALA Rome Cabs to Civitavecchia) for this transfer?

[Mimi33]

You could go the night before. Or go thru Amiens. Not sure why on some days there are very few trains to Rouen. This happened to us, too.

[moyaroo]

you could rent a car and drive but I would go a day early as suggested above, leaving Paris around noon will not leave much room for error.

[SarniaLo]

I looked the timetable on the French website for the French national railway company (http://www.voyages-sncf.com) and I find trains from Paris to Rouen almost every half-hour on July 2d (see attached file). However, all these trains (except the 6am one) are local trains ("intercités") and you can only buy your ticket 3 months in advance (and for some reasons that I don't understand, they don't seem to show up on raileurope.com :confused:)

 

So you can wait until early april and book your ticket directly on the French website, if you can manage the French ;) (I am ashamed that no decent English version is available...). Or you can just go to the train station on your departure day and buy your ticket there. Usually, these local trains don't have assigned seating (no seats reservation possible, first come/first seated basis), and even if you have a ticket for a specific time, you are allowed to board any other similar train for the same destination on the same day, so if you miss one train you can take the next one.

 

Note however that July 2d is going to be the beginning of the French summer holidays and the train stations can get quite hectic at that time of year, so you would be more confortable with buying your ticket ahead of time. It's possible to print the tickets directly from the French website.

Horaires_personnalises.pdf

[moyaroo]

generally English is available, look for the Brit flag in the upper right hand corner. When booking do not say you are from N. America, instead just say you will pick up in France.

[SarniaLo]

generally English is available, look for the Brit flag in the upper right hand corner. When booking do not say you are from N. America, instead just say you will pick up in France.

Maybe it's because I have a French IP adress, but when I do that I am automatically redirected to the French Website (in French). Maybe it's not the case if you access from a different country. But you can say you are in Great Britain, and you are redirected to a website in English (http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/) where the "Intercités" trains show up, so that could be the solution (why make things easy when they can be complicated...:p). But you still have to wait less than three months ahead to buy the ticket online, so tickets for July 2d will be available from April 2d only.

[moyaroo]

AAARGH!!! sncf have changed the website (again). It was once user friendly and multilingual. It is now easier to use than the last incarnation but only if you speak French. I read French so I am ok, but my advice now sucks! Thanks for noting it, SarniaLo.