We will be travelling by train, mostly in Provence, in March 2012. We've decided not to get a railpass, as most of our trips are short ones on regional trains and individual tickets are less expensive. My question is whether it is safe to wait until we're in France to buy tickets, getting them on the day of each trip, or whether there is a danger of tickets for particular routes being "sold out" even in March? If the latter is unlikely, I am leaning toward waiting, as the cost of tickets + service charges through raileurope.com seems more expensive than what it would cost to buy tickets at the stations. Examples of our itinerary: Bordeaux to Sarlat; Carcassonne to Nice; Nice to Lyon.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19240 posts
If you are using regional trains, there are no seat reservations. The trains don't sell out, but they can be crowded and SRO. If they are crowded, you might have to stand whether you bought tickets in advance, or not. RailEurope is a very expensive way to buy tickets.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
In France, as in many other countries, the Regional class train is the local. It's like your local bus system in Seattle. You walk up, buy your ticket, get on and find a seat. If no seat, you can stand. All just like the local bus. Cheap fares and they make every stop along the way. No discounts on the Regional trains either. As mentioned above, no seat reservations either. As you step up to faster trains making less stops (i.e. TGV), you will be buying tickets with seat reservations. One major difference with the train is that for Regional train tickets, you must validate them a the little validation machines you pass by as you walk out onto the platform. You must validate or you will be fined if caught with an unvalidated ticket. You can really do all of this quite easily without buying more expensive tickets from RailEurope with is mostly owned by the French SNCF.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
Of the journeys you mention, Carcassonne-Nice and Nice-Lyon are quite long journeys best done by TGV or express rather than regional trains, and you will definitely get cheaper tickets if you book in advance for specific trains. Raileurope.com is the site aimed at selling passes to US tourists, for the cheap fares the usual recommended route here is to go to tgv.com, claim to live in the UK, and opt to pick up your tickets at the station in France.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
SNCF (French National Rail) operates four train Web sites: voyages-sncf.com, idtgv.com, tgv.com, and tgv-europe.com. To book in English and still get discount fares, you must pick tgv-europe.com, not tgv.com. First say that you live in Great Britain. Say that you want to stick with tgv-europe.com and don't let the site bump you to raileurope.co.uk. Choose Great Britain as your ticket retrieval country. Don't worry. You'll be able to either print your own tickets or pick them up at any SNCF station in France. You can book up to three months in advance so book NOW to get the best fares that still are available. Why is it so complicated? Because SNCF also is the major owner of Rail Europe and makes a lot of money off of people who either are willing to pay for convenience or don't know there are better optons.
Posted by
New Orleans
109 posts
Tim, I have already have a France Rail Pass. Can I use tgv-europe.com to get a seat res? Thanks.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Jean, No, you cannot buy seat reservations alone on the tgv-europe site. SNCF limits the number of seats it allocates to passholders. If you need to travel on a particular train that requires reservations, especially on weekends on popular routes (like from Paris to Provence), it would be wise to buy your seat reservations in advance on raileurope.com. Reservations cost less if you buy them in France, but waiting to do that might mean you'll either have to travel on a different train or buy a full fare ticket at the last minute.
Posted by
Paris, France
1 posts
Hello, Train will not be sold out but ticket are very very expensive if you buy it very later. You can buy ticket (for france & europe) @ rail europe
A+ Arnaud