Paris and Riviera - July/August 2015 By Train

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is it going to be too overpriced and overpacked in the beginning of August to even consider adding the beach component?

Yes it is going to be very highly priced. The train tickets usually go on sale more or less 3 months before the date of travel, but for example iDTGV has started some sales for next summer. Beside the trains, hotels/resorts are going to be expensive and the living costs are relatively high (higher than the rest of France, except Paris).

But all in all, it depends on your budget. I would consider a train ticket Paris-London to be in the same range as Paris-Nice (I checked for about 3 months from now, they are both around 50 euros one-way, it may increase for the summer).

Is this doable by train and without a car?

Definitely, the train network follows the Mediterranean coast, the local trains around Nice are filled with tourists from and to the beach in the summer. There is no real best place to go, and often the smaller towns, the more exclusive and therefore the pricier (this is no set rule, but more a way to say that a smaller town does not mean it is cheaper).

I would recommend you to look at the train network map of regional trains, it lists all stations. The TGV from Paris stops at Marseille, Toulon, sometimes Les Arcs, sometimes Fréjus and/or St-Raphaël, Cannes, Antibes and Nice. From there you can take a regional train. Regional trains do not need to be booked in advance (but you might not have a seat), and they run between every 3 hours (near Anthéor) to every 30 mins (Cannes-Nice), and they can be used for daily trips.

Most stations between Toulon and St-Raphaël are pretty far from the beach, but in most others you have direct access to the beach or you can always take a 30-min train ride to a town with a beach.

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