Traveling from Lucerne to Paris

The best overnight route is Luzern-Basel-Karlsruhe-Paris with the Karlsruhe-Paris leg (six hours) being a night train with sleeping accommodations.

The fastest daytime route (4hr49min) is Luzern-Basel-Paris. You could also go Luzern-Bern-Paris in six hours.

For complete timetables go to www.bahn.de. Click on the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner for English. After you get summary timetables for Luzern-Paris, click on "Details for all" to see the connecting points.

Don't buy your tickets in advance. When you get to Lucerne go to the RR station and talk with the clerk. You can ask questions about the best way to go. He will know more about it than we travelers might know.
Ours is old information.

I always ask for a computer print showing my route with stations where I much change trains, times and train numbers.

There are at least two times when it is a good idea to buy tickets well in advance: (1) when you're taking a popular night train, and (2) when you can get a discount fare by booking online.

Thanks everyone!
Maybe a good idea might be to catch a night train, so we can spend the whole day in Luzern and then go to Paris.
And Tim, how far will be "in advance" to buy the tickets?