Preliminary quote I got for a bus was €1110 return for a 38 seater.
If we could fill that it would beat the pants off the train or car hire at just under €30 each.
Could be tough enough to get those kind of numbers though given that we barely got that many going to Thomond Park, but with the train costing at least €60, even half full it would be worth it.

Ryanair's quote was less competitive. It came in much higher than just booking the same number of seats online.

If the game is on a Saturday then there will probably be a good crowd going on the flight to Carcassonne.
If that is the case, would there be any interest in organising a group booking?
Ryanair started doing group bookings about a year ago. I'm not sure what the prices are like an how they compare with the normal fares. I suspect that you don't save much overall, but the big advantage is that you don't need to submit names immediately and the quote is valid for five days.
The minimum is 20, which I think is achievable. If we got those kind of numbers we could organise a bus at the other end also.
There's a lot of ifs and buts there, but if there are enough people interested, I can look into it further ...

They could also be in Bordeaux, which is easier to get to.
Also Ulster could be in Toulouse.
Actually a Toulouse v Ulster game the same weekend could present problems with demand for the Carcassonne flight.
But also open up the possibility of a joint charter.

2hrs by car.

5hrs by train

Fourdogs wrote: What are the chances that Clermont might be playing Exeter in France the same weekend as our game against Brive.

16.7%

The last time we played there it was a Friday night. A very very cold one too.

Had a look at Brive fixtures from last season to see if there's any clue to what day the game might be on.
They played all their Top 14 home games on Saturdays last year apart from one Friday night game, which sounds like good news from a travel point of view. Bad news is their Challenge Cup games last season were two Fridays and a Thursday, and they were early enough Friday as well (1930 local time). They seem to have a bit of a tradition of Thursday night Challenge Cup games - most seasons I looked at they had at least one.
Good news is they haven't played on a Sunday the last few seasons apart from one game in Sept 2013 when everyone played on a Sunday because there was a round of games the previous Wednesday.

I'll be coming from Marseille to this and even if you are starting off in France it's not easy to get to. I'm looking at a 6-7hr train journey

biffo77 wrote:

pinky wrote:

biffo77 wrote: La Rochelle has year round flights via Stansted, right car and drive down

If you are flying indirect there are airports a lot closer than La Rochelle.
Limoges, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Poitiers.

Cork being my most likely starting point for trip to Brive, I'm looking at where I can fly from Stansted, cos there's feck all reasonable options, so being selfish with la rochelle option

Most of the above are from Stansted. Limoges is only an hour's drive or so north of Brive. Early departure from Stansted but you'd have that with La Rochelle flight anyway.

pinky wrote:

biffo77 wrote: La Rochelle has year round flights via Stansted, right car and drive down

If you are flying indirect there are airports a lot closer than La Rochelle.
Limoges, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Poitiers.

Cork being my most likely starting point for trip to Brive, I'm looking at where I can fly from Stansted, cos there's feck all reasonable options, so being selfish with la rochelle option

biffo77 wrote: La Rochelle has year round flights via Stansted, right car and drive down

If you are flying indirect there are airports a lot closer than La Rochelle.
Limoges, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Poitiers.

La Rochelle has year round flights via Stansted, right car and drive down

St Placide wrote: There's also the option of flying Ryanair via Stanstead to Brive as we used to in the old days...

Only if you want to go in September.

pinky wrote: If Newcastle seems too easy but Sochi seems so hard, brive is your happy medium. Enough hardship to make you earn your glass of vin rouge upon arrival, but not enough to test your sanity.

There is an airport in Brive, but at the relevant time of year, the only direct flights are to Paris Orly, which has no direct flights to Ireland at that time, so to get all the way there, you are looking at two stops or an airport change in Paris.

The nearest airports to Brive with direct connections to Ireland are:

Bordeaux: 212km. The handiest, but these flights only run on Tue/Thu/Sat for a while around Christmas, so they are actually only useful of the game is on the weekend on Dec 19th, and even then it's not much good for a Saturday game.
Carcassonne: 292 km. Ryanair flights arrive Friday at 17.15 and depart Sunday at 14.30, so quite useful for a Saturday game, just about doable for Friday night if we rent a bus and say a few rosaries. Useless for Thursday or Sunday.
Lyon: 380km. Further away but a greater range of flights might make it more suitable depending on kick-off. Public transport links not great so car or bus rental needed.
Nantes: 419km. Too far away and not much better times than Carcassonne. There is a flight back Monday but probably too early to be useful for a Sunday game.
Paris: 500km. Good range of flights and TGV connections might make CDG useful.

Unfortunately, there's no TGV to Brive, only the standard Intercity train which takes about 4h30m. On the other hand, it's a nice five-hour drive from Paris! Hop.fr fly from Orly but here are no flights on Saturday, only Friday (three flights) and Sunday (late afternoon only). There's also the option of flying Ryanair via Stanstead to Brive as we used to in the old days...

If Newcastle seems too easy but Sochi seems so hard, brive is your happy medium. Enough hardship to make you earn your glass of vin rouge upon arrival, but not enough to test your sanity.

There is an airport in Brive, but at the relevant time of year, the only direct flights are to Paris Orly, which has no direct flights to Ireland at that time, so to get all the way there, you are looking at two stops or an airport change in Paris.

The nearest airports to Brive with direct connections to Ireland are:

Bordeaux: 212km. The handiest, but these flights only run on Tue/Thu/Sat for a while around Christmas, so they are actually only useful of the game is on the weekend on Dec 19th, and even then it's not much good for a Saturday game.
Carcassonne: 292 km. Ryanair flights arrive Friday at 17.15 and depart Sunday at 14.30, so quite useful for a Saturday game, just about doable for Friday night if we rent a bus and say a few rosaries. Useless for Thursday or Sunday.
Lyon: 380km. Further away but a greater range of flights might make it more suitable depending on kick-off. Public transport links not great so car or bus rental needed.
Nantes: 419km. Too far away and not much better times than Carcassonne. There is a flight back Monday but probably too early to be useful for a Sunday game.
Paris: 500km. Good range of flights and TGV connections might make CDG useful.