train reservations

If you are sure of the travel date/time/train you can make the reservations now on the German Rail website. Check "reservations only". You won't save any money, but it won't cost any more, either, and you will have them. If the connection doesn't say reservation required, my gut feeling is that a few days earlier, at the station in Berlin, will also work, particularly because there are almost hourly connections from Berlin to Köln.

I'm basically familiar with Germany. Someone else will have to advise you for France. However, I'm thinking that when you arrive in Berlin will be early enough for you to make reservations from Lausanne to Paris.

You don't need reservations for every train in France, but they are required with every trip with a TGV train. The DB Bahn website has current and complete info for French railways. If you're certain of your travel dates, it can't hurt to make the reservations when you're able.

But, where can you make reservations online for the Lausanne-Paris TGV? From the TGV-Europe website? German Rail (DB OR The Bahn) won't sell those reservations online, but I pretty sure they will sell them at a Reisezentrum.

I recently called Rail Europe for some info and was told that train numbers with 4 digits require reservations, while those with 5 digits are local trains that do not require them. You can look up the train numbers on the Rail Europe website--choose itinerary, plug in your departure and arrival towns and select check schedules, and the various times and train numbers will be shown. You can make reservations on the Rail Europe website as well (choose the option for passholders, not the generic reservations button), although I don't know if they cost more there.

Barbara

Last April we waited until we were in Lausanne to make reservations to go to Paris on the TGV (with our Eurail passes). There were no First Class seats available so we had to ride in Second. Even though there were seats available in First Class (according to the reservation person), they now only allow a portion of them to be assigned to Eurail riders.