Have you ever seen one of the bike BAGs (housses) they are talking about? What does it weigh (if you want to keep it and carry it on your bike), and about how much do they cost?

Yes, I happen to have one. It weights nothing, can contain a big bike without taking the handlebar off, just low the seat and take off the wheels (they go in pockets on the side). The bike is not protected at all (except from the dust, hmm hmm) and the wheels are exposed. I find it very expensive, but very (around 70 Euros). If you need to take the TGV (the fast train) you might consider paying the fine. Talk with the train manager before leaving, he will let you put your bike at the back or front of the train for a 50 Euros fine. That's what I do. I can store my bike there fully geared, don't have to take anything down and I'm not bothered with the bike BAG during the trip...

There's a post about this on http://www.biketrip.org/documents/art_train.php it's not updated yet but I'll add some of this talk.

Alex

I last was in France in 1997. There has been one important change since then, which I will explain later.

Long distance trains (grandes lignes) are still operated by the national railway (SNCF - Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Françaises). Their website has useful information http://www.voyages-sncf.com at least some of it is in English as well as French (click on the little Union Jack for English).

Regional trains (TER - Train Express Régional) are still funded by SNCF but operated by regional Councils.

On the regional train schedules, there is a bicycle symbol above each train that allows bicycles. Most TER trains do allow bicycles. Usually (on newer equipment), there is a space at the end of each car for three bicycles hung on hooks. Sometimes there is just a BAGgage compartment at the end of one car. This is no hassle.

On the long distance trains (TGV high speed trains or Corail regular trains), you can always bring your bicycle on board IF IT IS IN A BAG OR CASE NO LARGER THAN ABOUT 4'x3' (120x90cm), so that it will fit on the luggage racks in the car or compartment. I used a sack that could have been rolled up and carried on my rear rack had I been doing itinerant touring. (I was only doing day trips so I just left the sack in the hotel.)

Some trains (especially in the summer) have special cars for roll-it-on-yourself bicycle transport.

Now the big change: You used to be able to bring the bicycle to the train station and send it as checked BAGgage. This was convenient, cheap, and safe. You didn't have to disassemble or reassemble anything. They used a special cardboard shield that protected the bicycle while allowing it to be rolled. You did have to allow for possible delay, especially if changing trains, but I never had a problem.

Now all checked BAGgage is carried by the SERNAM trucking company. You have to either take the bicycle to a SERNAM depot (about $30 to ship) or call for door-to-door service (about $45), giving them one day's notice.

Bon voyage et bonne route.

Herb Goodfriend

Have taken bicycles on trains in France on several occasions - it has not always been fun to say the least!

A few pointers: France is probably the most bicycle friendly country in Europe in terms of its rich network of secondary (yellow) roads. On the other hand, the train system in France is the least accomodating to bicycles.

Throughout France, bicycles are permitted on certain trains - the schedule will show a bicycle to indicate that bicycles are permitted on these routes. Be prepared to wait until off peak hours for these trains.

The TGV will permit a bicycles as BAGgage - but be prepared to the BAGgage personnel to tell you to expect it to arrive in 3-4 days. (The word "baggage" here seems to have been derived from the word "garbage" >- and they really do not give a hoot about your lousy bicycle!!) Despite all of this, we have checked in our cycles as BAGgage on the TGV (high speed train) and it has arrived within the same day - except when returning to Paris when it took us 2 days. In any event, be prepared for BAGgage to take 2-3 days to arrive in some instances. In some CASEs, you can "carry" the bicycle on the train - but they do require you to put it in a CASE of some sort (hard CASE or fabric seems to be permitted, and sporting goods stores even sell these CASEs).

The local trains (not TGV) will often permit bicycles to be carried at certain times. The schedule will show a picture of a bicycle indicating that the train does accept bicycles, and these may be carried onto the train. In these CASEs, here are designated cars which permit bicycles, usually the very first or very last car.

In some towns, they do not permit a bicycle to be placed on the train at all, but by cycling a town or 2 away, one can find another town which does accept the bicycle.

A number of stations in the Metro in Paris do not permit bicycles at all, so beware!

Best advice is to avoid taking a bicycle into Paris using the Metro. The TGV is a possible conduit to getting your bicyle into and out of Paris. Leave enough time on the TGV if you do check your bicycle in as BAGgage - 1-3 days is usual.

If you avoid the TGV and take local trains throughout France, there are usually anywhere from 2-5 trains per day which accept bicycles as carry-ons.

