France in September

Have you already purchased the rail pass and done the analysis of whether a rail pass is better than point to point tickets? What town in Cinque Terre are planning to leave from? That makes a difference in train availability. Finally, Rail Europe is not the best place to look for train schedules because it does not include all available trains. Try looking for schedules on www.bahn.de/en with the understanding that September schedules are probably not yet final.

rome2rio has good transport information. You may want to check it out to see what options it gives you for train between Italy and France.

Your stations would be La Spezia-Avignon Central or Avignon TGV Trip takes 8-91/2 hrs

Yes I have bought the rail pass, in fact, just today from RS. They had a special deal with the France-Italy pass that gives you a free day. I reviewed the map on the rail pass section of this site and using my itinerary (Rome-Florence-Venice-Milan-CT-Provence-Paris) the point to point tickets for 2nd Class were $120 more than my 1st class pass with seven rail days on it, even after I added in the cost of reservations. It also gives me an extra day if I want to go somewhere, as Rick says, on a whim. I have a total of 19 nights on my trip and I'm alone for the first time. I felt like the rail pass was a better deal. As for where I will leave from, probably Monterosso, although I don't have a place to stay in the CT. Working on that now. I thought about taking the train to Nice and then driving along the coast, but not sure I have enough time to do that and still explore Provence. Would appreciate any suggestions.

Well from Monterosso, you would take the train to Genoa and then Genoa to Nice and then Nice to Avignon. It's water under the bridge now but I assume that you compares the price of the pass versus point-to-point tickets by looking at the price for point-to-point tickets on sncf.com or capitainetrain.com or even bahn.de/en for travel 90 days out versus the cost of the rail pass plus the reservations. Comparison to point-to-point ticket prices offered up by the seller of the rail pass are not usually the lowest available prices.

September is the most popular month to visit Paris and it is also a month with many trade shows; it is the hardest month to find a hotel room in Paris. I would think many hotels are already booked for this time of year. I would suggest booking the hotel in Paris weeks ago so get on that asap.

Do make your seat reservations well ahead for any French TGV train, such as Nice-Avignon and Avignon-Rennes. Rail Europe probably can provide those as e-tickets. But first, the Bahn link above is the best way to see which legs are "subject to compulsory reservation." Reservations become available about three months in advance of your travel dates; places are limited for pass holders and not even sold in France in the last 3 days before departure of the train.