What train site to use?

The first issue is that train schedules are rarely posted more than 60 days in advance so just pick the same day of the week next month if you need pricing. There is little change from one schedule cycle to another. And, of course price it through trenitalia.com. Rail Europe will give inflated prices.

Right now, and I imagine it will be the same in Oct., German Rail has Europa-Spezial fares from Milan to Munich and from Munich to Paris, €39 per person if you book well in advance (fares can be booked 92 days in advance and start at €39, go up when the cheapest fares sell out). The only €39 fare from Milan is for the 6:52 EC to Munich (14:25). After a 2 hr stopover in Munich, at 16:24 you can catch a 6h10m ICE/TGV connection, changing at Stuttgart, getting into Paris at 22:34. Total price per passenger, if you get the lowest fare, €78 pP. Find the fares on the German Rail website.

Or if you would rather spend 9 hours on the journey instead of 15, you can spend more and go Milan to Brig (33 euro on Trenitalia), departing 8:25 am, changing at Brig for a connection via Geneva that arrives in Paris at 16:53. That part is 128 CHF (special price) on the SBB website. So the total is around $200 each that way. And those are prices for travel in August; it may change in schedule and/or availability of the special fare for October.

There is no need to make a connection in Brig. The train that leaves Milan at 08:25 goes to Geneva. The advance purchase Smart Price fare at trenitalia.com is €19.00. An advance fare ticket on the Swiss Rail site for the Geneva-Paris TGV can be as low as €48.00 CHF (€39.00). Better yet, there is a direct train that leaves Milan at 06:43 and arrives in Paris at 13:54. The Trenitalia advance purchase Smart Price fare is €30.00. There is another direct train that leaves at 16:10 and arrives in Paris at 23:21.

Thank you everyone. Tim- how did you get that info? Do I need to do the trip in segments when I'm trying to get prices? I couldn't get a price by just putting milan - paris. I did look at raileurope since that was the only place I could get to give me prices and they had milan to paris, I think 2 connections, it left fairly early, for 41 euro. Does that seem reasonable? or am I perhaps missing something there?

Probably missing a lot. R Europe offers limited number of trains because only list the tickets that they have tickets to sell. R Europe is a travel agency. Use trenitalia.com. for ticketing prices. I find bahn.de (German rail) easier to use when just looking at schedules. You cannot buy at ticket there unless the trip starts or ends in German. But they list all the routes which is handy to use. Since you are traveling in Oct most of the schedules will not be posted. Most schedules, pricing, reservations, etc. are not posted until about 60 days out - sometime more but 60 days is good point. If you want schedules information and pricing just used those sites for the same day of week that you will travel and plug in the dates for next month. There is little change from one scheduling cycle to another. Am tourist tend to get hung up on making reservations far in advance. That is just not the European system.

Brilliant, Tim. I did not think of looking for a direct train on Trenitalia---often that site is not all that helpful. I guess their upgrades have worked!

For TGVs going between Italy and France you can book up to 90 days in advance at trenitalia.com. The walk-up 2nd class fare for direct Milan-Paris TGVs is €98. However, if you click on the radio button for that train and then click on "Continue," you will see a drop-down fare menu. Choose Smart Price and the fare will change to €30 (if any of the allotted number of seats at that price are still available).

Book these as soon as you can nail down your itinerary; these aren't 'walk-up' prices. €30,00 is a steal, especially for those direct trains!!! (that's what it would cost me to travel Amtrak b/n Sacramento and San Francisco - a 1 1/2 hour trip by car...sad...and it's typcially late on arrival...)