Derby to St Etienne Chateaucreux

[Hydro]

Ok, I am planning on making this journey fairly soon, and I have absolutely no idea how to start when planning a rail journey into Europe. Can anyone help? I gather it basically goes Derby - St. Pancs - Paris Nord - Paris Est - St Etienne. Who do I go through for tickets, National Rail, Eurostar or even SNCF?

Appreciate any help!

 

[VideozVideoz]

Hi Hydro. Try going this this site:

http://www.raileurope.co.uk

Enter the journey, it'll show you the trains and then you can buy the ticket.

 

[Hydro]

Cheers, I don't know if I'm just having a thick day, but that site isn't giving me any results; Derby - St Etienne just redirects me to "Domestic UK travel".

 

[VideozVideoz]

Sorry mate, you'll have to source the Derby-London portion separately but on the RailEurope website, your journey has to start from London as it only holds Eurostar services within the UK. If you put London - St Etienne then you will get results, not domestic UK travel website.

 

[Hydro]

Lovely stuff, thanks!

 

[dzug2]

The Eurostar site will get you from Derby to Lyon though

 

[lemonic]

www.seat61.com should help you.

 

[John @ home]

I find seat 61 is the best guide to buying international trains tickets.

 

[Hydro]

Rail Europe isn't giving me any results, I'll try seat 61 and anyone else. Utter pain in the arse, this is turning out to be.

 

[Drsatan]

I'd recommend buying the tickets seperately, so buy an AP return from Derby to St Pancras, another from St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord, then another ticket from Gare de L'Est to St Etienne.

If you understand French you can buy the Gare De L'Est - St Etienne tickets on SNCF's website, where tickets are priced in Euros.

 

[dzug2]

Surely it's the Gare de Lyon???

 

[Railjet]

As dzug says, you can book from Derby - Lyon on the Eurostar website. You could then buy a ticket locally for the short run to St Etienne. The normal fare is €10.10 each way on TER trains.

Compare against London - St Etienne (which you can book on raileurope) and an advance ticket Derby - London, for the date you want.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I would start with Eurostar or Raileurope.
But you may get a better deal by booking separately to Paris and then direct with SNCF at http://www.tgv.com/fr/les-reperes-tarifaires

TGVs to St Etienne are extensions of Lyon Perrache services and go from Paris Lyon.

 

[VideozVideoz]

Rail Europe isn't giving me any results, I'll try seat 61 and anyone else. Utter pain in the arse, this is turning out to be.

I dont know why you've struggled with raileurope website mate! It works perfectly here and it appears someone else in the forum has tried it and succeeded

 

[button_boxer]

I'd go for raileurope for the London to St Etienne bit and then phone Eurostar domestic sales (01233 617913) to book the Derby to London leg to connect with the Eurostar. These connecting tickets are covered by CIV (essentially if your UK train is late and you miss your Eurostar they're obliged to get you to your destination without additional charge) and they are a separate quota from the normal advance tickets so may be cheaper - I've got Derby to London advance tickets through Eurostar this way for £12 each way when the usual non-CIV advances were showing on booking sites at double that.