Eurail pass and Train Nomad (Normandy TER) Seat Reservation

Are you sure a Eurail pass is a good option for you? France is not the best country for rail passes.

But yes, you can make the seat reservations when you get to France, I would not be nervous about that.

You do not necessarily need an SNCF "kiosk" in order to make those reservations. You will not find them outside of France anyway.
But any station with a link to the European train reservation system should be able to get you that reservation. So the station in Brugge should be able to do that for you. If the ticket clerk doesn't know what to do insist that he looks in his docs, as they should be able to do that.

That would also be the place where you get your Brussel - Paris reservation. This is how you are supposed to use an EurailPass anyway. The moment you plan on reserving trains before leaving for Europe the pass isn't actually for you...

One last note: I see a lot of instances of people using the word "kiosk" when they apparently mean "ticket vending machine". In Europe the word "kiosk" is usually used to refer to a news stand, not a device that sells tickets...

If you are taking a TER train on July 8, it's safe to assume it will be packed, likewise on that date taking the TGV, for which a seat reservation mandatory. When it says no reservations necessary, that means too that if no seats are available, you stand, as you won't be the only one. I have been of TER trains in the summer where it was packed in like sardines ( or herring), similar to the Paris Metro.

If I'm taking the TGV, I usually make the reservation 2-3 days prior to departure, but that also depends on the route. For the TER I buy the ticket the night before since mu hotel is close a train station in Paris. Ask then if a seat reservation is required, never took the Paris-Cherbourg route, which is tentative on the list on this coming trip.

I use the Global Pass but would not waste a travel day riding the TER train. Save your Pass travel days for the TGV or ICE , or even the night trains.

Yes, Nomad trains to Normandy are a super annoying exception to Eurail rules: they are regional trains but they do require reservations and unlike other SNCF reservations, you cannot make them online...
On 12 July there are 19€ tickets from Bayeux to Paris. A reservation would be 10€. I would just spend the extra 9€ instead of trying to figure it out at the station.
On 8 July, it is more expensive as there are few trains that day (engineering works...)... Not sure what to suggest. Next time I pass by St Lazare I should have a look at the ticket machines, as this question pops up often!

Thank you, everyone. Very helpful info.

@VorstFamily - so did you need a reservation on the direct TER Train from Paris to Bayeux and back? I also bought a Eurail pass and on the website it stated that I needed a reservation for a seat and nothing was available in September. I called SNCF and they said for all TER trains you do not need a reservation, only on TGV.

Also for the heck of it I tried to book a random Wednesday in November and Eurail is saying that no reservations were available. So I am inclined to believe that you do not need to reserve a seat. Let me know. Don't want to miss out on Normandy.

I'm really curious about this, because my interpretation of the information initially posted is that the Paris-Caen Nomad trains are not TERs, they are just (incorrectly) labeled as such. Therefore, they do require reservations. My supposition: Any train that requires a seat reservation can sell out, because the train has a finite number of seats. It is TER trains that cannot sell out, not Paris-Caen Nomad trains that are falsely called TERs.

Does anyone know for sure?

@barry304 - unfortunately I have no new information for you. I took ManinSeat61 at his word when I found that buried piece of info I posted above, and ended up taking the easy (aka expensive) way out of this conundrum. Reposted here for ease: After digging around on Man in Seat 61, I found this tidbit on another page: Train Nomad: This is a brand name used for mainline trains between Paris & Normandy, such as Paris-Caen-Cherbourg, Paris-Rouen-Le Havre. Seat reservation is compulsory, €10. Confusingly, as they're operated by the Normandy region they are shown as TER in some ticketing systems/timetables.

On the way to Normandy, we arrived in Paris from Brussels on a Saturday in July at noon and given that I was traveling with an 80 year old and it felt like most of Paris would be heading to the coast, we decided to hire a driver to our hotel in Normandy. Our 80 year old was very nervous she would have to stand the whole way and she paid for the driver.

For the way back to Paris, I was going to walk to the station in Bayeux a few days before we needed the tickets and buy the reservation that supplemented the Eurail pass. The day that I had time to do so, I ended up in our hotel with my daughter for several hours because she had a migraine. So, I ended up just buying the full fare tickets via the web rather than seeing if I could get the seat reservation in person at the station.

That said, we got on in Bayeux on a Tuesday morning and the train was nearly empty. It filled up a fair amount at the next stop. No one checked our tickets the entire time. Our seats did show that those seats were reserved through Paris, so maybe the ticket person knew they didn't have to spend time checking the people in those seats, not sure.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but I agree, you can't miss Normandy!

Hi. Just to clarify, is the Nomad train a TGV or a standard TER type train? My wife and I are looking to go from Paris to Caen in November and would prefer a TGV train rather than a local train.

Thank you.

Bill Brew

It's neither.
They're Intercity trains (few stops), but not high speed TGV. No TGV in that region (setting aside a Versailles-Rouen-Le Havre connection originating in Lyon).

I took one of those Nomad trains (to Le Havre) a few weeks ago. I just reserved a seat using one of the ticket machines at the station. Was only a few Euros (I was traveling on an Interrail pass). It reserved my seat shortly before departure.

The train was a new double deck train, and 1st class was quite nice, with little compartments and open plan seats. The train was not very full, and I ended up switching to a better seat than I had booked.