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Paris to Rome by sleeper train
By | September 18, 2007
John Valentine on his train trip between two great European cities
Paris is the great rail hub of western Europe. Every night of the week trains leave various stations in the city to cross the continent to the north, east and south - and every night, in the middle of the night when most passengers are asleep, each train meets its counterpart travelling back towards Paris. It’s good to remember, on this little cheap-flights addicted island of ours, that trains are still a mainstream method of mass transport, with many hundreds of people every night making international journeys in mainland Europe.
One of the longest of these journeys is the 700-mile journey from Paris to Rome, on the Palatino express. It leaves Gare de Bercy just after 7pm each evening, and arrives – or is supposed to arrive – at Rome Termini station a few minutes before 10am the following morning. It stops briefly for custom checks in Switzerland (not in the EU), then goes through the Alps to stop at Bologna at about 6am and Florence 75 minutes later. If you wake early, the scenery in northern Italy is breathtaking.
Waking early may depend on how well fed and watered you were during the previous evening. The dining car does an ok dinner for 26 euros and much better half-bottles of wine for 7 euros – the best bit is the evening views of south-western France, or on the return journey the approaches to the Alps. But many people take a picnic and top up their supplies of panini and drinks at the bar. Either way, if you have booked a sleeping compartment (1, 2 or 3 berth) the attendant will come and convert it from sitting room to bedroom while you are at dinner or when you ask, but if you are in a 4 or 6 berth couchette compartment you have to do that yourself. Bedding is supplied for all berths.
Recently three of us travelled together and had a three-berth compartment – roomy with a wash basin tucked into a corner, with complementary towels, soap, bottled water and morning breakfast. No breakfast if you travel in the couchettes, but for four travelling together a four-berth couchette is a good option, a good deal cheaper than two adjacent two-berth compartments. Singles or twosomes on a budget can book berths in couchettes, which are gender segregated unless fully booked by one party. Bear in mind that space for luggage is limited in the six-berth couchettes.
Our train was an hour late into Rome and (more importantly for the Eurostar connection) the train back to Paris was also an hour late. We stayed at the Hotel des Artistes, a busy, young and international 40-room hotel within walking distance of the station and with the bonus of a roof terrace for take-out pizzas, games (from reception) and conversation. If you need somewhere to stay on arrival, leave Termini station by the Via Marsala exit (next to platform 1) – there are lots of 1, 2 and 3 star pensions and hotels in the side streets opposite the station.
The city is quite small and many of the ancient sites walkable – the metro is not all that useful, though there are stops at Termini station and at the Colliseum. In late August Rome was hot and busy, and we were grateful for the water fountains scattered everywhere. On our third and last evening in Rome we took bus 660 to Via Appia Antica and walked for a few hundred quiet and traffic-free meters along the same flagstones as the imperial legions. Then a train south to Anzio (trains hourly, journey time one hour) to catch a hydrofoil to the island of Ponza (check the Vetor website for times – supposedly a 75 minute journey though ours was late both ways). Ponza is a jewel which the Italians like to keep for themselves: we didn’t hear or read a single work of English during our stay.
Some notes on booking trains
The whole system is soon to be rationalised and made more user-friendly, but until then the only easy way to book European rail journeys is to talk to an agency on the phone. The trouble is that the cheapest fares – called Prems – are only available on the internet, and the agencies charge the normal fares – presumably this is where they make their margin. So it’s worth getting to know your way around the websites – a berth in a 4-couchette compartment from Paris to Rome and back starts at £88 on line, but the normal fares start at £140.
It’s best to book trips from London as two separate journeys – London to Paris (or Brussels to pick up trains to Germany and eastern Europe) and then Paris to your destination. The main reason is that booking for continental sleeper trains opens three months (90 days) before the date of travel, but Eurostar accepts bookings much further ahead. So book the Eurostar trip (on their website) as far ahead as you can, bearing in mind that, as always, early booking gets the cheapest seats. It is usually possible to get a return fare for £59, although all the trains into London on Sundays book up quickly. Eurostar train times are changing with the opening of the St Pancras terminal, but you need to leave an hour to get from Gare du Nord to Gare de Bercy. Allow two hours on the return journey, to allow for the sleeper to be late and for passport control at Gare du Nord.
