New tasmanian walkers want flight advice from Australia

[tascamino]

Hello
We are a couple planning to start from SJPP in early May 2011. We are looking for a cheap flight to Europe.Currently looking at Air Korea to Paris with free stopover in Seoul. From Paris we will be looking for advice as to how best and cheapish to get to SJPP.Is Paris the most sensible touchdown. Appreciate feedback. Thanks
Tassie walkers

 

[jl]

Hi and welcome - your journey has begun, before you even leave your front door! I catch the TGV train down to Bayonne from the airport (I think you have to change at Biarritz) and then rest before catching the local train to St Jean.

I have sent you a pm if you wish to contact me and have a chat. regards, Janet

 

[colinPeter]

Hi Tassie Walkers,
We flew Paris to Biarritz (Bus or taxi to Bayonne). It is sometimes possibe to get cheap Paris - Biarritz airfares. You just need to get the shuttle from CDG (Int) to Orly (Domestic). Certainly gets you there quickly.
Buen Camino
Col

 

[camino07]

Hi
I and two friends are starting in St Jean on 2nd May. Lots of Aussies on the path.
I will take the TGV from CDG airport to Bayonne as on a previous Camino. Unfortunately a long trip with jetlag and I don't arrive until around 2230. I will probably book again into the quaint Hotel Paris Madrid next door to the station( If it is still there) and next day train to St Jean .
My two friends are on their first Camino and we are all very excited. Perhaps we will meet along the way.
Buen Camino
Heather

 

[Trudy]

My recommendations would be to fly into Paris and stay there a couple of nights to recover from jetlag. The worst thing you can do is to start walking as soon as you arrive in France, the body definitely needs to recover from a 24 hour flight!

Then, take the TGV from Paris Gare Montparnasse to Bayonne, and from here you can get a local train to St Jean Pied de Port. You can book TGV tickets ahead of time, with the choice of printing your own ticket or picking it up from any French train station, from the French national railways website : http://www.voyages-sncf.com Tickets cannot be purchased more than 90 days in advance of travel; there are some really cheap tickets but these cannot be refunded or changed; and, make sure you select your country as 'France', as this will give you the printing/pickup options.

 

[tascamino]

Thanks so much for these quick responses. We really appreciate the advice and hope to meet some of you in our travels.
I think we are going to spend a few days in Paris now if we can find somewhere appropriate to stay .

We are new to blogging but somewhere in finding this site we came across a specifically australian section. Is the Australian blog site(?) part of this forum or are we completely confused?

Cheers and thank you again

Tassie walkers

 

[jl]

The Australia / New Zealand section on this forum is for sharing general, but specific to our region, news for those of us travelling over to Europe. It is open for anyone to read, but the idea is that if there is notices of meetings / gatherings and such like that are only pertaining to this part of the world then one doesn't have to wade through other information to find it. The same applies to other regions such as North America and South Africa too.

My suggestion is that you find a blog system (a lot of my friends use "blogspot") that you like and post a link on this forum. That way anyone can access it, cheer you on, and perhaps learn from your experience. Computers are fairly accessible throughout the Camino Frances - either in the albergues themselves or even at the local library . Cheers, Janet