Narbonne Station.
Narbonne is, today, the most interesting station in the area. It is the junction for trains heading from Montpellier to both Toulouse and Perpignan and hosts the odd regional train from Toulouse as well as the usual Languedoc TERs. North of the four main through platform roads is a large freight yard that is still used to hold trains and store stock. The autotrain terminal is a part of this though I think it has now been mothballed.
The main station building has the usual impressive architecture with a boulevard running toward it from the centre of the town:
11 March 2013
Sadly the old Bodega bar and restaurant has gone, to be replaced by a modern self service cafeteria. It just isn't the same!
The train shed is small and only covers the first two platforms which easily hold 800m long passenger trains:
11 March 2013
This is the view from Platform B toward the west, the actual junction is about a kilometer away (and there is a line joining the two branches but I don't think it is used much today, certainly not for passenger trains):
11 March 2013
I was traveling to Paris on this occasion and after a few minutes the TGV Duplex 241 arrived at Platform D. Regular travelers in France will know that on TGVs all seats are reserved and you know where to wait for your coach by signs that combine coach number with letters posted on the platform. This means that a TGV need only stop for two minutes. Only on one occasion did the sign not match up with the train. The Conductor shrugged his shoulders and pointed to a seat, any seat, until reaching Montpellier where the trains stop for up to 10 minutes.
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I usually chose to travel upstairs on the Duplexes, a better view, a very smooth ride and adequate luggage space:
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If making a booking early enough the website allows selection of the type of seat but as the coaches fill up the choices narrow. When we travel together we like to sit "en face" and there are few such choices on the single side of the corridor.
The four seat tables are often reserved for families:
11 March 2013
I should add that first class travel is not necessarily expensive in France. We once bought "prems" from Paris to Narbonne for 46 euros each, First Class, with Senior Cards! Prems quickly sell out, as you can imagine, a normal ticket would cost us around 80 euros.
You may be wondering where all the passengers are - the line is under-utilized because it isn't high speed and the Autoroute A9 can be faster than the TGV as far as Nimes. Every seat is taken from Nimes to Paris, normally a non-stop run at peak times.