Do you really want to waste an entire day on the train? There’s a direct night train that leaves Paris Austerlitz at 20:34 and arrives at Barcelona Franca at 9:09. It’s the Elipsos train, and the supplement for it is 47 euros for a reclining seat and 71 for a couchette berth.

I just checked timetables and don’t see anything better than about 9.5 hours from Nord to Sants. If you’re going to use a pass day and pay another 47 Euros, why not save your pass day (literally and figuratively) and take Easyjet or Vueling? http://www.skyscanne…

OMG, I assumed you were talking about an overnight train and couldn’t find your routing. Why not take the direct overnight train? It leaves Paris Austerlitz at 20:34 and arrives in Barcelona Sants at 9:09 or you can get off at Estacion de Franca at 8:24. The “7:00 PM rule” means this only counts as 1 day for your railpass. You mark arrival day on your pass, so as long as you didn’t take an unrelated train on departure day, you only use one day. While you might spend longer on the train, an overnight is definitely preferable to a day train for an 8+ hour haul. I would certainly fly this if you don’t want to take the overnight train.

Expect to pay 20 to 30 euros for a berth in a 6 berth couchette. Reclining seats are available on some trains (I don’t know about this one) for 4 to 12 euros.

Oops, I should’ve said 9:09 at Sants, not Franca in my earlier post. That direct overnight train is the Elipsos Trenhotel Joan Miro, so the supplements are pricier than normal (71 for a couchette). However, you can actually book that train in advance on the SNCF website and get a couchette berth for 71 euros without having to waste a pass day.

There is a longer overnight train with a change in Cerbere leaving Austerlitz at 21:56 arriving at 11:48 that, if I remember correctly, is cheaper. If you don’t like the idea of an overnight train Don’s suggestion of flying is a good one.

take a flight, it’ll save more of your time