Leaving Your Trip in MONTBARD

This page offers help (concrete or informational) on leaving your trip. Topics include...

1. Where you leave your trip (see immediately below)
2. The closest airports.
3. Our “Access Packages,” designed to help you travel onwards from your trip.
4. Suggestions on how to time your ongoing travel, whether you are having us arrange it, or doing it yourself.
5. Service information regarding train travel from your trip end location.
6. Suggested post-trip visits, especially when these are not geographically obvious, but are rendered economical and convenient by direct rail connections.
7. Hopefully helpful hints for those setting up their own travel from the trip.

If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.

1. WHERE and WHEN Do You Leave Your Trip?

Your trip disbands in Montbard, a regional center and market town, on Friday, after a full day of biking, wine tasting, and other foolishness.

If you wish to arrange your own ongoing travel (in other words, you do not want to set up any ongoing travel arrangements through us), a couple of hints regarding ongoing travel are offered at the bottom of this page. Otherwise, look over our “Access Packages,” below.



2. The CLOSEST AIRPORTS

The closest airports are in Paris, at least in terms of travel time.
Geneva and Lyon are approximately as close in terms of distance, but each takes quite a bit longer to reach.



3. Our ACCESS PACKAGES
as of January 20, 2008

Our “Access Package” includes a hotel night, breakfast on Saturday morning (if you have time for it), and train tickets to Paris, or direct to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport.

Our London “Access Package” additionally includes a train from either Paris or Lille (depending on the best connection point) to London.

Base (Starting) Access Package Price: 95 €.
If you are a North American traveller, the $ price (US or Canadian) on your price chart applies until 35 days prior to trip departure. Otherwise euro prices are transcribed to your invoice in its currency, converted at the exchange rate of the day on which the package is requested (rounded to the nearest whole dollar or pound). Current “mid-market” rates can be consulted from the site we use for conversion. We use the mid-market rate on the day of conversion, and add 2% to cover currency broker exchange commissions (our conversion rates are thus as good as, or better than, any you could obtain, including via your credit card, unless you are a professional currency trader).

Availability is normally guaranteed until 35 days prior to trip start (payment received by us). Within 35 days, availability must be confirmed, and costs may be slightly higher. Some extra-cost options also have higher prices if ordered w/in 35 days.

Included:

• A hotel night in Montbard, based on double / twin occupancy (price guaranteed to singles willing to share until 30 days prior to trip start). Typically, many of your past weeks’ travelling companions will also be staying over.
• Breakfast, if you have time / get up for it.
• 2nd cl. daylight train tickets via high-speed train from Montbard to Paris, or to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. Tickets not refundable or exchangeable once ordered.
• Seat reservations on the TGV (high-speed train), and on any other trains which require them.
• A printed schedule / itinerary, highlighting any connections.

OR

• A festive Burgundian dinner in Montbard on Friday night.
• Friday overnight train to Nice (or elsewhere on the Côte d'Azur), Rome, Florence or Venice.
  Couchette included. Sleeping car upgrades are available to Rome, Florence or Venice.
• A printed schedule / itinerary, highlighting any connections.
  
  

Our “Ride the Bike Train” Discount Access Package includes all of the above, but you take your bike with you on the train to Paris, and you may have to ride it to our office when you arrive there.
Either of the Saturday morning TGV's can carry our bikes by special arrangement, and there is even a Friday evening local service that does, if this better suits your plans (however, it requires a connection, and adds 90 minutes to the trip).

Base (Starting) Access Package Price: 59 €
No upgrades available. The Friday evening local train to Paris (no lodging or meals) is available for 19€.


Options Offered at an Extra Cost (subject to availability)
Prices are in addition to the “Base” Access Package Price. For a general discussion of train upgrades, see here. Topics include the relative comfort of first versus second class, and different types of accommodation available on overnight trains.

• 1st class tickets to Paris: 17€.
• Tickets to London. Add 69€ if you are also purchasing tickets from London at the start of your trip, 109€ if not, or if you prefer a changeable ticket (in 1st cl., add 109€ or 145€; 1st class tickets include meal service).
• Saturday daylight trains to any of the following (prices include required seat reservations):
  - Nice: 43€ 2nd class, 62€ 1st class.
  These rates represent substantial discounts, but they are often available on weekends.
  - Zurich (city or airport), or Milan: 55€ 2nd class, 69€ 1st class.
  - Venice or Florence: 69€ 2nd class, 85€ 1st class.
• Saturday overnight train to Nice (or elsewhere on the Côte d'Azur), Rome, Florence or Venice: +59 €. Couchette included. See below for upgrade options.
• Overnight Train Upgrade from 2nd class couchette: 24€ to “Comfort Couchette.” Sleeping car cabins, to Italy only: 29€ to a triple cabin, 49€ to double cabin, 109€ to a private single cabin.
• Higher fare code exchangeable or partly refundable tickets: 22€ on any route, in either class.
  These tickets are exchangeable at any station, on a space-available basis, at any time until the train’s departure, for free if the exchange is made prior to the date of travel, or for 10€ on the date of travel. Cost of either exchange is 10€ higher if you make it through us. Tickets are refundable less 20% before the train’s departure.
  
