Final Thoughts in the lounge
I had hoped to visit Puy de Dome, an extinct volcano near Clermont-Ferrand. Online it was unclear if the bus service from the station was running hourly or every two hours – the last check I undertook prior to leaving home only showed the two-hourly timetable. This would have meant a very tight connection into the train to Beziers (the hourly service would have made it easy). I therefore abandoned the idea without checking in Clermont-Ferrand as I wanted to avoid the related stress.
The entire trip including hotels and meals cost around £1050 for the hotels, rail travel, meals and the final flight back to the UK (although that was not the full cost of the air flight as Jackie let me use a voucher).
In terms of main line rail travel the costs were the Eurail ticket £130.17 and the extortion (to my mind) fees for the seat reservations between Paris and Clermont-Ferrand (both ways) and between Beziers and Nimes which cost £50.03. In total £180.20.
In terms of distance it was around 811 miles. This works out at around 22.2p per mile – which means that it is slightly more than I spend on most of my single day outings in the UK. However on none of the four days was I travelling by train all the time – so it is not an entirely similar comparison. Had I wished more mileage might easily have been added.
Metro and tram trips were additional mileage and cost. They were an absolute bargain in my opinion.
Travelling with a heavy case was not helpful on the metro and lifting it above my ahead (and down again) received some welcome assistance a couple of times. On the return to Paris it was in the vestibule out of direct sight which also worries me.
Overall I thought it went well. I did everything planned and had some surprises along the way. And it was something I have not done for a very long time. I may do it again when the opportunity present itself.