TGV Paris to Strasbourg

There is no discount for round trip. Its just one-way tickets.

If the train is a Ouigo, it is a bare-bones, like a discount airline that charges extra for luggage over a small amount and has no on-board services.
There can be a wide variation in prices depending on the time of day, even for trains of the same class.

Also look at the train times, I see some cheaper fares, but they have connections, so take longer as well as the inconvenience of having to change. It should take 1 hour and 46 minutes on a direct TGV.

Yes, for price variations, make sure you're comparing apples to apples — I’m guessing that the cheaper trains are those that are not the TGV, start from alternate stations, etc.

Unfortunately trains between Paris and Strasbourg are rather expensive in December due to interest in visiting Strasbourg Christmas markets. But at least the train ride is fast and easy, good value for money.

A guaranteed seat on this busy route means you will have a place -- your luggage can be more of a problem. The racks at each end of the carriage can fill up and the overhead racks won't hold bulky luggage. One trick is to look for an auxiliary rack in the centre of the car, sometimes with a marker hanging off the overhead shelf.

In May we took the TGV InOui train from Paris Airport Charles De Gaulle 2 to Strasbourg station. We bought our ticket in advance and got seat reservations also. When we were returning to Paris we were going to a Paris hotel, so we did not go to the airport. On our return we booked a TGV InOui train from Strasbourg to Paris L'Est station. We also booked that train in advance with seat reservations. It all went smoothly. We bought first class tickets, but it might not have been necessary.

If you are 60+ and eligible for the Carte Avantage Senior, it may well be worth your while to get it. This card gives 30% off any TGV. For the card for people under 60, I believe weekday travel is excluded - I don't know the specifics because I've only bought a discount card since turning 60. You have to do the math to decide if the 30% discount is more than the 49 euro cost of the card, but for us, it often is even with just one round trip.

Thanks for all the helpful replies, above. We appreciate it. One final question: when we buy our ticket and have it in hand, is it scanned prior to entering the boarding area or the train car, such as I recall doing at Gare St. Lazare? And then is it shown again to the conductor en route? Or is there some other routine for getting to the compartment and seat?

Tickets bought online are digital— not paper. They are e-mailed to you and include a QR code which you will need to present on your mobile phone so it can be
scanned before you board the train. So, there is no paper ticket to worry about, or misplace before your train trip to Strasbourg. As with all digital tickets, it’s a good idea to have both tickets on both your cell phones either by forwarding the digital ticket e-mail to your spouse or use their cell phone to take a photo of both your tickets with the QR codes just in case one of your phones has a problem at the train station. ( Nothing worse than being asked to show a digital ticket when your phone is out of power). Then either one of you can present both tickets if required.
The ticket will have your assigned seat number on it so you will be able to find your seats. Since you must present the ticket on your phone screen before boarding the train, there is no need for it to be presented again unless you find another passenger occupying your seat.
Remember to allow extra time to board the train at Paris Gare de l’Est train station. For TGV trains, you must have your luggage pass through an x-ray machine before taking it with you on board the train. I find getting to the train station 30 minutes prior to departure on a high-speed train works. If you cannot fit your luggage in the overhead rack above your seat, you will need to place it in the luggage racks located at the end of the train carriage.
Have a great trip!

I did that run as a day trip, it's quick and simple. Train prices are like plane tickets now, they are dynamic and move up and down depending on demand and closeness to the trip.

Check out what the Man in Seat 61 has to say about French rail travel, and watch a Youtube video or two. If you've taken trains anywhere else in Europe, guess what - it's similar.

I had a carte advantage and it saved me some money, but it pissed off the conductor and he put me through the third degree. Ah well, c'est la vie as they say.

Although I do not post on this forum, I do read it for information.

A previous post said that the tickets purchased online are digital not paper. Not exactly true. We are traveling this week to Paris and will take the train to Strasbourg. We have BOTH digital (through the SNCF app) and a paper ticket. The site emailed the confirmation and invoice to us. Attached was a PDF for both. I printed our tickets and will carry the paper tickets with us. It has the QR code printed so it can be scanned . I also will have them on my phone. We prefer to have paper tickets readily available so that we don't have to pull out the phone and deal with that!
So - paper tickets can be done. It really is a matter of personal ease and preferance!

Not to mention if you buy your ticket at the station, from person or machine, it will be scannable paper

Thank you all for your excellent responses! We’ll provide lessons learned for any future (inexperienced) train travelers to the region on anything that we think might prove additionally helpful.

Not to mention if you buy your ticket at the station, from person or machine, it will be scannable paper

Scannable...in theory. The paper slips with a QR code that the TGV ticket machines hand out are printed in such a way that the gates are never able to read them. The platform gates are terribly inefficient anyway.
If your QR code does not work, grab the attention of a member of staff, there are always 2-3 waiting right behind the other side of the gates.

Balso, thank you also for your helpful reply!

FWIW. When I try to scan mobile tickets at Paris train gates, the gate reader somehow grabs my bank instead of the presented QR code and will not work -- I have had to find an agent to scan with his hand held device to get through the stile to the platform -- it is really annoying and I haven't figured out how to prevent this with mobile tickets.

Whether you are checked by the conductor or not is haphazard. In our recent Paris trips and Montpellier trip we had our mobile tickets scanned by the conductor every time -- this even included some long distance RER trains as well as TGVs and TERs. On other trips we have gone on several long distance trains without ever being scanned.

Regarding Ouigo, many trips and it's never really felt like a budget airline to me compared with regular TGV. It just feels like a regular train. We've always had carry on size-weight luggage and have not been charged more. Quality of experience wise, no reason to avoid.