Flight
Train
It is also possible to take a train to the Montpellier Saint-Roch train station. However, this train station is in downtown Montpellier, making it very difficult to pick up people since most of downtown is pedestrian only. For those coming from regional cities (Marseilles, Nimes, etc.), the Baillargues train station is the closest to our wedding venue!
Travel Note
May 1, May 8 and May 29th are national holidays in France. Although the last one is always on a Thursday, the fact that the first two happen to be on Thursdays in 2025 means that most French people will take PTO on the Fridays, resulting in busy travel days on May 3-4 and May 10-11. So be mindful of this when making your travel plans!
Travel Note
I usually try to buy my flights to Europe 3-6 months before the trip. I’ll usually set a price alert on google flights and buy them when there’s a price decrease. You can do same thing for websites that use points to buy airfare. Booking flights using points can be a good solution, especially if you’re giving yourself a little buffer in your travel plans (don’t do this if you want to be guaranteed to be on plane since these tickets are the first to be rebooked on another flight if the original flight is overbooked). You can find some pretty great deals using pointsyeah.com or similar websites. The complicated part of the process (at least it was for me at first) is figuring out how to transfer points from your credit card to different airline loyalty programs in order to book flights. Once you’ve done it a few times, it’s easy. But again just wanted to offer help if you have any questions about doing that. For those considering low-cost airlines, French Bee is a new airline that flies between Paris and either New York or LA. Friends that flew with them recently stated that it was a good experience. If you do book with them, realize that they land in Paris-Orly and not the main Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. Orly is actually much closer to downtown Paris so a good option if you’re going to be staying in Paris for a few days. You can still find flights between Orly and Montpellier, but you’ll have to book through a separate airline.
Travel Note
-If you’re getting a rental car, make sure you get lots of pictures of the car when you pick it up, rental car companies in Europe are notorious for charging you for minor scratches and the likes. -Rental cars in Europe have a manual transmission as default, so if you want an automatic, make sure to specify that in your reservation -European cars are small, which is convenient given the size of the roads. When thinking of traveling with large suitcases, you can probably only have 2 people’s worth of stuff per car. So if there’s 4 of you, make sure you get a big model. -Technically, you need an international driving permit (IDP) if you’re driving in France or most other European countries. In practice, the alphabet is the same so you can just bring your passport along in the car in case you get stopped by cops. Getting an IDP is $20 at AAA so if it brings you peace of mind, go for it. -Highways in France have expensive tolls, so factor that in when comparing cost of travel options. You can use your credit card to pay for tolls but check with your credit card company if there’s a fee for using your card in France. Otherwise, cash will work great. -Getting a car is worth it if you’re going to spend time in the countryside. Driving in big cities (Paris, Rome, Barcelona) is not fun so it's usually better to use public transportation to get around -Drinking and driving is a huge no-no in France, also legally everyone in the car can be breathalyzed -No right turn at red lights -“Priorite a droite” means that at any intersection, the road on your right has “right of way”. It can be a smaller road! They are slowly putting stop signs on these smaller roads but still best to slow down if you’re not sure if you have the right of way. -France has LOTS of round-abouts. My biggest tip is to use your turn signals and drive slowly. This link has a helpful diagram: https://britishexpats.com/forum/france-76/roundabouts-part-2-a-921462/
Travel Note
Definitely worth it to get a phone plan while you’re in Europe. Buying a physical SIM card is a pain, highly recommend that you get an eSim card from a European cell phone carrier if your phone is compatible. It’s usually much cheaper than getting the international plan on your American cell phone carrier. Alex has used Orange Travel for the last several trips and it’s worked out great. Takes 5 min to register for a free account and buy an eSim card. They send you a QR code, you just scan the QR code in the airport before flying to Europe and then it activates automatically when you land. The 20 euro plan is plenty: https://travel.orange.com/en/buy-a-sim/offers/europe Also make sure to download offline maps on google maps before you head over, just in case you’re in a spot without data. (Not an issue anywhere close to wedding, but can be in remote areas)
Travel Note
-It’s a good idea to carry some cash, especially if you’re headed to some more rural areas in Europe. You should withdraw cash at an ATM from any European bank to avoid high fees. For more info, check out https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/money/cash-machine-atm-tips -Trainline is a great app to book rail travel, has all of the major European rail companies on one app -If you have the google app on your phone, open google lens, then click on translate in the bottom left. You can then hover over any foreign text and have it instantly translated in English.