 Poster: A snowHead
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@RattytheSnowRat, I seriously doubt e-star is the reason for the threat to the overnight... which don't forget runs every day of the week.
So useful for Savoie commuters wanting a full day in Paris - I've actually used it on a Thursday coming back from a skiing trip to get to a 9am Friday meeting in Paris before continuing home that evening.
We think we've absolutely nailed the trip these days - leave work 4pm on a Friday; get a 6:30 E-star (with beer) ; nice dinner in Paris (with wine) ; 5, 6 hours of good / reasonable sleep (with whisky); on the slopes for 10am after breakfast / kit faff in 1950. Sweet.
Just in case they do decide to cancel it, we're going to try to do it twice this year...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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From my reading I think the overnight to BSM is under threat. The overnight to Briancon isn’t. However I guess we will know more in the next couple of weeks as the first load of tickets get released on 1st October don’t they?
When I went last year, it was indeed packed and completely full AFAIK. Surely it would make more sense to just cut the service back to Friday-Sunday as I would wonder how busy it is mid week?
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Sowler i've usually used the night train mid-week, and usually full.
Lots of us go mid-week if we can.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Sorry to keep this thread alive, but looking to book the return leg of Paris to London Eurostar for Sunday April 3rd as they were released today.
Does anyone know what time the intercitie de nuit/lunea will typically get into Paris on the Sunday morning? I saw a note on the SNCF website that the service leaves Bourg an hour earlier at the weekend, but no indication of the actual timings. Has the schedule varied much year on year, for those who've regularly taken it?
And factoring in a leisurely breakfast somewhere, and transfer to Gard de Nord, what's a reasonable Eurostar to aim for, in your experience? Pretty sure we'll be done with holiday mode and just want to be getting home at this point.
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@Pejoli, Its a few years since I did that trip but nothing changes much - I seem to remember that a 0900 Eurostar was tight and 1000 or later was OK.
EDIT: The very early Dec Corail sleepers are now available Sun 6 the outbound leaves Paris at 2256 arrives BSM 0744, return Journey Sat 12 th 2025/0619 but some days do no have trains so not sure about daily variations, but an 0619 arrival at Austerlitz would see you safely at Gare Du Nord by 0715 (by Metro) so with brekky and a bit of faff time 0900 would now appear to be OK. The next batch of winter tickets will be released on 15 Oct which will give you a better idea. Also you could call Rail Europe and ask for non binding advice!
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Pejoli, first train on Sundays appears to be 08:13. You should easily get that.
Weekdays i get the 07:43. Often could easily get the 07:13, but never had the nerve to get tickets for that one.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I too got the 10am last year after getting into Paris at just after 6am and found the 10am far too late really. Gone for the 9am this year.
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Thanks everyone - ended up going for the 10am, we decided as it's our first time, and with three kids in tow, we could live with a bit of slack. Have done the same on the way out (arrive in Paris at 5pm) - we figured who knows what surprises Eurotunnel and the situation there might throw at us!
Also found the snow carbon site had the train times summarized, for future reference:
http://www.snowcarbon.co.uk/ski-resorts/les-arcs
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Pejoli, that snowcarbon list of trains misses out some - there are at least 2 more weekday daytime French trains going out: one 2ish arriving about 9pm, and another even later.
All weekday trains involve a change at Chambery. Some weekend trains are direct.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Can anyone confirm the next opening dates for overnight sleeper tickets? Is it November 6th or 5th?
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The next release date is 6th November.
Also check to see if you can book the overnight trains now.
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You know it makes sense.
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Thanks Andrew, do you know what time they are released? Is it 5 am UK time?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Reports said it was 5am. I tried overnight, and it was closed.
In the morning I was up at about 7am UK time (8am CET) and booked then.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I have managed to get my outward train, I wasn't as lucky as last year and couldn't get a 1st Class Couchette at the super cheap price (Prems) ~£50 each way and had to settle for a 2nd Class for the same price. I can only guess I wasn't fast enough even though I was up at 5am!
However I am slightly confused as there are no couchettes for my return leg on the 5th March, would I be right in saying these will be released in the next batch in December?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Sowler, when were you booking for? The higher price may be coz trains for December and January (and first few days of February) went on sale last month.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@Sowler at least some of the trains were released by 01:30 this morning. I booked my outward journey then (at a not brilliant price) and the return at 6. Those are French times, btw. So this time SNCF were true to their promise to release tickets "sometime after midnight". I'm just glad I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to try...by 09:00 there were no tickets left for the train I wanted 
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So, can anyone confirm when couchette tickets for Fri 26th March will be available? I'd calculated it to be Dec 26th calendar wise, but if tickets are available into early March, is that right?
Also - I wanted to book out the sixth berth (as there's five of us) with espace privee but it seems none of the web sites support this for second class (captain train only seems to allow it for first). Anyone found a way to do this *and* get the cheap midnight ticket prices (ie not wait to purchase over the phone with SNCF in the morning?). Can you do it retrospectively once you've bought the tickets? Or do you just have to buy a sixth child ticket?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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This is the information from the SNCF website - it is there - but takes so much searching!
Trains on 7 March 2016 are open to booking on 7 December 2015
Then they are on the standard three months process - eg
8 March 2016 opens 8 December 2015
26 March 2016 opens 26 December 2015
- etc
But always worth checking with the overnight trains if they open them for booking outside the standard TGV timetable. And the opening days may be advanced by a day or two in they fall on official holidays.
