Luggage on the TGV trains

Liz, That depends to some extent on what type of luggage you'll be travelling with. If you have smaller "carry-on" type bags, they can usually be stored in the racks above your seat or even on the floor or seat beside you (if the train is lightly loaded). OTOH, if you have gargantuan bags requiring several Porters to carry, you'll have to store it on the luggage racks at the end of the train. Whether you'll be able to see it will depend on where your reserved seat is, relative to the luggage rack. You might find it very helpful to have a look at the excellent Seat 61 website. Happy travels!

We have traveled on the TGV quite a bit. In the beginning we had too much luggage. Now we travel with so much less. But as noted if you have to put a bag at the end of the car others will probably end up on top of yours. A word of advice--try to get up and by the exit door before the train stops as so many people are rushing to get on that you might be unable to exit and be forced to go past your stop.

Depending on your height/strength, you may not be able to use the overhead racks. The overhead racks on most European trains are way too high for me to safely reach, even standing on the seat and traveling with a light bag. Instead, I bring a very small lightweight retractable cable lock; when my luggage is in the rack at the back of the car, I use the cable lock to attach it to a fixed pole or part of the rack. I think the brand might be something like Packsafe. Just make sure you don't get one of the locks with a very short (maybe 6 inch) cable; the cable on mind is over a foot long.

Sherry, where did you find a retractable lock? I may also be taking trains with several stops so it sounds like a good idea.

Retractable Lock: http://tinyurl.com/42rjm98

Retractable cable locks are common in bike stores, ski shops, sporting good stores. etc. Ours is 3' foot long. We often just loop it through our bags so that if one bag is grabbed, then the other bags comes along as a little surprise. Luggage theft, through frequently discussed, is not a big problem. It you notice most of the locals just throw their bags in the storage area. Only American tourists are locking them up.

We made the reverse trip (TGV station at Aix-en-Provence to TGV station at CDG airport) on June 27th. Nobody locked their luggage to anything. My bag was on the bottom, my husband's was on the top. Nobody showed any interest in them. As it happened, the seats I reserved made us ride backwards the whole way, so we faced the luggage racks and happened to be fairly close to them, i.e. they were in sight. The toilet was in the same area as the bags, so that's an easy way to check on them, but like others have said, the TGV rarely stops, so your bag should be with you all the way. We were on the upper deck and even my little carryon would not fit in the overhead rack. I don't know how that worked on the bottom deck or how the luggage racks worked there. Amen to getting ready to go and waiting in the queue of others so you can get off the train. Do your best to never be last, getting on or off, even if you have very light bags. The TGV makes quick stops.