TVG vs Rail Europe

George....you can book directly at the French national railway site, http://www.voyages-sncf.com . If it comes up in French, here's what to do. Click on the "train" tab across the top. Then look at the internet address in the address bar, and look for where it says "LANG=FR". Change the FR to UK, then hit the enter key. That'll bring up English. Keep "France" as your country for pickup. Some tickets will have a print-at-home option. For those that don't, use the pickup function. You'll then have to get them at the ticket window in Nice, using the credit card used to purchase them, and the confirmation e-mail. Fares in second class are as low as 75 Euro...but, as usual, the lower the fare, the more conditions placed on exchanges and/or refunds. You have to change trains in Paris, arriving at Gare de Lyon and leaving from Gare St. Lazare. Journey time is between 8 and 10 hours, depending on the schedule you choose. RailEurope is a branch of a couple of European rail companys (with France as the leading participant) which is charged with selling Eurail passes. It neither provides a complete list of trains available, nor does it publish discount fares.

RailEurope is almost always (save possibly a few instances) more expensive. Sometimes astronomical. They sort of monopolized the N.A. European P2P train market to unsuspecting travelers.

As mentioned, you can buy the tickets through the French site, sometimes for substantially less (the earlier, the better). Not to mention you won't get poked with shipping fees for the tickets since you can generally print them out at home or pick them up at the station. By far the better way to go.

George by going to the SNCF site that was recommended you are basically looking at all trains in France and not just TGV - so when booking watch for the train explanation (time should be a hint). There are many routes in France which run local slower trains with similar routes to TGV. The TGV prices will be a bit more expensive because of the high speed line. I do recommend booking early - but to now that travel dates are not posted more than 90 days out.

I never did get back to all of yhou. I purchased my tickets thru railEurope. Got tired of trying to figure out the french......Anyway I am very surprised. That I don't see all soorts of posts, about RailEurope prices vs the local country systems... Do I smell somehthing ?/ I was looking at the differences in Italy as well..OMG

George.....if you can slog your way thru "older posts" (which is asking quite a lot...there are thousands there), you'll find dozens of posts about the difference in price between RailEurope's prices, and prices on national rail websites or at local railway stations. That's why the tip was offered to turn the French SNCF website into English for you....the advance deals are particularly good on the websites. RailEurope is a company largely owned by SNCF designed to flog rail passes and overpriced tickets to North Americans. That's why, if you ever choose ticket insurance on the SNCF website, you'll be kicked over to RailEurope when you enter your U-S address.

Thanks all, live and learn. Shoulda read more...

Returned from our 30 day holiday which was fabulous. The point to point train worked best for us. We meet so many wonderful people who also had Rick Steves Travel Books. We traveled from Frankfort, Munich, Venice , Florence, Rome, Cinque Terra, Nice, Normandy, Brussels, London, ended in Paris.Would do it again.

"We traveled from Frankfort..."

Why did you go thru Kentucky?

because we are rich and have nothing better to do with our chump change...ok????