French Rail

You can book through SNCF three months before your date of departure for the best prices and print your tickets at home in the U.S. You will always pay more for Rail Europe and they offer fewer options.

Standard advice, repeated here all the time, is to check www.seat61.com for all the details on rail travel and ticket-buying strategies.

For traveling between Nice and Paris, check out EasyJet (or AirFrance, or whatever). I've done that trip both ways, depending on different objectives between cost/travel time etc. train is still possible, but at least consider flying for that long portion (I think it's about 6 hours by train).

All those places along the coast are served by regional trains, so the prices will be the same buying them in advance or on the same day at the sation.

Your best prices on train fares will come from buying 90 days in advance of travel on www.voyages-sncf.com. This works for TGV and IDTGV trains only. No discounts on Regional trains. As mentioned above, you will mostly be on Regional trains in the Cote d'Azur. The TGV does come into Nice Ville but they don't make every stop coming in. These special fares tickets will be non-refundable and most will be non-exchangeable. But, very nice fares. Your best train fare value could be from Nice Ville to Paris. Right now, I see a 25Euro fare 90 days out on this run. You can print this particular TGV ticket out at home just after purchase. Train journey takes 5hr40min with 5 stops in between. Cannes is one of the five stops. When you go to www.voyage-sncf.com, don't select the USA as your ticket collection country. SNCF will switch you to RailEurope (they own a chunk of it). You won't get the 25Euro fare on RailEurope. Use Great Britain or France as your ticket collection country.