On 10/01/2012 18:26, William-Paul Elliott wrote:
On Jan 10, 5:18 pm, wrote:
It's my birthday soon and because I have the time available next week
I decided that I'd treat myself to a day trip to continental Europe on
Wednesday 18th - I would plan on a basis of purely seeing how far I
could travel in a day before having to turn back towards home. London
- Marseille and return is just achievable within a day. Considering
that I've never been south of Paris on a TGV, a jaunt across LGV-SE
and LGV-Med all the way to Marseille would be new ground.

I logged on to the Eurostar website to see what fares are available.
£58 each way. Considering I'm booking just a week ahead that is a
respectable deal. I'll have it.

(N.B I'm under 25 so entitled to youth fares)http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z392/m82d1/1w.jpg

£58 outward on 05:40 London - Paris then 10:19 Paris - Marseille.http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z392/m82d1/2w.jpg

£58 return on 14:14 Marseille - Lille Europe then on 20:30 Lille
Europe - London.http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z392/m82d1/3w.jpg

Therefore the price should be £116 but at the payment page it's now
randomly inflated to £252 for no apparent reason! WTF!? :-?:-?:-?http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z392/m82d1/5w.jpg

I telephoned Eurostar and spoke to a very nice lady who tried to book
my itinerary over the phone, once again the grand total was £252
despite being quoted £58 each way. The booking clerk was also none the
wiser as to why two £58 tickets have inflated from £116 to
£252... :roll:

Plan B, I'll try Rail Europe. No tickets despite I've just found them
on Eurostar. :roll:http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z392/m82d1/6w.jpg

Plan C, I'll try Voyages SNCF. All goes well until the booking page
when I am introduced to an “erreur technique“.http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z392/m82d1/7w.jpg

Looks like I won't be going to Marseille, then.

As the saying goes, we can put man on the moon... :roll:


I've just checked, cheapest I can find is £117.50 each way on those
trains

FWIW, isn't there a direct train from Lille to Marseille?