France is otherwise a cyclist's paradise! Enjoy!

btw, in other countries such as Germany, Switzerland, your bicycle is more than welcome - many even have special hooks to hang the bicycle during the trip. They seem more accepting of people like us taking our bicycles along as our transportation

Leigh Durlacher

First of all, there is great confusion within the French railway system about their bicycle policies. It took our hotel manager about 5 phone calls to the SNCF to find someone who knew anything about the rules for taking bikes on trains.

We were traveling on a TGV train from Paris to Angers. The rule is actually as stated in their booklet: if you are traveling in a non-rush hour time period, and if your bike is in a soft CASE, you can carry your bike onto the train and place it on the luggage rack yourself. Since the bike is just another piece of luggage, there is no charge for this.

What do they call a soft CASE? They call it a housse, which is a canvas BAG with pockets for the wheels and for the frame. (Housse rhymes with moose.) Since we were biking from Angers to Orleans, buying a housse for each bike would not have been feasible for us, since a housse is heavy, not to mention expensive. The man at the sporting goods store insisted that this type of CASE was the * only one * that would be acceptable on the train.

However, a customer in the store, who was more of a bicyclist, said that all that was really necessary was to cover the bike to preserve the cleanliness of the other passengers luggage and of the train interior. It would be necessary, however, to remove the wheels and turn the pedals and handlebars.

We ended up purchasing two housses which were really intended as weather protection covers for bicycles stored outside. One cost about $20 and the other was $10. The more expensive one was a sturdy PVC fabric-like cover that rolled up to be a little smaller than the size of a roll of paper towels. The less expensive one was made from plastic sheeting that was about three times the thickness of a trash can liner.

These housses worked just fine on the train. I spent about 15 minutes per bike, removing the wheels and pedals and turning the handlebar. I lashed the wheels to the frame and tied up the chain, so that nothing would fall out of the bottom of the housse. Remember, this is not a closed cover; it is open at the bottom.

The luggage racks on the TGV are just wide enough to accommodate the disassembled bikes, so it was definitely necessary to remove the wheels. I did not have to remove the saddle, however. The luggage racks are horizontal and are located at each end of the train car. I gently placed one bike on top of the other, with the open end of the housse facing the wall, so that no one would notice that it was not completely closed. As it turned out, nobody even looked twice at our bikes. No BAGgage handlers or train conductors batted an eye.

On the TGV, there are luggage racks at both ends of the cars, but there is only one door to each car. Most people enter the door of their own car and use the luggage rack that is right there. However, we entered the door of the car next to ours and used the luggage rack at the end of our car opposite the location of the door. By so doing, we discovered that there was no luggage from the other passengers, and thus more room for our bikes.

Our panniers, front packs, helmets, and other gear were placed on the overhead luggage racks above our seats. On the TGV, it is necessary to reserve seats. This was an advantage, since the train was fairly crowded. Second class seats are just fine; they are roomier than the coach class of airline seats. Our car was clean, but showed signs of wear. We also requested a non-smoking car. You can request a seat facing either forward or backward; if you are traveling with a group, you may want to ask for a table location, with two seats facing forward and two facing backward and a small table between.

At our destination, we had to move quickly, because not only did we need to unload our panniers and other gear, but we needed to get back on the train to retrieve our bikes. Since we were in a thru station, we had only a few minutes. Other passengers were getting off and on the train, and we had to contend with them.

Actually, I think a couple of 32 gallon trash can liners would be sufficient to satisfy the SNCF requirements. One BAG from each end of the bike, overlap them in the middle, and use a couple of pieces of tape. Since you handle the bikes yourself, you don't have to worry about rough handling, and all the dirty, greasy parts will be contained in the BAGs. This would be an inexpensive solution, and certainly it would be easy to keep the BAGs for the return trip or go to a market and buy others.

Our return trip from Orleans to Paris was on a older type of train, not on a TGV. Initially, we told the ticket agent that we had bicycles. No, he said, you cannot take bikes on the train from Orleans to Paris. You can take bikes on the train from Paris to Orleans, but not the other way. Tough to figure that logic.

When I informed him that the bikes would be a housse, his demeanor changed immediately, and he waived his hand and said this would be no problem.

The train from Orleans did not have the same luggage configuration. The luggage areas at the ends of the cars were smaller than on the TGV. We sat in the last car of the train and positioned the bikes at the very end of the car. The bikes stuck out a little into the passage way, but since it was the last car, no one would use the door. Again, we had no problems; I think one of the train people saw the bikes, but walked right by. The train was not crowded at all, and we could have even put our bikes between some seats if necessary. We purposely boarded a train that left after rush hour.

In retrospect, taking our bikes on the French trains was a relatively easy and painless process.

... Andy