Train from Nice to St Malo

[1HarryHall!]

There are two of us doing the France En Velo next May. Just need some advice on getting the bikes back on the train from Nice to St Malo. Anyone done this in May? Weather?
Many Thanks,
Julie

[Jdsk]

I recommend:
viewtopic.php?t=157210
https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-france.htm

NB Different TGV routes have different rules for bikes. And there is now a cheap service: Ouigo.

We hired a car with a one-way drop-off.

Jonathan

[stephenjfoster]

I did it this May. It’s a great route - though I did have a fair bit of rain. I got back to the UK by taking the sleeper train from Nice to Paris, the TER train from Paris to Calais and then the ferry to Dover. You can book tickets and make bike reservations easily on the SNCF Connect app. You don’t need a bike reservation for the TER slow train from Paris to Calais Ville (the one that goes through Amiens). To plan a different route (eg. Nice to St Malo), I find the Deutsch Bahn app best for planning. You can select only trains that accept bikes and select minimum transfer times. I have no experience of purchasing tickets on that app, but the SNCF Connect app is easy to use - though you might need to purchase separate tickets for each leg of your journey if your preferred combination of trains isn’t offered on a single ticket. Hope you have a good trip.

[nirakaro]

Just one small detail to add: Deutsche Bahn thinks that you can’t take bikes on the TER to Calais Ville. But you can. I have.

[scragend]

Just one small detail to add: Deutsche Bahn thinks that you can’t take bikes on the TER to Calais Ville. But you can. I have.

You can on the normal TER but not if it's the TER-GV service. This uses TGV rolling stock, runs on the high speed line and doesn't take bikes. It's technically a TER, but also not.

Also, on booking engines TER can be shown as not taking bikes because you don't have to make reservations for them - similarly to how in the UK you will get told that bike reservations aren't available on Northern, because they don't do them. You just get on.

[mjr]

Just one small detail to add: Deutsche Bahn thinks that you can’t take bikes on the TER to Calais Ville. But you can. I have.

You can on the normal TER but not if it's the TER-GV service. This uses TGV rolling stock, runs on the high speed line and doesn't take bikes. It's technically a TER, but also not.

Because these days, the service type (TER, TGV, IC, Ouigo, whatever) is more about who underwrites it than what train it is or what sort of route it's serving.

Also, on booking engines TER can be shown as not taking bikes because you don't have to make reservations for them - similarly to how in the UK you will get told that bike reservations aren't available on Northern, because they don't do them. You just get on.

This means that ticking the "bicycle services“/"Fahrradmitnahmen" box won't find any routes to places with such services, which is a bit unhelpful.

DB's website never used to sell tickets only involving SNCF services, either. That may have changed.

[scragend]

DB's website never used to sell tickets only involving SNCF services, either. That may have changed.

I think it changed with the recent new DB website. I've just tried it on a dummy booking from Calais to Paris; it wouldn't sell a ticket on a TER service, but it would for a TGV (having redirected to DB International).

[windysmithy]

We recently hired a car for 24hrs from nice to Brest airport (not far from Roscoff).
cost 78 euros, fuel 160 euros, peage 68 euros, and another 24 euros for 2 additional drivers for the 15 hr drive. Worked for us, as we live between plymouth and Poole.
It was a 7 seater peugeot 8006 or suchlike, which was roomy enough for three bikes and people, with plenty of legroom and a good stereo. through Booking.com.
We had planned to get the train but the bike spaces were booked up. worked out cheaper for the three of us in any case. Not what we had expected, but it was ok and im glad i thought of that as the train booking websites were a bit rubbish tbh.

[1HarryHall!]

Just wanted to thank everyone who helpfully replied to my posting. We are off in May and I'm now in a tangle of booking bikes and train to get home - the cycling is the easy bit!! Thanks again