train travel between Provence and Barcelona

We will be traveling by train between Arles and Barcelona in early July. I am hoping for a suggestion for the quickest, most efficient way to do this. We will be traveling on a Friday. I have waded through the mine field of the sncf and am hoping someone out there knows the best way to make this trip. We are willing to make any connections, anywhere. We are just looking to make this train trip as quick as possible given our short time in Barcelona. I would appreciate any advice you can provide.

P.S. I realize we are talking about a 6-9 hour journey, so I am not completely unrealistic when I say %26quot;quick%26quot;.

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By far the quickest way will be to take a train from Arles that connects with one of the two daily direct Corail/Talgo trains from Montpellier to Barcelona. IIRC these leave at about 07:30 and about 17:00 and take about 4.5 hours. I don%26#39;t know the times of the trains from Arles off the top of my head but they are not infrequent and I know there is one early enough to connect with the ~07:30 departure. The direct Montpellier-Barcelona trains will not show up on the voyages-sncf.com timetables until two months to the day ahead. (Most French trains can be booked up to three months ahead.) If you are booking online, and for travel in early July you certainly should, you will probably have to research and book the two segments separately. SNCF does not do well with international trips that are not direct.

The other option would be to fly from Marseilles (MRS) to Barcelona (BCN) with the Spanish budget airline Clickair. Here the problem is that they only have one flight daily and it leaves early in the morning, I think around 08:00. www.clickair.com

Good luck!

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