Help Please with Europass France & Belgium

If you're only travelling Paris-Bruges-Paris, Bayeux-Troyes, and Troyes-Paris, I'm wondering why you're getting a pass. It'll cost you $275 pp (2nd class) for four relatively short journeys....plus extra reservation and supplement fees (as you may have noted in another post, another traveller planning to use the Thalys on April 30th is already having trouble finding a spot.) Via SNCF, the French national rail service, you can do Paris-Bruges-Paris for $260, even at this late date...all reservations and supplemental fees paid and made (even lower if you travel Paris-Bruge on the 30th instead).

Well, Norm. I guess for starters I am not at all comfortable on the SNCF site in French (I've tried the little English symbol but it takes me to a TGV site and only part of the trip is on that), nor picking up tickets in France at the last minute when we don't know our way around anywhere after long extended flights - the bus site that I'm trying to navigate is even worse. I'm also hestitant to purchase a ticket and lose our money if our plane doesn't come in the day/time we are expecting. If we have a pass and a reservation we will only be out the money for the reservation. Because of obligations meeting other family members, our dates are not flexible beyond a one-day cushion we have built in for flight delays.

Back to your original question - it doesn't matter how many trains you take - one day is one day(unless you start after 7:00 at night - then it counts toward the next day as your "one day"). The France/Benelux flex pass minimum is 4 days. Thalys is expensive, but you have to buy the reservations (may or may not need separate reservations with the change in Brussels). Anyway. I am trying to make my itinerary in such a way that I make good use of those train days and then do a few short days as we go. When I bought my railpass (direct from Rail Europe- at that time no charge shipping over $399 - doing as much as possible in that one order worked well. I spent some time with "fake" itineraries on the RE website to see what options I had before I ordered anything (you may be too close to get Thalys "passholder reservations", in which case you will have to just order tickets (I have used SNCF and picked up at the train station - cheaper than Rail Europe, but RE works, too)

Thanks, Karen & Norm. I'm comparing the prices on RE and SNCF for tickets vs the pass and reservations but I'm finding different options - different routes and times are available on each not to mention the different prices. I'm still very concerned about reading the fine print when it changes to French and also about locking in a ticket that we can't use if the plane is delayed too long. The Paris-Bruges route is the vulnerable one and that's the one we need the reservations for (especially with the holiday). It's also frustrating when the English site offers many fewer and less convenient routes/times than the French site. The refundable tickets on the Bruge routes are way more than we can do even a month ago when I looked at ER.

Lou...first, comparing tickets on RE and SNCF is like comparing apples and oranges. RE only offers limited tickets, and overcharges you for the priviledge. You can access the SNCF website in English if you wish. The Bruges-Brussels leg is no problem, since it's like a commuter service, with a couple of trains per hour (you don't get a "reservation" for that leg anyway). If you don't want to take the risk of missing a trip, then go for the pass, but the important thing is to make your reservation NOW. If there's nothing available at RE, check the SNCF schedules and call SNCF direct to make the passholder reservations (011-33-8-92-35-3539 from the U-S). If there aren't any spots left, consider what Tim as suggested in a post to another traveler, the TGV from CDG-Brussels. If you can get a reservation on that, you can always take the RER out to CDG termina 2 and transfer there...your pass, tho, won't be good on the RER. Good luck!

Norm, Thank you so much. After your response I did try to get back on SNCF but when I put in to pick up the tickets in France the site reverts back to French language which makes me doubt my rusty high school French. I have some tickets on hold at ER. They automatically give you VERY, VERY tight connections (18 minutes in Brussels and only 8 minutes in Lille on the return). Is this doable? Are the gates that close? I'm afraid to lock them in with this kind of connection time but I don't know why they give the connection if it won't work.

There is a way to get to the old English booking page on the SNCF site. Norm is the one who discovered it. (Thanks, Norm!)

1. Go to http://tinyurl.com/2shmfn. You'll get a page on the SNCF site with the heading "Document non trouvé."

2. Click on the British flag icon. Wait a moment for the page to re-set. (It will look like nothing has changed.)

3. Click on the "consulter le plan du site" link.

4. Under the Train heading click on "Réservation billet train."

5. Finally you'll get the old booking page in English (with a French heading).

6. Leave France as the default country for retrieving your tickets, do NOT choose cancellation insurance, and proceed to complete your booking.

I'm with Norm in thinking that point-to-point tickets will be cheaper than a pass for your routes. However, IF you use a pass to take a TGV from CDG to Brussels, you could also use it on the RER B, but ONLY from Gare du Nord to CDG. That portion of the RER B line is operated by SNCF.

Tim, Thanks so much. That site is a winner. It works and I did a lot of double checking on it. We ended up with a hold we had on Raileurope because I caught a great rate Paris to Lille. Otherwise, your site had far more choices at much better prices than RE and it was all readable! This really, really helped and I appreciate the way folks here are willing to share.