Do I have a seat or not?

Tickets and seat reservations are not the same thing.

The ticket allows you to legally ride the train. You simply find a vacant seat and sit in it. A reservation saves you a specific seat after you've already bought the ticket. Not all trains offer seat reservations, but it is very rare to see people standing on train for lack of a seat vacancy.

This route is a reservations required route. I would be a little worried too. Who are you purchasing tickets from?

If you don't have a reservation then you don't have a seat. It's definitely a reservation required train so you'll not be allowed on board. Where did you purchase this "ticket"...RailEurope, by any chance?

If you had purchased this from the official French Train site www.sncf.com or the official Swiss Train site www.sbb.ch the reservation comes WITH the ticket purchase and cannot be purchased without the compulsory reservation.

I am looking at my TGV-Lyria print-at home ticket from 2013 Zurich-Paris. It says, Voiture 16, Place 101. That means car 16, seat 101.

or trying to get pass holder reservations on a train which does not accept railpasses or on which the rationed seats (SNCF, the French company who run the trains, severely ration passholder seats on TGV trains) are not available.

Claudia - hwthrnr -, if you tell us more of your situation we can help, otherwise we are shooting in the dark - always dangerous...

Hope she comes back with some clarification, but I'm guessing she bought a 2nd class, non-flexible ticket (with mandatory reservation included) from RailEurope (they show the price for TGV 9230 of $72), but she hasn't received the ticket yet and doesn't realize it already comes with a reservation. She's now trying to make her own reservation (on what site?) and is being told that the site does not have reservations only, just tickets. When she receives the ticket from RailEurope, she will probably see that is has a reserved seat shown on it.

Sorry this took so long guys, but I was working an 11 hr. day and just got home. I just want to say thank you for helping. I really appreciate it!
So to answer some questions:
I started out on the Swiss site and got all the way to the end before a message pop up stating unable to book due to either construction going on at Basel (I believe) or trains full and some other things, I can't remember now. So I went to raileurope where that other message came up about not having a reservation just a ticket. Just so you know, I did not buy that ticket. Am waiting to see what you guys had to say!
Also, I did try the voyages.sncf.com too.Not having much success.
Oh, almost forgot, I only have a Swiss pass. Not a rail pass. So am wondering if I should buy a p2p from just inside France to Paris and figure out how to get from Moutier,Switzerland to that point, or I would prefer to get the whole thing so I don't have to worry about it.
Let me know what you think?
Claudia

You can buy right now at the TGV site a seat from Basel to Paris on July 1 departing at 16:34 for 39 euro. That gets to Paris at 19:37. So now just look at the www.sbb.ch for a train that gets you from Moutier to Basel by 16:15 or so. By mandate, each Swiss station must have at least one train every hour in both directions. Your previous, you picked a connection that bypasses Basel by crossing into France at the tiny town of Delle and goes to Belfort where it connects to a TGV to Paris. There appears to be construction on that line on July 1,
There is a direct Swiss ICN train at 15:08 arriving Basel SBB at 15:53.

Sam,
Thank you!!
I just booked the Basel - Paris train!
This is what it said on the sbb.com site: Please note!
Please select a date [DD.MM.YYYY] within the valid date range: 10.05.2015 to 09.06.2015.
So I'm assuming I need to wait to book that one.
Thanks again, what a relief! Now on to the next thing...
So looking forward to this trip. Can't wait to spend it with my 3 girls!!
Claudia

If you will have a Swiss Pass, there is no reservation needed or even offered. Just show up and get on the train. Enjoy.

"If you will have a Swiss Pass, there is no reservation needed or even offered. Just show up and get on the train. Enjoy."

Just so you don't make a mistake: what Sam posted is true for domestic trains within Switzerland. It is NOT true for the Basel to Paris train, for which a reservation is required.

If you were buying the ticket through Rail Europe and mentioned that you had a Swiss Pass, you might have received that message, that it was offering you a whole (reserved) ticket instead of a pass holder seat reservation. Since the Swiss Pass doesn't apply to that TGV route, starting from the border, simply don't mention the pass, wherever you make the ticket purchase.

Just to confirm and clarify.
All TGV require a reservation. When you buy a ticket it includes the reservation. On the ticket it says date, train (number and time), coach number and seat number. You cannot buy a ticket for a TGV in France without a reservation, the system does not work that way.

"So am wondering if I should buy a p2p from just inside France to Paris" - just inside France is Basel. That is where the SBB tracks end and the SNCF (French) tracks start. If you have a Swiss pass that is valid up to Basel, and you need a ticket from Basel.

"I just booked the Basel - Paris train!" - In which case you should have been sent a PDF ticket by e-mail with date, train, coach number and seat number on it. If not, you haven't got a ticket (in which case panic, or send me a message).

I believe the OP is now in possession of a ticket Basel to Paris, reservation and all. That is what she stated on 05/09.