I’ve been collaborating with researchers in Toulouse for about 18 months, and ever since my first visit I’ve wanted to take the Night train between Toulouse and Paris. With the excellent timing of organising a visit during the May half term in the UK (and hence completely ludicrous Eurostar and flight tickets), I finally got my chance!
ITINERARY:
Sat 16:30 – 18:00: Oxford Tube to Victoria (£18 return)
20:00 – 06.30: Flixbus to Paris Bercy via LeShuttle (£60 one way)
14.38 – 19.29: TGV Inoui direct from Paris Austerlitz to Toulouse (86€)
Friday: 20:05 – 20:49: Toulouse – Castelnaudry (5€)
21.37 – 06:30 – Sleeper! Castelnaudry – Paris Austerlitz (53€ including couchette supplement)
21:00 – 07:00 – Blablabus Paris Bercy to London Victoria via the ferry (£60)
7.25 – 09:10 – Oxford Tube coach from Victoria back to Oxford
I last too the overnight coach between London and Paris in 2016 and I vowed never to repeat the experience on the grounds of being too old. But, needs (and a dwindling pot of research funding) must and I found myself back at the old Flixbus.
As there were still no fast trains between Oxford and London, and my onward journey was from Victoria I took the Oxford tube. Although it was extremely sunny, the AC did its best and I survived the hot journey. Onboard wifi is spotty but the USB charging is good and there is great overhead storage. I booked dinner near Victoria – this worked in terms of timing and an attempt to cool down before the horror of the overnight journey.
Flixbus prices are much higher and the service seems to be worse – the bus itself was *unbearably* hot. I was sat in the back row, so I imagine the engine was heating things up, but nonetheless it was not a pleasant night. Seating is assigned and I would not have chosen the back seat (but I was too cheap to pay to select another alternative). The overheat storage is too narrow to take a work backpack, which meant my laptop was getting blasted with heat all night. There were USB or UK-plug charging points, but no wifi. I picked this service because it was the one that went via LeShuttle – this means although you have to disembark to go through passport control, you can stay overnight on the bus (foreshadowing for later). Paris Bercy is fine, but the toilets don’t open until 7 which is a bit awkward given our arrival time of 6.30am. I instead paid 1 euro for the toilets in Paris Austerlitz.
I felt less like death than expected in Paris, in spite of the inferno of the journey. I had booked my train for the afternoon in case there were train delays, and because direct services are not so frequent (a general issue with going to Toulouse). I also figured I deserved a morning in Paris given the length of my journey. Thankfully, my partner lived in Paris for a long time, so I had a long list of recommendations. The Jardin de Plantes opens early, so after a breakfast pastry I wandered round, visited the glasshouses and read my book in the shade. I grabbed a galette and some fresh fruit for lunch, drank a pint of coffee and wandered back to Austerlitz for my train. NB Jardin de Plantes has free public toilets and a water fountain to fill your bottle before the journey.
The train was pretty standard – double decker, ok overhead storage, not horrendously uncomfortable. The food service stopped partway through our journey (lucky that I brought lots of fruit and water!) At hour 3 I was very bored and ready to arrive, but I survived the next few hours until arriving in Toulouse.
My stay in Toulouse was productive and enjoyable! I got around on foot or by metro – no buses as they were on strike. Before I knew it, it was time for my sleeper train!
I booked all my tickets through Trainline which was very simple, and automatically gave me the option of taking an alternative and much cheaper sleeper train. I caught a local service to Castelnaudry, and ate my baguette on the platform along with another 20 or so people until our connecting sleeper service arrived.
This was my first time on a European sleeper, so I had read a few blogs to work out what to expect. If you book a couchette supplement (effectively a bunk bed) you get a numbered ticket for a specific bed. In 2nd class there are 6 beds per compartment, and in 1st class there are 4. You can request a women-only compartment, or a bottom bunk if you need one for mobility reasons.
When I arrived all my bunkmates were in their beds. Storage seemed a bit difficult to access – bags were supposed to be stowed over the door, but it was too high for me to reach from the floor. I ended up putting my 2 small backpacks at the end of my bunk, along with my shoes. You are provided with a sheet/sleeping bag hybrid, which I completely failed to put on properly, an eyemask, earplug and a bottle of water. The berth has an individual light and a plug socket, and a shelf for phone/book etc. It was hot when I arrived, but cooled down overnight, so I made use of my scarf as an additional blanket. The guard came to check my ticket when I was lying in my bed which seemed very bizarre.
I’ve only ever had a chair on sleeper trains, and the bunk was a game changer! I managed some sleep, but most importantly I didn’t get cramp or sore from sleeping at an unnatural angle. The 20 euro supplement for a berth was 100% worth it. We arrived at Austerlitz at 6.30am. Annoyingly, although there are showers they are only available for first class travellers (not ideal when you are doing two overnight journeys in a row!)
After a chilled day in Paris (feat. a delicious pain au chocolat, one silly museum, an enormous salad, a nap by the Seine, an aperol spritz, an artists’ squat, another museum) it was time for the bus. Originally I had booked to return with Flixbus, again booking the only service which went through LeShuttle. A few weeks before my trip I received an email from Flix to say that the time of my bus had changed slightly and we would now arrive in London at 4.30am. What they didn’t say was the route had also changed to take the ferry. I looked into swapping onto a service that arrived at a more reasonable time into London, but that would have cost an extra £60 (i.e. the price of the ticket again). Instead I cancelled my Flix booking, paying a £7 admin fee, and booked onto Blablabus which was 70 euros for much more reasonable departure times.
Blablabus is relatively new and a direct Flix competitor. The bus was less hot, and we weren’t allocated seats (good) but the USB chargers didn’t work and wifi is not included (less good). We also had a very entertaining/semi rogue bus driver who seemed pretty panicked that we wouldn’t make it through passport control in enough time to catch our ferry – thankfully we did as the next one wasn’t for another 2.5h. The ferry route is suboptimal because you aren’t able to stay on the coach – this means spending the middle of the night trying to rest in the blaring light and upright seats of the lounge. We arrived on time in London, and I managed to connect with a coach back to Oxford and make it back to my accommodation by 9am, having begun my journey roughly 34h earlier.
Would I do it again? The Toulouse – Paris sleeper 100%. It was so much more enjoyable and efficient than the daytime train.
London – Paris by coach: If the Eurostar tickets are silly I would consider it, but only via LeShuttle and probably not with Flix if at all possible.
TOP TIPS:
- If you can, break up your journey! Being able to stretch your legs, get fresh air and have a proper meal made this trip almost enjoyable rather than a nightmare. Plus I begrudge having to travel for work on my own time a lot less if there are some perks like “a day in Paris”.
- Don’t try to cram too much in: for my 2 days in Paris I did one “activity” and spent a lot of the rest of the time getting food, or reading my book/watching the world go by in the shade. This is half the fun of Paris and minimised me getting overtired and grumpy (especially in the heat!)
- Flixbus cannot be trusted
- Taking a coach via LeShuttle >> taking the ferry
- Booking through trainline was so smooth: show the tickets in the app (no need to composter) and it will even suggest split tickets/cheaper routes.
- Always book the couchette
Adventures of a Mathematician 