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We booked espace privatif 2nd class through captain train last year but it looks like the SNCF aren't allowing it for the weekend trains this year, at least for the winter blocks of dates they've released. I tried a few different dates on voyages-sncf and captain train and could select it on Thursdays, but not Fridays. We went with the child ticket option as the price difference was small compared to losing out on the cheaper tickets.
Our return trip is back in the normal 3 month ticket release, be interesting to see if the option returns then too.
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Yes, mgrolf, there were a couple of trains available before the declared hour of 5am. Fortunately none that i wanted, so got a good price for my trains.
But come the usual booking time of 3 months, as AndrewsPeppers warns, 3 months seems to be variously interpreted: 3 months exactly? 90 days? 91 days? - doesn't seem consistent.
And come the 3 months window: the opening time is usually midnight rather than 5am.
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Well regarding me not being able to find the 5th March tickets. It seemed they weren't loaded on to the 'system' until much later in the day than the 5am release time. I kept checking Captain Train and they still weren't there so I rang voyages SNCF and about 11am and they said they are on there. Check back on Captain Train and still nothing. Checked the voyages sncf site and Loco2 and there they were, luckily I managed to get the super cheap tickets in a 4 berth as there were still some left. From now on I'm going to avoid Captain Train as I suspect they also helped me miss getting the outward tickets that I wanted, I'll stick with using Loco2 in the future. I would also say that Friday night trains out of Paris are unsurprisingly very popular.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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interesting you are having trouble with Captain Train, Sowler, I've found them quite excellent: they give you far more versatility in choosing your type of seat, and allow you to book all the way through to Aime when you have to change at Chambery but your seat is 1st class on the TGV from Paris.
Admittedly i've not gone for the night train this year - more convenient to use the day train during the week.
It would be interesting to discover why they didn't show your night train for March 5th . . . 
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The SNCF fares for trains over the weekend of 11 March have all been released however the night couchette trains from Paris Austerlitz are shown as not open. Does anyone know why this is please, I have not had this problem in previous years when booking the same weekend for some visitors.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Duster, just checked with Captaintrain - they show the same: the Gare Lyon sit-up-all-night is there as usual, but no Austerlitz couchette train. Very strange. 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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The return ones from Moutiers to Austerlitz for that weekend are also shown as not open. As you say strange.
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Yeah something isn't right. I'm trying to book Bourg -> Paris on Saturday 12th March and it has disappeared completely, earlier in the week it was showing as not yet open as you'd expect but I can't find it at all now
The intercites de nuit trains on other routes for the same dates aren't bookable yet either.
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You know it makes sense.
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No change to this - I spoke to the sncf office in London, the one in France *and* sent them an email question - basically they don't have a definitive answer as they are just an agency, so only know what they see on their systems. I then emailed Mr Seat 61 himself - Mark Smith was very helpful, but basically it's still not clear - the schedule is in the ERT, so in his opinion it may well just be a delay in releasing the tickets (not uncommon for this line apparently), but we'll just have to wait and see.
What are people's plan B's if this is not running? I'd rather not have to take the TGV overnight, but don't want to walk away from five eurostar returns from Paris if I can help it.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@Pejoli, cheap(ish!) hotel in Paris, then early morning TGV?
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Poster: A snowHead
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As we ended up getting fairly early tickets into Paris, we could get an evening TGV to arrive in Bourg a bit before midnight (about £80 a seat) - but then would need to find someone for the night (a thread I'd raised back in Aug when I was looking at a nine-dayer). Bigger unknown is coming home - guess we would have to travel to Paris Saturday daytime, with a B&B there, but don't know how the trains work there as times aren't released yet. first guess is it will still work out cheaper than binning it all and getting an Easyjet/car hire.
Fingers crossed Mark is right and it will all come good, just wish they'd get a move on. If there is no news, it's not clear when we'd know definitively that the trains are not running.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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but then would need to find someone for the night
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Well it's possibly cheaper than a hotel I suppose...
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@ChrisWo, 
@Pejoli, the L'Autantic hotel do one nighters.
But I suspect cock up over conspiracy.
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Thanks for the tip @Artic Roll - or are we still doing @ChrisWo's joke ? 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Pejoli,
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Maybe go for the overnight TGV and see if you can get some flexible refundable tickets in the hope you can cancel them should the couchette tickets become available?
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The response from SNCF says that there will be no trains from Bourg after 1400hrs on the 12th for 24 hours. Why then are TGV's on sale for the 12th & 13th.
This is the usual response from the SNCF "help-desk", for trains around this date every year. I would wait as trains will run, but maybe not via the usual route.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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The sncf web page for that train (5705/5708) has it running for other dates (including mine on 25th), but not for the 12th http://www.sncf.com/fr/horaires-info-trafic
I'm keeping the faith that it and the return a week later are still showing. Spoke to the sncf office the other day, and they said they were still waiting for them to be loaded, but also thought they'd be running. Matter of keeping fingers crossed at the moment (and checking first thing every morning).
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And with perfect timing - they loaded the tickets overnight!
I didn't see the alert mail until I was on the bus to work, so phoned the london sncf office. I'd missed the cheapest tickets outbound, but managed to snag them for the trip back on the 2nd - so all in £600 for five of us there and back from Paris (including the private compartment extra). Including the £400 for the eurostar, I reckon it's pretty comparable with flying, factoring in the transfers/airport parking etc.
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FAQ
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