Train From Florence to Paris

Mike, you could also consider using skyscanner.net to compare cost and time. We decided we preferred flying Easyjet out of Pisa rather than spend so much time on the train.

Because it is a French site, tgv-europe.com only shows routes for which there is a maximum of one connection in a country other than France. To see all routes and times, go to www.bahn.de and click on the drop-down flag menu for English. After you get summary timetables for Florence-Paris, click on the arrow to the left of each departure time to see the connecting points. There is a direct night train for which no connection is needed.

To get fares for routes that require two connections outside of France you'll need to price the legs separately by using both the Trenitalia site and the tgv-europe site.

There is no discount for buying return (round trip) tickets. You will need to buy single (one-way) tickets in each direction.

If you book well in advance (up to 90 days allowed) at tgv-europe.com, you can get discount fares on the direct Paris-Florence night train. As Steve said, choose Great Britain as your country of residence so you don't get bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares.

Advance discount fares for the Florence-Paris direct night train are available on the Trenitalia site, but that site does not accept US credit cards so you can't book online. However, the ticket machines at Italian stations do accept US credit cards as do the agents at ticket windows.