train from Frankfort to Paris

If I were you, my only concern is that most Frenchmen take vacation during August. They may not all be home when you travel. I would make all reservations now or as soon as you firm up your dates.

The easy part is that the RR terminal is in the basement of the Frankfurt air terminal; so you won't have to walk far. Just ask someone and follow the signs from your arrival gate.

Nancy:
There are generally 2 trains leaving from the Frankfurt am Main Flughafen (airport) to Paris everyday. I would not worry about getting a ticket, but sometimes you are unable to get a seat reservation. That would my only concern.

Your biggest problem will be that Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky, here in the U.S., and there are no trains from Frankfort to Paris. However, there are trains from Frankfurt (am Main, in Germany) to Paris.

The best place to get rail schedules is from the German Rail query page. Use "Frankfurt (Main) Hbf" as from:

Can you change your standby tickets (or add another leg) to go to Paris by plane? We've flown standby for years, and know to never have any prepaid reservations for when we get there because we're never quite sure when that will be.

I'm not sure where you're flying from and if there's other flights to Frankfurt that day if you miss your flight. We have one flight a day that we can catch, so if we miss that one, we have to wait until the next day and try again. The good thing is that there's tons of flights from Frankfurt to Paris, so if you miss your original flight to Frankfurt, it shouldn't be much of a problem getting on a flight to Paris. And since the airline employees that will be working with you in Frankfurt to get you on that flight also fly standby, they'll understand your situation (hopefully).

The problem with buying a Europa-Spezial Frankreich ticket well in advance is that those tickets are day and train specific and non-refundable. They are flying standby and don't know when they will arrive at FRA.

Thanks again everyone for your comments. My concern is that we will have a railpass but without advance reservations will we have trouble getting a seat? Since there are only two flights from Chicago to Frankfort each day we have no idea when we'll get on standby so would be unable to purchase tickets in advance.

We took the train from Frankfurt to Paris and return in December and we had to have a reserved seat as it is mandatory on that train. It was a 6 hr train ride and you will arrive at the East Station which has wonderful transportation via metro into the city. When checking rates, it was about the same to fly as it was to take the train. We did the train as we wanted the "train" adventure and not have to deal with a flight arriving at DeGualle. Good luck.

I also have a rail pass and just made my reservation for the Frankfurt-Paris train. The reservation clerk told me that you HAVE to have a reservation on this train. It's the fast TGV train that takes 3hrs, 49min. And he said it's good I got it far in advance as they sell out early. Maybe there are some slower trains that don't need reservations?