Train from Paris to Nice

You cannot tell the direction of travel because TGV's can operate in either direction. I believe the train will change directions at Marseille St Charles, since it is a terminal type station.

That is a long trip for the misery of Ouigo. Some Ouigo trains are more comfortable than others but our Ouigo experience was upright plastic seats with minimal padding like metro seats with no arm rests. Okay for an hour -- so not okay for a trip the length of the country. I'd never take this trip without booking the TGV -- sometimes first class booked early is not much more, but the regular seats are fine too if a bit tighter.

You can never pick the direction of travel on a train due to the nature of trains. Sometimes on the same trip you will face both ways at different points as they switch and add cars.

Don't take a OUIGO for a six hour trip. No food or water sold, all very, very crowded cars. Broken toilets.
Take a regular TGV. This is not where I’d save money. I’m curious to know where and for what itinerary RS advises the OUIGO.

In a regular TGV you can choose seats in first class, so buy first and choose a 4-seat arrangement from the seating chart. In second class, you are assigned seats. For the best views, choose upper-deck seats. The sea views are the last two hours from Toulon to Nice.

Look at the routing as you are choosing your tickets: some are direct with no stops until Toulon on the coast. Some may make one stop in Avignon, or Aix-en-Provence, or Marseille. The time is about 5:56 minutes for the route. Check what you are buying as you are buying it on SNCFConnect.

Thank you to everyone for quick and valuable responses. I looked for seats on the TGV and there are few seats on any of the trains. We certainly could not sit together. We’re more than 2 months away from our trip. I mistakenly thought we had plenty of time to schedule the train. I entered my email in case a train is added. Does that happen?

There seems to be a problem with your search. Did you change the date to October? I just looked at the two heaviest travel days in October, the start of fall vacation on the 16th and 17th, and there are plenty of seats left. The seats for 4 together are usually the last available because single and couples want to sit in solo or duo seats. What’s your travel date.

What date(s) are you looking at? I took a look at a number of random days and availability looked pretty good, including for Sat 17 October, which is when a two-week school holiday begins in all of France.

(Edit: didn't mean to be repetitive, Elizabeth in front of me already said it all!)

I must have done something wrong. We are looking at October 14 later afternoon or early evening. Based on advice here we’d want 1st class and to sit together. I only found one train that we’d have to sleep on and we wouldn’t be all together. I’ll check again. Thank you everyone!

Many people find the Trainline website or app to be more user friendly. There is a small surcharge, but I find that's worth it for ease of use.

https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us

@lzarrow I don’t think that you are doing anything wrong. There is a 5:22 PM TGV and the direct one before that is at around 2 PM. and there is one with a connection at around 2:30. Late afternoon limits your choices. I’d take an earlier or later train rather than take the OUIGO that leaves at 4:10 if I were going from Paris to Nice by train.

another vote for trainline for ease of use. That appears to be a busy time -- good luck

lzarrow -- you have to keep in mind that the Paris - Nice train ride is just under 6 hours long, so your choices are limited if you want to depart in the late afternoon or evening, since not many people want to arrive in the dead of night.

For 14 October there are in fact 5 non-Ouigo, direct TGV trains, but at 09:10, 10:10, 11:22, 14:10 and 17:22. If you can't take any of the morning departures, then your choices will be limited.

The 2:10 train gets you there in time for 8 pm dinner. Avoid the trains with connections.

Thank you all! After being bumped out 3x when I tried to pay, I was able to book the train through Trainline! This part of our planning was not the easiest. Lucky to have help here. Merci beaucoup!