London to Nantes

I'm thinking about a trip to Nantes for an event in the evening of Saturday 16th September

SNCF will sell me consolidated rail tickets (with a change of station in Paris) for an eye watering 439 euro

Departing Nantes mid morning would reduce the price by about 100 euro, but that's not appealing considering it's already a short trip

If I booked the tickets separately ... the Eurostar ticket would be £278 or approx 325 euro and the TGV would be 120 euro ... 6 euro more expensive than the consolidated ticket

Taking the train via Brussels would cost £223 for the Eurostar (approx 260 euro) and 324 euro for the Brussels to Nantes ticket ... so considerably more expensive!

So what about flights ...

Ryanair have an early afternoon flight from Stansted to Nantes for a very reasonable £50 ... with more tickets available for £58

On the way back to London the Ryanair afternoon flight is £184 or the evening Easyjet flight is £286 ... so a total of either £234 or £336 ... both options being cheaper than the train

Looking at alternative options flying back ...

Waiting until Monday evening - Ryanair have a bargain £18 late flight back to Stansted

or taking the TGV direct to Charles de Gaulles (95 euro) there are flights to London for £70 giving a total price of around £150 ... which is only a moderate saving compared to the £184 Ryanair flight

There's also the option of taking a train to La Rochelle (26 euro) and an evening flight from La Rochelle to London (£49) ... which is a saving of over £100 compared to the direct flight from Nantes

I think I'd choose to fly back from La Rochelle - a more interesting journey !