Single Country Eurail

If you are trying to save money, and if you know your days and times, you are likely much better off purchasing in advance. One way is to test how much it costs to take a train journey tomorrow vs. using the train a few weeks or a month or more out.

Where did you get a price of $1200?? I get 327 EUR, about $385 US at current exchange rates. That is for 2 people 2nd class. First class would be about 60% more, and probably less.

Paris to Avignon and Marseille to Geneva would require you also buying seat reservations for TGVs with a Eurail Pass. These are included when you buy tickets outright. Avignon to Marseille could be done with TERs.

Thank you very much for the reply. We are pretty certain of the travel days now, just not the exact times yet (but that can be decided very quickly). Is Eurail easy to use in France is we are try to reserve a seat on a TGV? I did just email SNCF to ask a similar question about reserving on their system. I was not able to see where to enter a Eurail code on the SCNF website. Would a reservation through Eurail work just as easily? I will go the the Eurail site now to look again.

Thanks for the reply. Using the SCNF website for each trip without any discounts applied and the various trips added up to about $1200. Hoping to see about a pass though.

Do your prices include seat reservations?

Are you pricing 1st class seats? Even when I choose 1st class changeable tickets, I get $912 for 2. Maybe when you include your daughter for the last leg, it would come to $1200. But why buy changeable tickets when you have a fixed itinerary? You don't buy airline tickets at the walkup price, and train tickets are like airline tickets now days.

I believe the French rail website scnf (?) did include the seat reservations. I am just wondering if reserving seats works well with Eurail. Using a 3 day flex for two of us and a 1 day for when the three of us are together from Marseille to Geneve could be a nice savings. Will there be hoops to jump through though?

Will there be hoops to jump through though?

Possibly. SNCF sometimes will limit the number of Eurail Pass seat reservations it allows on a train, even if there are still plenty of available seats. You can reserve seats through Eurail or by calling SNCF.
https://www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations/how-do-i-book-my-reservations

You might want to see what Man in Seat 61 says about train travel in France and Eurail passes

https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-france.htm

eurail passes usually not cost effective or simple for so few journeys

And here is RS advice
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/should-i-get-a-rail-pass

Following this thread, its not clear to me what your objective is. It sounds like you'd really like to buy the Eurail pass?? Financially, it really doesn't make sense. If you buy single tickets thru SNCF you automatically get a seat assignment, there's nothing more to do. If you feel like SNCF is too complicated, you could use Trainline. They are a third party and charge a bit more. Many of us like to book directly with the national train company, but if you find you need a simpler process, look at Trainline. I saw that Seat61 was mentioned. Its a very good resource.

Should you? Probably not. Yes, French trains are more expensive than Italian and Spanish.

One and probably two of your trains are local trains:

Paris -Avignon TGV reserved seats
Avignon-Marseille local train, no reserved seats
Marseille-Geneva TGV to Lyon reserved and local to Geneva no reserved seats.

Also check the Spanish train Renfe that go from Marseille to Lyon. It’s probably a bit less expensive for the that leg.

There is one TGV per day from Marseille to Geneva. If you want it, you should buy tickets now. Reserved seats all the way.

Looking at prices a pass could well make sense- a 3 day in 1 month Eurail France pass costs $196.

A typical Paris to Avignon journey on 20 July costs around 80 Euro, Avignon to Marseille about 25 Euro on the local trains, and Geneva to Marseille around 80 Euro, or more depending on which train is chosen.

So it comes out pretty much even.

Yes there are the reservation costs, but depending on train choice it may still be cheaper, or at least no more expensive, and gives a bit more short notice flexibility.