Cycling UK Forum

Three of us are due to travel back to portsmouth after a July tour from St Malo to bezier/the med..

Our sticking point is actually getting back to St Malo. Looks like we have to take the train to Nantes, then cycle the last 100 miles or so back to St Malo. We're not that keen to add a day and a half to the trip so anyone have any ideas on transport for that last stretch? Even a train which got us a bit closer would be better.

You could use the Bike Express.

Ta.

Just emailed them. I'm thinking if we can get to Paris on the BE, we must be able to get a train north west from there to St Malo.

Can't seem to find any info about TER trains from Paris to St Malo, and I'm told that we won't get three bikes on a TGV.
Grateful for any info.

TGV to Rennes then a local train to St Malo?

http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/SW12/SW12_Train_Timetable.pdf suggests it.

Deutsches BundesBahn's website is often cited as the best for european info.

TY barrenfluffit - great name by the way - but I'm told by experienced French hands that you can't get the bikes onto a TGV.
If we could, we'd skip the return via St Malo alltogether - and the van idea, just going down to Portsmouth on the train then coming back
via TGV to Calais.

The EBE could take you to Dover, or closer to home (depending on where you live).

Maybe train to Portsmouth and then EBE coming back is the most time effective answer.

You could fly.
I got back from Narbonne to London very easily last summer. Train, through Beziers, to Montpelier and Easyjet to Gatwick.
You could then get a train on from London to Portsmouth. Would be quicker than the bike bus and may not be more expensive.

How about an overnight train (Corail Lunea) back to Paris? I've done this from Cerbere, then taken a regional train to Le Havre, and the ferry back to Portsmouth (it was cheaper than Brittany Ferries).

I'm pretty sure all the overnight trains will carry bikes.

David

Thanks David.

You know I'd just discovered this option. Now just need to make sure we can get booked in time to get a decent price. I'm definitely going to recommend the sleeper train to my mates, in fact already have.

Its a good option, much safer for your bike, and can be quite cheap. Does take a while though.

I had good luck with pricing by using the sncf website, then phoning up sncf to pay as it wasn't possible to book my bike space online. It was ridiculously cheap, booking a couple of months ahead.

There were some very cheap fares on the sncf site that didn't show up on raileurope.

Cheers

David

Cheap is certainly where we're at! Ta David, I'll look into it.

Mike