TGV Website

The solution is to lie about which country you live in: Antartica, North Korea, Fiji; anywhere but the USA.
See here for more details: http://www.seat61.com/websites/voyages-sncf.htm#How_to_avoid_being_diverted_to_Rail_Europe

Or use www.capitainetrain.com which is a French site offering the same fares as SNCF, but is more user friendly.
Don't forget to make sure you get print-at-home tickets, a lot simpler than picking up tickets at the station.

On the SNCF website use France as your country to avoid being directed to RailEurope. Or you can go to capitainetrain.com, which offers the same fares as SNCF without the hassles that users of North American issued credit cards sometimes face at SNCF.

Thanks. I had already tried the other country idea but found it a little cumbersome to figure out my US rates, etc. Still doable. I would love to have them mailed to me, but that option obviously disappears when you claim another country. The capitaine train site does not yet offer the trip we want even though we are 84 days away from it. That trip is offered on RailEurope, however. Not sure why this is true. Thanks for the ideas, though.

Not sure what you mean by "figure out my US rates". Are you refering to converting prices to US$? You will have to get use to prices in Euro in France, and Franks in Switzerland when you get there.

Today (24th March) + 84 days = 16th June. Capitaine Train is showing me trains Paris to Basel on that date at prices between €39 and €59. What route were you looking at?

If you want tickets posted to you outside France, you will have to use RailEurope. But print-at-home tickets are just as easy to use.

Oh, goodness. Sorry. I counted wrong. 87 days = June 19. I was trying to get to Bern, but I am thinking Basel will work. Then we'll just hop Swiss trains from there. There are trains to Bern on RailEurope for that day, but I think Basel will work. Thanks again.

Capitaine Train is only showing the one through train from Paris to Bern.

18:23 Paris-Gare-de-Lyon
22:50 Bern (Switzerland)

There are lots more options changing at Basel. According to this webpage Capitaine Train doesn't do Swiss trains!
The full timetable of TGV trains from Paris to Switzerland is here.

Thanks, everyone! I booked something to Basel via the Capitaine Train website. I'm assuming we can hop Swiss trains from there to get where we want to go.

There are 2 trains per hour from Basel to Bern, price CHF 40 per person second class.

What do you mean by "US rates"? You should be charged in EUR anyway, requiring that you inform your CC company that you will be making a foreign purchase.

My experience 3 years ago was that RailEurope had fewer options at higher prices than SCNF. Back then there was no capitaine, so I signed up for Verified by Visa, which was easy to do.

I booked the train trip we wanted, paid for the tickets and printed them out at home. I love that I still get emails keeping me informed of fare sales.

Check the DB Bahn search site to verify the route you want. Perhaps that will solve the mystery.

The OP apparently has the tickets now, but for info only, in case the print-at-home option isn't available, you can pick up any TGV ticket at any TGV desk in France.

It's not necessarily true that Rail Europe adds any significant fee; in some cases they are even cheaper (yes, it's mysterious). Anyone traveling can check prices for his route. Rail Europe may not sell some Prems (lowest advance fares), in which case, we offer this advice for booking Prems rates directly with TGV and paying with PayPal. Many other fares don't offer the PayPal payment option and credit card approval has more issues.