Wow! 3 holidays in 1.
2-day city mini break in Bordeaux (France), 7 nights in a resort by Lac Biscarrosse further south and an overnight in Paris, taking in our favourite Lebanese restaurant, before catching the Eurostar home.
Travel and accommodation all for £1,800 (25% cheaper than 10 nights in self-catering in Lanzerote).
Admittedly we’d been canny this year and secured 25% off our Interrail passes in their December annual sale, and 10% off Yelloh! Village in their new year sale. We also made the most of the free trip on the LNER back home, as part of our return leg of our Interrail ticket.
Our trip started with an after-school leg to London on the LNER, staying at the Premier Inn opposite St Pancras International. After our fill from the buffet breakfast (kids eat free), it was a stroll across Euston Road and within 30 minutes we were waiting in the departure lounge, having gone through border control.
Just like last year, the Eurostar glided from the platform at exactly 10:31, within 30 minutes you are in the Chunnel, 30 minutes later you’re in France, pulling up at Gare du Nord just before 2pm local time. One of the many benefits of train travel is that we can walk off the train and onto the Metro, without waiting for anything.
20 minutes later we are across Paris at Montparnasse, where we get the notification that there is a ‘staff social movement’ (French for strike action!) just for our Bordeaux train. Luckily the station is huge, with lots of shops, seating areas, charging ports & water fountains. And although a little bit warm and busy with the bank holiday heatwave, we manage to entertain ourselves for the additional 1hr30. Check out the counter selling rum based Canele’s, if you are passing through.
That evening we’ve arrived in Bordeaux, having travelled on the top deck of the TGV, at over 300kmph for a good proportion of the usual 2 hour, 500km trip (a similar distance as London to Edinburgh which takes over 4 hours).
A quick stroll to our nearby hotel to drop off the bags and we pop out to join the local families on a Friday evening in a local square, playing pétanque, drinking, eating and laughing in balmy weather.
There’s too much to do in Bordeaux we found, but the CityPass was great value, providing free access to trams, boat buses, bendy buses, bikes & scooters, as well as a free river boat tour (with the obligatory vin Bordeaux), entry to the very cool (it needed to be, since the temps outside where increasing) ‘Bassins des Lumieres’, a converted submarine base with light and sound show, and free entry to ‘La Cite du Vin’ (a museum of wine, although we didn’t make it this time). Evening was spent at a cafebar on the banks of the Garonne River, after exploring the cool Darwin Ecosysteme district.
The following day proved that even in France, they also need to maintain their railways, so a nice airconditioned bus took us the 86kms south to Ychoux, with an Uber to take us onto our Yelloh! Village resort on the shores of Lac Biscarrosse. Arriving earlier than planned, we even managed a sneaky dip in the pool, as daytime temperatures were now hitting an unseasonal 35degC.
And that’s how the week panned out, alternating between hours in the pool and the Lac, with a spot of paddle boarding and learning to play padel. Apart from the first busy Pentecost weekend, we virtually had the resort to ourselves. One evening we were still in the Lac at 9pm and it was still 30degC – it actually forced us all to stop and relax, lovely.
We hired a bike for the week to get to the local Intermarche, some 10 minutes away (it was air conditioned, so I was quite happy to do 2 or 3 trips that week). And once the temperatures had started to drop, we hired 2 more bikes to do a little exploring around the Lac (and some geocaching….shhh!).
At the end of our week, we returned to Paris on the TGV from Bordeaux, jumping across Paris on the Metro (thankfully avoiding the impact of the football ‘celebrations’ on the Champs-Elysees) and heading out to walk the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin to admire the street art and a cheeky few rounds of Uno in a canalside cafe. Before heading to our favourite Lebanese Indian restaurant near Sacre Coeur and our overnight hotel (within 30 seconds walk of the station).
After a relaxing continental breakfast in a café opposite the station, we pass through border control and onto our Eurostar bound for London. There’s an hour’s gap to grab some food between St.Pancras and Kings Cross, and then we are on the LNER to York (which you only have to reserve seats for free, since your Interrail covers your outbound and return legs).
Upon arriving home, I even had the time to do the Aldi shop, despite the inconvenience of the car being unusually broken into at Garforth station whilst away (very weird & took the edge off the end of our wonderful holiday).
Our hints and tips below. Not sure where to start? try flightfree.co.uk
Here’s the technical bit.
Friday; Eurostar #9018 10:31 London St.Pancras Int to Paris Nord 13:59
and TGV INOUI #8447 16:10 Paris to Bordeaux 19:06
Sunday; regional train 15:45 Bordeaux to Ychoux 17:15
Following Sunday; regional train 9:51 Ychoux to Bordeaux 10:36
and TGV INOUI #8562 12:12 Bordeaux to Paris 14:22
Monday; Eurostar #9019 10:01 Paris Nord to London St.Pancras Int 11:30
LNER; 12.30 London to York 14.16. 14.24 York
Hints and tips
Preload your Navigo cards for the Paris Metro ahead of your trip using your phone, allows you to avoid any stress buying them once in Paris.
The French seem to have bank holidays for the sake of bank holidays. This year was Pentecost weekend, so the campsite and pool were busy when we arrived, but we missed most of that, arriving on the Sunday afternoon. Last year it was Ascension long weekend, so its worth checking what bank holidays may impact your trip.
We bought a 4 day (use within 1 month) Interrail Global Pass costing £378 (25% off in December sale) for both adults (kids under 12 get a free pass! Seniors and Youth also get discounted passes). Passes are valid for 1 year and you don't activate them until just before you travel.
You then have to pay to reserve seats on the Eurostar and TGV, we did this through Rail Europe, costing c£300. The Interrail Global Pass saved us c£500 (v's individual ticket price).
We avoided travelling on weekends, especially here in the UK (perhaps might consider this in France now too).
Keep it simple. We only did 1 or 2 legs each day, at either end of our break.
If you were to miss a connection (or like this year, be affected by a French ‘staff social movement’, there's always another train in an hour or so). All major stations have good shops, where you can buy food/drinks.
On the return leg, you gain an hour, giving you more travelling time to get home.
There's a bit of preparation needed, you can't leave it to the last minute (we booked it all 3 months before travel). Happy to help anyone explore this way to travel in the future. Also, check out 'The Man in Seat 61' and various Facebook groups. Byway also offer flight free holidays. Now to book travel to Flaine for our ski break next year – thinking a couple nights in Cluses or Annecy, before returning home.
this is really encouraging – thanks for sharing
Excellent blog Adrian, must get on with mine for train/coach travel to Spain and Portugal
What a great trip and an excellent read. Train travel is definitely the best way to get around France – makes the journey part of the holiday. Thanks for sharing.
Incorporating the means of the journeys into the holiday is definitely the right mindset to have
We have done the sleeper train from The Hague to Berlin, and then Berlin to Amsterdam – it’s an adventure. We took the ferry to and from Rotherdam from Hull. Just rucksacks on our back.