Southern France

I'm not an expert, but we just spent a month in France this spring. We purchased our train tickets through Captain Train. If you purchase them early you save a lot. I would not purchase a Eurail pass. I purchased our tickets, printed at home, very easy. Some tickets must be picked up at the train station, some you can print at home and if you use the app I think you can just show your ticket on the app. I didn't use the app so I'm not 100% on that. At the train station there are people available to answer all questions.

Rail passes are probably not worthwhile if you are only going to be doing a couple of trips in France. France is particularly an issue for rail passes as long-distance trains are compulsory reservation, and only a small number of rail pass holders are allowed to reserve seats on each train - if that number is filled up you will have to buy a full-priced ticket.

You can get big discounts for long-distance journeys in France if you book three months or so in advance on the official site or on Capitaine Train as recommended above. However, the discount fares are strictly limited to specific trains, so it is not a good idea to book one straight after you arrive on a flight, as if your flight is delayed and you miss the train you will have to buy a new full-price ticket.

Thank you for the advice. I will look in to Captain Train!

I'd really like to know where your bike tour visits in Provence before making suggestions. Sainte Marie de la Mer is an interesting oddity of a place, but not worthy of a special trip in my opinion. I would say Montpellier (1) > Carcassonne (1) > Collioure (2) > Barcelona (3)

We begin and end our bike portion in Avignon. Look forward to your input!

If you were to choose a rail pass, it would be only for France (e.g., $199 per person for 4 days of travel in a month), not two countries. The France Rail Pass is not technically a Eurail-brand pass, but it works similarly. You'd probably make TGV reservations in the same booking, to make sure you have them. The France Rail Pass plus seat reservation covers you to Barcelona on TGV trains.

If you will have bikes with you for the whole trip, see info for how to carry them at http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/train-services/bicycle-on-board.

Thank you Laura!
No, bike rental is through Discover France and no train travel with them.
I wonder if $199 pass might not be a bad price. We fly in to Paris, going to Lyon our first 2 nights, on to Avignon, then 2 more trains (Avignon to Carcassonne, then on to Collioure).

With either reserved tickets or a pass holder seat reservation on TGV, the main issue is allowing time for flight delays for your most expensive leg, CDG-Lyon. Neither advance ticket nor reservation is refundable or exchangeable if you miss the train.

An $11 reservation would of course be the cheaper item to re-purchase, if necessary. The number of places can be limited for pass holders, but availability has improved this year. For instance, Rail Europe still shows reservations available on most CDG-Lyon trains running tomorrow, a few in 1st class only, so that makes the pass more flexible than it has been in recent years.

In terms of price comparison, a 5-day pass + reservations in 2nd class comes out about the same as tickets, even if you wait to purchase tickets in stations in September for about $295 total.