Print Ticket in US or France

The main advantage of printing them at home is that you avoid having to stand in line at the ticket window or machine in Paris when you go to retrieve the tickets. This would be an issue only if you were pressed for time and the station was really busy.

You can stop in any neighborhood SNCF boutique in Paris and they will print your ticket for you. I always have mine done the day "before" I depart.

We like to take the earliest trains in most instances while traveling around Europe, France mostly. Not all ticket windows are open early in all stations, especially smaller ones. We always print our tickets in the US whenever possible. Upon arrival at rural destinations, we go to the window and ask for our return tickets, if we don't already have them. Having most of our rail tickets in hand before leaving the US gives us a little extra peace of mind. Lines at some of the larger stations can be quite long and we can avoid that.

I haven't tried this but I have read posts from people whose tickets were rejected by by-the-rules conductors because they were printed on the wrong size paper. If you print the tickets in the U.S., use legal-size paper instead of 8.5x11 letter-size. I have been told that tickets are screened to be printed on A4 paper, which is 8.3X 11.7 inches. Legal size paper will pick up all the type and barcode, but standard U.S. letter-size may not. And it does not work to reduce the copy size. You can trim away the excess from the finished product as long as the barcode and type are not cut. Printing on the larger paper is a simple precaution that does no harm. Hopefully, someone with more knowledge on this subject will come forward. But just saying that you printed a ticket on letter-size paper does not prove anything; that's like not wearing a moneybelt and never being pickpocketed -- until you are.

Depending on the ticket, you may not have the option to print it at home; BE SURE and bring the credit card used to purchase the tickets online; you'll need it to collect your tickets from the agent!!!

We bought TGV tickets online last fall. Took our confirmation email to Paris. At the ticket window in the Gare de Lyon the agent punched our names into the computer, found us instantly, and printed our tickets. We didn't have to show a credit card or any other form of ID. The same experience was repeated in the Avignon TGV station 2 weeks later. So our experience was that the "same credit card" rule, if it exists at all, isn't enforced. Just our experience.

Last summer we picked up our ticket for the TGV from Paris to Basel at one of the SCNF boutiques in Paris the day prior to departure. We were asked to show the credit card that we had used to purchase the ticket. But the whole process took about 5 minutes. Very easy. Just go online to find the SCNF boutique that is closest to your hotel.

Tom, weren't those your Euro Railways tickets? We ascertained that they work like tickets purchased through a travel agency (per THEIR info); therefore, I stand by my Very Strong Suggestion to do as tgv-europe says and bring your credit card for verification. I've never NOT been asked for my credit card.

Ah...Rail Europe; there's been some unsubstantiated rumblings 'out there' that RE is somehow associated with ER...perhaps, perhaps... I mentioned Euro Railways because you did in the thread from Dec 2010 where you gave this link: www.eurorailways.com/kb/brochures/premier/french_etickets.pdf So apparently, Rail Europe sent you a link to a Euro Railways page explaining how to retrieve your tickets... RE and EW are Travel Agents who charge for their services (unless you purchase hundreds of dollars worth of tickets); the national rail companies don't. AGAIN, if you use tgv-europe.com (or many others) you're required to show the credit card used when you purchased the tickets IF you're retrieving them at a French (or Lux.) station. You'll need to show your confirmation number to the ticket agent - and not even bother with the machines - because your North American credit card probably isn't chip-and-PIN and won't work in the ticket machines. No biggie. So unless you purchase your tickets from Rail Europe or Euro Railways... you'll need to present your credit card used to purchase the tickets when you retrieve them at the train station ticket window.

We bought our tickets on the Rail Europe website for a TGV Paris - Avignon round trip. We weren't asked for a credit card in either Paris or Avignon, although I did have it with me. Maybe because our tickets were already fully paid for? The ticket agent at Avignon also told me that we could have used the self-service kiosk (to print our tickets) just by inputting our confirmation code, which was printed on our email receipt from Rail Europe.

<<So unless you purchase your tickets from Rail Europe or Euro Railways... you'll need to present your credit card used to purchase the tickets when you retrieve them at the train station ticket window.>> Which explains why we weren't asked for our credit card.