Thalys seating plan

Jen,
No, the seats cannot be turned around. They are fixed in position when the train is built. I have never seen a train where the seats were reversible.
The trains can go in either direction. A seat that is facing forwards from Paris to Amsterdam would face backwards from Amsterdam, and vice versa. What it doesn't say on the seatmap you posted is which is the Paris end and which is the Amsterdam end of the train, so you cannot tell which are the forward facing seats. For example this Eurostar seating plan does show which is the London end of the train, and which the Paris end.
It could be that which end is which is not fixed, some trains are one way around and some the other.
The doors and luggage racks are shown in the plan you posted, but there are also overhead luggage racks.

For more information and photos of the Thalys trains click here.

As you say, one solution if there are two of you is to get a pair of facing seats, then one of you can always face forwards.

You can't turn the seats around. It is not always possible to see which direction the train is travelling on the seat maps.
My wife hates riding "backwards", so we usually choose seats facing each other across a table, so we can switch if she faces the wrong way.
If you take the direct Thalys, you can probably switch seats after the train leaves Paris if it is not completely full. The next stop is Brussels, which is 2/3 of the way there, and it makes only one other stop in Antwerp between there and Rotterdam.

Chris, just for the record, before the American railroads started to go bankrupt in the 1960's, large numbers of seats, especially on "commuter" runs had real woven cane-covered seats, mostly in twos, that were reversible. Typically the conductors reversed them at the end of the run. In a typical case, the seat didn't move, only the "back" did, AFAIR.

Last time I rode a SEPTA train (Philadelphia), this was the case. So you can imagine the age of the equipment.

It is not unknown for a train to change direction en route, especially if it is going via a terminus station. This happens to ICE trains at Köln (Cologne), Frankfurt, Zürich and in Basel for ICE trains from Germany to Switzerland; and many other places.
Occasionally a train is the "wrong way around" because it has been diverted earlier. There are signs on the platform indicating where each carriage will stop. But, if the train is the wrong way round, they have to make announcements that the train is "back to front", and everybody who has positioned themselves in the right place for their carriage has to make a dash to the opposite end of the train.

Hi All,

thanks for the info. oh my , I've booked the tickets side by side seating last night since there're only 8seats available in that price and within my scheduled timeframe (it's been Euro20 more expensive since last month I checked). I chose Carriage 15 which should stop in the middle and got seat numbers assigned automatically for us in seat 87 and 88.

Last Dec we just caught bullet train in Spain (it's just a part of group tour so no luggage and we have no idea which rail company it is) but we didn't check the train is reversible or not. All seats headed right to the direction of the train. Hopefully it'd be arranged that way by the conductors??

I try to look for Thalys Paris-Rotterdam seating plan that shows which direction but couldn't find any.

btw, is it safe to leave our luggages at the back of the carriage? we'd carry 2 large luggages so they wouldn't fit in the overhead racks. I heard a story in Italy rail, one of my friend fell asleep with her luggage just next to her and it still went missing when she woke up. I know that there should be enough spaces still for bringing the luggages with us (we got short legs) but I don't think that's permitted.

Also I just want to confirm that this is a 'direct train' from Paris Nord to Rotterdam Central with 2 transits only in Brussels and Antwerp. I just check my train from Amsterdam to Koblenz, Germany and I might need at least 2 changes of trains in between >_<

Cheers

Jen,
Glad you are sorted. You have a 50/50 chance of going forwards.
Not sure I understand "All seats headed right to the direction of the train. Hopefully it'd be arranged that way by the conductors??". All European High Speed Trains are bi-directional, and have an equal number of seats facing in each direction, so 50% of the seats are always facing backwards.
Yes, Thalys Paris to Amsterdam trains are direct, with intermediate stops at Brussels, Antwerp and Rotterdam.
If you had to change, that would have been shown on the booking site, and the two trains would have two different numbers and usually different seat assignments.