Burgundy & Provence - TGV & Luggage

We are leaving for France with a Burgundy & Provence river cruise on Avalon. There is a transfer from Paris by TGV to Dijon. Does anyone know how the luggage is taken care of on the train transfers from Paris. I know the TGV train will be from Gare De Lyon.

Will we have to manage it ourselves, getting it on and off the train? Or does the luggage get transferred directly from the hotel to the ship in Chalon Sur Soane?

I'm asking because i'm not sure how many bags I want to bring with me if I have to handle them in stations.

There was no facility for checking luggage when we travelled TGV Avignon-Gare de Lyon independently after our cruise last year. We found it much easier than expected to handle our own bags on and off the TGV. We had been travelling for two months in arctic and hot climates so each of us had a large bag, about 15 kg, plus a carryon.

There were ramps and elevators to all elevated platforms at Avignon station; Gare de Lyon is ground level. The train had luggage racks at the end of each carriage. As you are boarding at Gare de Lyon you will have plenty of time to get your bags aboard and settled before the train moves.

The carriages are on two levels so we were concerned about carrying bags up or down stairs on a moving train but it travelled so smoothly that we had no problem. The brief stop was just about enough for us to carry our bags upstairs to the luggage rack. I hope Dijon station/stop will be as easy to manage as Avignon.

I have no idea what level of assistance your cruise company will provide. We travel as light as possible with bags we can handle ourselves.

We are leaving for France with a Burgundy & Provence river cruise on Avalon. There is a transfer from Paris by TGV to Dijon. Does anyone know how the luggage is taken care of on the train transfers from Paris. I know the TGV train will be from Gare De Lyon.

 

Will we have to manage it ourselves, getting it on and off the train? Or does the luggage get transferred directly from the hotel to the ship in Chalon Sur Soane?

 

I'm asking because i'm not sure how many bags I want to bring with me if I have to handle them in stations.

Don't know about southbound, but going north this spring, Avalon loaded the luggage onto a truck before we left the ship in St. Jean de Losne and delivered it directly to the hotel. We only had our hand luggage on the bus/train. i suspect that luggage will be handled the same way going south. You will probably put your luggage outside your door and then "identify" it in the lobby before it's loaded onto the truck. It should be in your stateroom when you board the ship.

Don't know about southbound, but going north this spring, Avalon loaded the luggage onto a truck before we left the ship in St. Jean de Losne and delivered it directly to the hotel. We only had our hand luggage on the bus/train. i suspect that luggage will be handled the same way going south. You will probably put your luggage outside your door and then "identify" it in the lobby before it's loaded onto the truck. It should be in your stateroom when you board the ship.

Thank you for this reply. We will be headed Northbound in two weeks. That certainly makes the trip a lot easier if we don't have to lug around our heavy bags.

Thank you for this reply. We will be headed Northbound in two weeks. That certainly makes the trip a lot easier if we don't have to lug around our heavy bags.

The transfer from Nice to Arles is similar. On our cruise, the buses arrived with passengers who'd disembarked in Arles, and we loaded onto the same buses a couple of hours later. For this transfer, the bags traveled on the bus with us and the crew loaded them onto the ship and into the staterooms once we reached Arles. Have a great trip.

If you're a walker and chocolate lover, consider skipping the tour in Tournon-Tain and walking across the bridge and south to the Valrhona chocolate factory and shop. It's about a mile walk one-way. The chocolate is VERY good, and there are tons of free samples. When I checked out, the clerk dumped a couple of handfuls of freebies into my sack. We only had about two hours there. If you're interested, you can download the dailies from our cruise at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0nz16ahW1fiaE9FVGtxbEpoWjA/view?usp=sharing

Don't know about southbound, but going north this spring, Avalon loaded the luggage onto a truck before we left the ship in St. Jean de Losne and delivered it directly to the hotel. We only had our hand luggage on the bus/train. i suspect that luggage will be handled the same way going south. You will probably put your luggage outside your door and then "identify" it in the lobby before it's loaded onto the truck. It should be in your stateroom when you board the ship.

Thanks so much for the info. I was hoping to hear it would be transferred directly. We have one very large case and I dreaded the thought of lugging it up stairs on the Duplex TGV cars.

Fuel Science, we visited Valhrona chocolate store in 2006 when we did a similar cruise with Viking. They gave us lots of samples then, too.

FuelScience or maybe I should call you VOC man (science joke), is the minibar onboard a refrigerator type bar ? Also, is there a charge to use the minibar?

FuelScience or maybe I should call you VOC man (science joke), is the minibar onboard a refrigerator type bar ? Also, is there a charge to use the minibar?

It's a refrigerator. I think that you will be charged if you use it. We had the room steward empty it so that we could put our own stuff in it. There's a Monoprix store in Arles that's less than 5 minute's walk from the ship. I walked over and got some Diet Coke to see me through the week.

P.S. you can also store other volatiles in it.

Thank you for that info. Will have to visit the Monoprix before we set sail.

Did you all put those large, metal Avalon luggage tags on your bags? I think I might just leave my red, leather Viking tags on mine :D.

We leave on Sunday and are getting very excited.

FuelScience or maybe I should call you VOC man (science joke)

P.S. you can also store other volatiles in it.

Thanks for the laugh! VOC man... :D:cool::')The two-carbon volatiles are the only ones that I want in my fridge!

Did you all put those large, metal Avalon luggage tags on your bags? I think I might just leave my red, leather Viking tags on mine :D.

 

We leave on Sunday and are getting very excited.

I don't think that we used ours. Like you, we left the Viking tags on! For all he things that Avalon does well, they missed the boat on luggage tags!

Thanks for the laugh! VOC man... :D:cool::')The two-carbon volatiles are the only ones that I want in my fridge!

I was at a Science Forum recently and adjourned to a local bar for a quick drink. Ahead of me were two people - the first was a particularly snooty pharmacist who ordered thus: 'I'll have an H2O, please'. The second man was not socially confident so decided to follow suit: 'I'll have an H2O too' - the coroner confirmed that it was the peroxide that killed him ... :D

LOL. This is getting seriously OT... Still, I can't resist this oldie but goodie...

"Here lies what's left of William Dough,

With us, he is no more.

For what he thought was H2O,

Was H2SO4!

***

I don't know much about other lines, but Uniworld gives out a pleather luggage tag (one each), which attaches reasonably securely to your suitcase. You have to fill in your info on the card within. They make decent luggage tags even after the cruise is over. They seem to be sturdier than they look, but not fancy by any means.

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LOL. This is getting seriously OT... Still, I can't resist this oldie but goodie...

 

"Here lies what's left of William Dough,

With us, he is no more.

For what he thought was H2O,

Was H2SO4!

 

***

 

I don't know much about other lines, but Uniworld gives out a pleather luggage tag (one each), which attaches reasonably securely to your suitcase. You have to fill in your info on the card within. They make decent luggage tags even after the cruise is over. They seem to be sturdier than they look, but not fancy by any means.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Cute poem. I have never seen that one before.