Eurail for France

Familiar with the German ticket system so hoping this is just as simple

Hah! The two systems are epitomes of the national character stereotypes. One is logical, straight forward, easy to understand and most certainly not French! The other has several different types of trains with completely different ticketing rules, sells tickets at wildly different times and prices.

I think your best bet is to spend a few days in Paris before heading to Colmar. That way you can buy advance nonrefundable tickets now without having to worry about flight delays. Long distance train tickets bought spur of the moment can be very expensive.

I agree with Sam. Plus, don't use Eurail. Maybe SNCF (French train company) works now so give it a try. If it doesn't, I like https://www.thetrainline.com or even better https://www.saveatrain.com. I did exactly what Sam describes. We purchased train tickets Paris to Colmar in advance (I think 2 months or so ahead). Then we spent two days in Paris before taking the train to Colmar. I don't know how much time you have, but Strasbourg is lovely for a day or two, and then you could move onto Colmar. The Alsace area is charming and you could spend a few days visiting the wine towns. I think its better with a car, but doable with buses, tours, etc. Loire is another place where a car is nice. You can get to Tours in the Loire in about an hour from Paris. You could rent a car from there or again, take tours to the chateaus. The train system is mostly "spokes" out of Paris. So for the most part, you would need to go back to Paris from Alsace to get to Loire via train.

In the past I used the Eurail Pass for German trains specifically on ICE and night trains but did not for French trains. One main reason is that the French train system is much less flexible. True that German train system is simple. No mandatory reserved seats on German trains. Whether you sit is another story.

Since Eurail has changed its Pass system, I'll use the senior Global Pass if my trip is over a month long.

Bottom line here is if your trip in 2021 is primarily focused on traveling in France, I do not recommend using rail pass.

I believe the OP is talking about purchasing tickets with the Eurail app, not getting a Eurail Pass. SNCF also has an app, but maybe the TRAINLINE App is a better choice. Here is the link for Android, but I am sure also available for Apple.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thetrainline&hl=en_US&gl=US

Thanks so much all! We are not able to rent a car so will be relying solely on trains, bus, etc. I will take a look at everything suggested. Thanks!

Hello,
I also suggest buying your tickets in advance on SNCF- or you can use https://www.raileurope.com/en

There is no reason to be apprehensive about train travel, it's the right way to go for your plans. Have you been to Europe before and used trains? Our host has good travel tips top left menu:
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains

You may not realize that you still have a lot of research to do. For example, the search box top center may yield a lot of past discussions (this is a complex topic) of "Loire Without Car" or "Loire Train" or "Loire No Car". You can even filter for "Last two years." after the first search.

I agree that, in general, advance purchase, print at home tickets are likely the best plan for you. Having an assigned seat can be very helpful, although I don't know about crowding Post-Covid. It's also incredibly cheap, probably cheaper than a pass. I haven't researched France specifically, but I've encountered plenty of Reservation Only trains, and I don't care to stand on line in a station for an hour just to get seat reservations.

Flexibility in departure time is not important to me. Yes, sometimes I have to kill an hour at a station because I got there ahead of schedule. But knowing I have a train and a seat takes the sting out of it. (Opinion.)

You may find train tickets significantly higher on RailEurope. There is a small additional fee on Trainline, and I believe Save a Train does not charge any kind of fee. The SNCF site has been problematic. I tried to use it in May, and I could get all the way thru until payment. Perhaps it has been fixed by now. Typically, I do like to use the country specific train company.

Other than trying to buy tickets on SNCF, the train system in France is quite good.

Do not use Eurail unless you can get a paper pass. We bought a big sale back in January for our trip we are on right now between 3 countries, trying to use their app. The app is CRAP and they have NO real time help at all. Were it not for other travelers posting on how they are solving app problems we would be stuck with a useless pass.

Thanks again for the advice! We have used trains from Amsterdam all the way to Prague and it was so easy! Haha, I am finding as others have mentioned, France is a bit different with their set up. We will shop around the sites recommended. We were spoiled by the awesome DB app since we could just purchase in advance, show our phone, and be on our way. Finally have our route, basically Eastern France, so that makes planning easier! Thanks again!

I bought tickets today from Paris to Colmar. I used the SNCF website. They run the train and the site is super simple to use. The nice thing is you can put your fare and seats on hold for a week at no charge. It's also in English.

https://en.oui.sncf/en/

All the others are third party apps. I also have the SNCF app but it was easier using the website.

Eurail is for passes and nothing more. They don't show all trains and they charge a fee to buy through them.