• Single room in Montbard, +25€.
• Additional nights in Montbard: 41€ / person double or twin, 64€ single.
  Including taxes, breakfast not included.
• Paris airport train tickets, to Charles de Gaulle or Orly from anywhere in downtown Paris.
  Follow this link for details.
  This ticket is not necessary if you are taking the one daily TGV from Montbard direct to the airport.
  

Alternate Arrangements, in lieu of our usual packages (subject to availability)
Prices are complete (in other words, they are not in addition to the “Base” Access Package Price).

• Friday evening train to Paris: 2nd cl., 38€ non-modifiable (subject to availability), 52€ changeable.
  1st class: 46€ non-modifiable (subject to availability), 75€ changeable.

4. TIMING Your Trip

If we may influence your thinking on the topic of timing... Montbard is pleasant, but small. If you are travelling out on a Saturday plane from Paris, this is a nice, relaxing way to end your French stay: there are a couple of good restaurants in town, plenty to do of an evening, and it is not worth fighting your way into Paris for a 10p arrival, only to head out to the airport early the next morning.

However, if you can make real progress in your travels (say, by taking the night train to Venice), the evening in Montbard is something you can afford to miss.

Like airplanes, trains from Montbard require reservations. If you make your arrangements through us, you must not only tell us where you wish to go, but on which train you wish to travel. Allow ample time to connect to a flight: the airline is not responsible for train delays, and though these are rare, they can happen. Moreover, it can take a while to get from train to check-in counter. Note that there is only one direct daily train to Charles de Gaulle airport (see “Service Information,” below). At all other times, you must travel to downtown Paris and catch the airport shuttle train from there.



5. Service Information
Schedules are approximate – exact timetables can be consulted at http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm.
Best trains are mentioned. Others are slower or have multiple connections.

• To Paris. Travel time is 70 minutes, Saturday service runs at 7:30a and 11:30a.
  There is also an 8:30a train with a connection in Disneyland, of all places — you take the métro into town from there. The last Friday evening TGV runs at 6p. Locals at 7p and 9p reach Paris in 2 hours.
• To Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport (direct, not via downtown Paris). One daily train, departs circa 8:30a, arrives at 9:35a.
• To Lyon. Travel time 3 hours, service every 2 hours from 7:30a.
  Last Friday night train at 6:30p.
• To Geneva. Travel time is 5 hours, service every two hours from 7:30a.
  Last Friday night train at 6:30p.
• To Nice.
  - Overnight via Besançon (depart at 9:30p, arrive at 9a).
  - Daylight trains with a connection in nearby Dijon: 7:30a and 2:30p. Trip time is 8 hours.
  Many other services exist with a connection in Lyon or Marseille: trip time is typically around 9 hours.
• To Milan. 7:30a or 1:30p. 9-hour trip with two connections.
• To Venice, Florence or Rome.
  - Overnight, depart 8p for Florence or Rome, 9:30p for Venice. Or...
  - ...by daylight train at 7:30a, a 12-hour trip with 3 connections.
• To Zurich. Trains at 9:30a or 1:30p, 6-hour trip.
  Last Friday night train at 6:30p.
• To London. Via Lille at 8:20a, ar 1p London time. Via Paris, 7:30a or 11:30a, 5-hour trip.

6. Suggested POST-TRIP VISITS

Zermatt, in the Swiss Alps, followed by a ride on the “Glacier Express” or a visit to incomparable Venice. Put together a schedule, and ask us for a quote.



7. Hints on TRAVELLING INDEPENDENTLY After the Trip
Guests subscribing to an “Access Package” need not read this section.

See also “Timing Your Trip” and “Service Information,” above, as either of these may additionally help.

We gladly provide travel consulting (schedule or routing information) concerning post-trip individual travel. In particular, we have invested a great deal to become railway experts. Our service fees are reasonable: a 20€ charge for all but the most complex projects – or the most simple (for instance, only a 10€ charge applies if the service is limited to the preparation of a routine rail ticket). You will generally find them well-justified by the time they will save you in research, standing on line, overpaying for your tickets, or all three.

But, for some, this type of research is fun. So, here are some hints, intended to start off hardened “do-it-yourselfers.”

Trains. Schedules for all routes can be consulted on this web site:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm

Montbard is served by TGV (high-speed train) to Paris, and once a day direct to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. Via connections in nearby Dijon, main line trains also run to elsewhere in France, Switzerland, northeastern Spain, and northern Italy. Overnight sleeper trains go to the south of France, Germany, Austria, Italy....



If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.