Paris to Brussels train cancelled- suggestions?

Either regional train ( https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Paris.htm#Paris-Brussels ) or coach.

According to the website of Thalys not all trains are cancelled, only certain ones; https://www.thalys.com/be/en/traffic-info/35114
Have you checked with Thalys to see if they can book you on another train?

A car rental is not a practical option due to the high drop off fees between countries.
However, if TGVs to Lille are running, start with that!
Then continue by regional train to Kortijk and the rest of Belgium. Or perhaps you can find a connecting TGV from Lille to Brussels.
The coach is an OK last resort, the trip isn't that long.

TGV to Lille sounds like a good idea. It is not as hard (as reported by others here) to get from Lille, France to Brussels as it used to be. It's also important to understand that a lot of Belgian business-day trains are unreserved, open-seating, no advance discount, commuter-like trains. This can mean a lack of long-distance train luggage racks, however. But my point is that some routes run several times an hour, on the busiest corridors. So the fear of missing a connection becomes less unnerving.

With only 2 1/2 days in Paris, I doubt you have the flexibility, but Lille has a superb art museum, and the nickname, "Little Paris". This is another example of why learning how to use the websites of the actual train providers is so important. (Travel Tips, top left menu)

It looks like I might be misinterpreting the Thalys website and not all are canceled. I’ll have to see if we can get on another train. Our original train is showing as “sold out“ but others are available.

An update on this in case anyone else finds themselves in this situation.

The Thalys website language was confusing (to me anyway lol) and not all trains were cancelled. The email notice of cancellation from Thalys said to contact my original “point of sale” for a refund or reschedule. I had booked through trainline.com and their website didn’t reflect the cancellation or allow me to rebook without paying the current fare which was about 4 times higher than the original fare (about $500 more for the 4 of us.)

It was too late to call so I emailed trainline.com last night and received a response today mid morning. They were not aware of the cancellation but got me rebooked on a train an hour earlier than the original and emailed me the tickets.

So it looks like we good to go now. Just hoping our flight on TAP to Orly doesn’t get cancelled!

Thanks for circling back with the resolution! Fingers crossed on your TAP flight as well!

BTW, thank you for posting your issue. I routinely check on my airline reservations but had not thought to do that on my train tickets for my upcoming trip. I nearly had a stroke earlier when I went to the Thalys website and it kept saying the server was down...but it's now righted itself and yep, my train for mid-April is still good to go.

Regarding rebooking, and who you need to contact for this: If you buy your train ticket through a travel agent then rebooking etc. is indeed something that you meed to do with that agent. And this is why booking direct with the train company is usually better.

But once you reach the actual travel date you become the problem of the railway themselves. So if you had don nothing, and then just gone to Gare Du Nord on April 6th it would then have been Thalys' job to find you a place on a train that was running. Railways do not have as much discretion here as airlines. You have a ticket, they have to transport you. Even if that were to involve getting you a taxi to drive you all the way...