FRANCE RAIL DEAL FOR HOME EXCHANGERS

Well, the European readers have spoken, and the results are unanimous: RyanAir is awful. Commenters point to high taxes and passenger-name change fees, as well as poor customer service. I guess I have been lucky: we have flown RyanAir on most of our trips to Europe and never paid more than $100 per ticket. My father flew RyanAir last week and his ticket, with taxes and bag check fee, was well under that. They even provided the wheelchair he needed this time. But take the Europeans' warnings to heart and double check the total before buying that RyanAir ticket.

In my experience, RyanAir trips up its customers in a sneakier way: it advertises ultra-cheap one-way fares to a destination, but the return fare from the same airport back to the customer's origin costs much more.

Our solution to this has been to use RyanAir as we would a more-expensive Eurail train pass: hop from city to city instead of flying round-trip. The Eurailpass just isn't a great deal these days. Passes start at over $100 per trip, and that's for a pass that allows travel within just three adjoining countries.

An interesting new option for travel within France. The "Anywhere Anytime France", while short on punctuation, is long on savings. Here is how RailEurope.com describes this deal:

"The first trip costs $199.00. Each e-ticket bought within the first Anywhere Anytime France purchase is $50 per trip. Additional trips, after the initial Anywhere Anytime France purchase, will cost $70 per trip."

All travel is in first class, and the savings, for anyone planning more than two city-to-city trips, can be tremendous. Use of the TGV, or bullet train, appears to be included.

Personally, I love high-speed French TGV trains. There is something exciting and romantic about the bustle of a French train station, as long as you restrain yourself from asking for help or information from the "customer service" desk. Workers seem to be chosen for that post based on their abrasiveness and the intensity of their contempt for (American?) tourists.

The trains are another matter. I have found them uniformly quiet, civilized and delightful. There is nothing like trolling a French market for interesting cheese, fresh bread and Belgian ale, then watching the countryside speed by with an MP3 soundtrack to accompany the tastes of Europe.


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