For the Paris-Rome leg we used the SNCF website, paid in Euros with a UK credit card, and had them send the tickets to us in the UK. This works well (there is an ‘English’ button at the bottom of the homepage) but it’s important to remember that the 90-day restriction applies to the date of your return journey, not your outward journey. The Rail Europe site uses the SNCF booking system, and accepts payment in pounds – both sites are fairly user-unfriendly at the moment and need patience. But they do work, and will provide cheap fares for journeys in much of Europe. There are other online booking sites, in particular Deutche Bahn for trips to Germany and eastern Europe – see the amazing website seat61.com for further suggestions but beware: the author’s enthusiasm is infectious, and you could easily find yourself booking trips to some fairly exotic places.
A final note about getting across Paris. All Eurostar trains arrive at Gare du Nord, but the sleepers leave from several different stations. Trains to Italy leave from Gare de Bercy, which is a pretty obscure station that no-one in the tourist information office at Nord had heard of. Leave the Eurostar platform and turn left to Metro line 4. At the small ticket window on your right buy enough single tickets (1 euro each) for outward and return journeys – it’s difficult to buy metro tickets at Bercy. On Metro line 4 (direction Porte d’Orleans) go to Chatelet les Halles and change onto line 14 (direction Olympiades) to Bercy. The main line station is round the corner. It all takes about 20 minutes.
Topics: Alternatives to Air Travel, Business Travel, European Destinations, Rail Travel, Your Experiences |
October 12th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Shame there is no mention http://www.seat61.com in this article as it will help lots of people plan their travels by rail and ship all over the world, not just Europe.
In addition to what’s written about booking train journeys to Europe by phone, on this site you can actually find out how to book your journeys online and find great tips.
For example to complement the article above - see http://www.seat61.com/Italy.htm#Rome
Best Wishes,
Nic x
October 12th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
An interesting article. I am suprised that no one at Gare du Nord had heard of Bercy - it is a major station that handles a lot of motorail trains and the Italian overnight services. Although it is arguably less known than the other Paris stations any SNCF employee worth their salt would know it.
Nicolette - If you had read the article fully you would have seen in the penultimate paragraph that your husband’s excellent website is indeed mentioned! I can vouch for the usefulness of http://www.seat61.com - it has been the catalyst for many very enjoyable overland trips I have had. Best wishes to all fellow overland travellers!
November 9th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I guess we should have made a hyperlink to http://www.seat61.com - sorry about that. But I share Toby’s opinion that it is the most amazing resource for rail travellers, the trailblazer to which all writers on the subject owe a debt of gratitude.
December 4th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
We’ve just got back from making the journey you describe, sort of - London to Paris to Rome in the sleeper train, then by rail to Siena, then Florence, then back to Paric (and London) by sleeper. It was an amaxing journey - we’ve got a 10-month-old and she had plenty of space to run around and really enjoyed the train. I felt the sleeper train was a real adventure; it’s quite expensive to book a compartment if you compare it with flying, but not if you think of it as a night’s accommodation. Both our trains were delayed too, but we’d booked to have a whole day in Paris each way so it wasn’t too much of a problem and that made a nice addition to the holiday. And yes, we couldn’t have done it without seat61.com! We’re already talking about where we’ll go next time…
May 27th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
We recently did the return trip on the Palatino. Was there ever a more inadequate and inconvenient station than Bercy? We landed up in couchettes. They were NOT segregated by sex. My wife and I had a woman and a man - unconnected to us or to each other - in with us. Our other surprise was that a very experienced travel agent, booking through a very experienced rail agent, promised us emphatically and in writing that the berths he was booking for us were in a 4 berth sleeper and were not couchettes. They persisted in this even after the tickets arrived clearly saying “couchette”. Despite serious doubts [ a 4 berth sleeper ??! ] and having already paid, we went ahead. The berths were of course couchettes. So beware of anyone offering anything in a “4 berth sleeper”. There is no such thing.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Sorry to hear of your bad experience Michael. Normally if you use a dedicated rail agent these problems do not occur. seat61.com would have been a good initial reference point as Mark lists the different sleeping accomodation on the overnight trains.
As for you question “Was there ever a more inadequate and inconvenient station than Bercy?” Yes, there are plenty. Bercy is served by metro lines 6 and 14. It appears on all Paris metro maps. It takes no more than 20 minutes from Gare du Nord. There are plenty of cafes a short walk from the station. Whats the problem? Poor old Bercy gets a bashing on this page. It’s not so bad!
May 29th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Do you know of any good low cost pensions near the Gare du Nord