feel embarrassed to ask…but…
on saturday ive booked a €1 ticket from Lézignan to Toulouse, as I need to get a flight back to the uk for 10 days.
ive printed the ticket out on A4 paper…
do I need to validate the ticket BEFORE I get on the train ?? ive heard mixed reports that you dont need to do that anymore…
its a 1 hr 30 mins journey - for €1 ! I just couldnt refuse…
ive left plenty of time to get from Toulouse Gare to the airport, but I know there is a bus every 15 mins just outside the station..
It depends on the train and the station. Last month we took a little train tour from Limoges - Toulouse - Montpellier - Montauban - Limoges and I don’t think we had to validate once.
From Poitiers to Paris and back we always need to validate. Perhaps it’s just TGV.
I use the train a lot (mostly the TGV from Strasbourg to Paris) and like to have it on the app plus an A4 paper version that I print out myself. You don’t need to validate it. The inspector - if there is one - will scan the code on the ticket when they do the rounds on the train. Although for some journeys there are inspectors deployed at the entrance to the platform in which case they scan your ticket before you board.
If you want a full explanation of French train travel, although I don’t know how deeply he goes into ticketing, there’s a great site called The man in seat 61.
“If your pet needs a pee or poo, go down the Red Stairs to deck 7 to the small outside deck area where they can get some air, have a little exercise and do their business. Inevitably, we refer to this as the poop deck.”
Stenna Line. Of course, I went straight to this link that Debby posted above
We also took our dogs from UK to Spain a couple of times on a pet cabin Of Brittany Ferries. Very comfortable and relaxing if a bit slow. Social gathering of other dog people on the ‘poop deck’.
Pets on trains within France
Dogs can be taken on all French trains. Small dogs (under 6 Kg) placed in containers not exceeding 45cm x 30cm x 25cm pay €7 per journey. Larger dogs muzzled and on a lead pay €7.
You can buy a ticket in English at the official French Railways website www.sncf-connect.com, you add a dog to your booking by clicking the Add travellers, pets & bicyclesbutton before running the enquiry.
That’s the problem, isn’t it? My friend in the UK ended up buying a one-month European rail pass and travelled around Scandinavia.
She’s coming here by train now, mainly because O’Leary cut flights from her local airport to Carcassonne and Perpignan. She’s talking about combining her trip with a visit to Spain and Portugal.
We’ve done Carcassonne to Toulouse and Bram to Toulouse (on the same line as Lézignan) several times, including taking advantage of the € 1 offers. We’ve never had to validate our ticket, and I think that that the machines were removed from Carcassonne station some time ago.
wonderful; thank you all…
ill look at getting the app later today so I have the ticket in all forms !
have a great day everyone; I’m off to the hospital to visit my wife after a knee replacement yesterday ! a very brave patient.
There has been confusion in the past re paper tickets. My understanding is that they do not need to be validated. But yes, much better to get an app = I find ‘Trainline’ better laid out than the ‘SNCF Connect’ app.
The 1€ ticket is generally once a week. I keep my eye open for it and just go into Toulouse for lunch and back!
btw, the nav for the airport is not directly outside the station - get up onto the road and turn to the right and not a minutes walk. You will see what is obviously a bus terminal. Just ask anyone for the Nav aerogare…you pay on the bus. It drops you not far from the D gates that you will need. Very civilised. But that is Toulouse for you.!
I too travel by train a fair bit (I’ve used the train more in the last 5 years in France then I did the previous 45 years in the UK!).
I have the SNCF Connect app, but I also import the tickets into my Google Wallet, as I find it quicker to navigate that than the SNCF app.
One thing I like about the SNCF app is that it tells me in advance which platform my train is leaving from. I’ve been known to have to leg it in Gare Montparnasse to catch my train, so knowing which platform to go to has saved my bacon on more than one occasion.
Are there little bags for the purpose too, down there? I remember delivering a dog at a rdv to new owners from UK at the pet passport place at the Shuttle. There is/was a large fenced area there for exercising pets and I believe there were free bags there in a container. I am not 100% sure as I always had pocketfuls anyway. *
I haven’t used a paper ticket since we moved here over a year and a half ago. I’m very careful with my phone, because basically my life is on it! I use the SNCF app, but I also take a screen shot of my ticket, so it’s quicker to find if it’s checked. It’s also interesting to me how rarely they do check.
OH had hers done nearly 3 years ago, both sides. It really changed her life and increased her mobility greatly. She’s very glad she did it. I hope your OH has the same outcome.
Hope your wife’s knee op went well. They should offer "re-education " which involves intensive physio. My wife found it a bit daunting but extremely helpful
There were poo bags available on the poop deck when we went but my dogs, not being on grass, held their business for 48 hours until we reached terra firma
but my dogs, not being on grass, held their business for 48 hours until we reached terra firma 
