What are French night trains like?

If one of the simple pleasures of travel is meeting people from different places and backgrounds, then night trains are where it's at.

Where else would you get to spend time with a pair of old ladies who had been child refugees, one from Germany the other from Hungary? Or a post-grad going hiking in the Pyrenees while deciding whether to abandon their PhD research?

If that's not for you, you can order a whole compartment to yourself, by choosing the Espace Privatif option when booking your ticket.

Just to emphasise, this isn't luxury travel and the carriages don't come with many mod-cons. Toilets and wash basins at the end of the carriages and phone charging points (actually razor sockets) are in the corridor.

Second class consists of six bunks to a compartment.

First class is very similar but with four bunks to a compartment.

The cheapest option is to just have a seat. Hmm...

Booking tickets

Over the last couple of years I've been using sncf-connect (https://sncf-connect.com) which has been straight forward.

Here the 22 Euro option is for a seat and 37 Euros for a bunk in a six-birth compartment. You can choose which level you would like to be at and can also opt for a female-only compartment.

https://www.sncf-connect.com/en-en/intercites/intercites-night