Quote: Rhinofan "Just checked the train times etc - approx 7 hours from St Pancras to Perpignan and as cheap as £65 each way - July fares not yet available.
Last time we arranged our own flights into Girona and after a couple of days used Catalan Sports Tours to pick us up and take us to Perpignan for a couple of nights.
Sunday's are dead in Perp so take a trip out - say to Banjuls and go winetasting or on the Little Yellow Train up into the Pyrenees - the solar power research station is a real James Bond style installation'"
You try getting a £65 fare off Eurostar the time you want to go .... IITC, Eurostar takes bookings around 120 days before travel and the European rail network takes bookings 90 days before departure. Like the UK, advanced fares can be a lot cheaper than the walk-up equivalent.
If you are looking at doing it by train, there is always the stuff that comes down from Northern France or even the more longer distance stuff. Whislt many people think the logical place to change is Paris, there's a lot of stuff that goes south that avoids the French capital and a change at Lille is often a good bet too.
Another option, like what I did last year is the overnight train from Paris Austerlitz, direct to Perpignan (although I got off in Carcasonne, for a visit to the old town at a time when no-one else was awake) and leaves Paris at something like 9.30pm, getting to Perp around 7.30am the following morning.
Le Petit Train Jaune is about one of the only things in the area I've still not had chance to visit yet and given the change of fixture date, might be an excuse to get to Perp for the Saturday and do it.
The other problem might be that Ryanair seem to have changed a lot of their routes and might not be flying in and out of Girona half as often as they used to ... However, I am still considering the rail option, perhaps for the return leg, as if I am diving in Spain it actually makes as much sense to get the train rather than fly because of the limitations on being out of the water to altitude.
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