How to make a train reservation

Hi Noranne. Paris Nord, Brussels Midi. Not sure what web site you are using; I use tgv-europe.com. Note: Click on England as your country / buy in euros to avoid being switched to raileurope. Then choose France as your country of ticket collection; you should be able to get discount fares and print your tickets at home. Enjoy your trip!

I'd say read what they have to say on seat61.com and then, as they suggest, go to tgv-europe.com. It looks like most (all?) direct trains go from Paris Gare du Nord to Brussels Midi. Avoid raileurope.co.uk. Good luck.

Noranne, The best stations to use will depend to some extent on which part of each city you'll be coming from and going to, and which stations have service on the route you want. Gare du Nord is probably your best bet for departures from Paris to Brussels. Is your Hotel located close to that? At the Brussels end, which part of the city will your Hotel be located in? Brussels Central is the closest one to Grand Place, so that may be the station you want. Of course, if your Hotel is closer to Brussels Midi, then that would be the best choice. Rather than deal with buying tickets and reservations on the net, another method you could consider would be to visit any SNCF Boutique when you arrive in Paris, and buy the tickets there (which will include reservations if applicable). There are locations in several parts of the city as shown on the Map. Happy travels!

If you want the fastest connection, ride on the Thalys line. For your route, these trains only service Gare du Nord in Paris and Brussel Zuid/Midi. For the slower, cheaper option, you would ride French rail to Lille (probably from Gare du Nord, but I'm not certain), and change there onto Belgian rail to Brussels. It doesn't matter which station you want in Brussels, because your train will likely stop in all three and it doesn't change the price of your ticket. When you buy your ticket, it will just read "Paris-Brussels". Most travelers to Brussels get off at Brussel Centraal. If you choose the non-Thalys route, seating is open on the Belgian segment of the trip (I don't know about the French part), so no reservations are offered. Your ticket on Thalys works like an airline ticket- it buys you a specific seat on a specifc train at a specific time. And if you already bought a railpass (hopefully not...), that complicates things a bit. I'll let others explain.