Day after Christmas trains/reservations

You are absolutely correct that you can't be guaranteed a car the day after Christmas in a small agency, especially on a Sunday. We've had to take what was available twice during holiday times in France, once an upgrade and once a lemon, and that was in Paris. Twice in the States no cars were available. You may need to think plan B.

Edit: I didn't answer your question: those are local trains, TER, and there are many on the 26th. No reservations on local trains. Sorry, I misplaced the paranoid part from the train to the car due to my own experiences.

@bets - we have been in contact with agency for a special request, so we think we have that covered. Was your experience similar…you thought you had made the proper arrangements, but it didn’t end as planned?

The two times in Paris, just before Christmas and once near August 1st, we paid in advance via AutoEurope. The first time a vehicle had to be brought to the agency while we waited, while the other time at Orly during summer holidays when Parisians rent cars, we got the one lemon that was left. But they did furnish a vehicle.

Twice in the States no cars had been returned, nothing at all available, including on a December 26, but that's different from a prepaid reservation.

When I was in the Loire a few weeks ago, there was something going on with track works that meant that there weren’t any trains between Les Aubrais and some other point during a certain period of the day. Maybe it’s still something with that.

Edit to add: I went to find the “planned works” website page for Centre-Val de Loire, and luckily it looks like trains between Austerlitz and Les Aubrais are NOT affected on the day you are looking at.

This is a bit hard to wade through, but here is the link:

https://www.ter.sncf.com/centre-val-de-loire/horaires/travaux-en-cours

But anyway, most trains from Austerlitz to Les Aubrais don’t have reservations possible because they are TER trains, that is normal.

It’s only on the IC trains that a reservation is possible, I was able to choose a dummy one for the 26th late morning on Trainline.

(And France doesn’t have the same tradition as the UK does of completely shutting down public transport on Christmas and the day after.)

Ok, thank you! I am much relieved. I see the time we want to travel. Whew…