I'll be traveling from Amsterdam to Tours,France on August 31. I see that I can purchase the Amsterdam-Paris ticket (Smoove fare) and print it out myself (13:16-16:35), but I cannot print out the Paris-Tours (17:40-18:44) ticket. Since I will have only one hour in Paris to change from Nord to Montparnasse, I don't think I want to also stand in line at Montparnasse to get my ticket (and am not counting on those ticket machines working for me). Here's my question, I will be in Avignon for a couple days earlier in August, can I pick up the ticket while I am there if I buy it on line now to get the cheap advance fare? Otherwise I am not going to be in France till I arrive back on the 31st. Or could I pick up the ticket in another country? I will have some spare time in Prague, perhaps in Bern or Basel, otherwise will be in small towns.
Posted by
OP
Mount Vernon, WA, USA
11 posts
Thanks Tim, it worked and I now have two printed tickets, one for Amsterdam to Paris and one for Paris to Tours! Here's a couple things that happened, in case other folks read this and use the information: I had to use Internet Explorer, when using Firefox (my usual browser) it would not show me the entire box where I could say I wanted to stay with tgv-europe, so I just got stuck at that point. On Internet Explorer, I could click "continue". Don't know why that was not working on Firefox, but it wasn't. Then, I had to do each part of the trip separately. I thought, hey, I'll make this simpler and do Amsterdam to Tours all as one, and it would not let me choose to print the ticket. Once I gave that up and did each part separately, it all worked out just great, and in English!
Thanks much for the help, all of you.
Posted by
Portland, OR
34 posts
Will they mail it to you here in the States? That will save plenty of time & worry, even tho it may cost you some $. I bot tickets from RailEurope in Feb for a night train from Munich to Paris & rec'd them within 10 days here at home. Joan
Posted by
OP
Mount Vernon, WA, USA
11 posts
Thanks Joan, but I'm hoping to get these tickets direct from SNCF, it'll save me quite a bit. I do have a rail pass and have gotten reservations from Rail Europe for other parts of my trip, and it was very easy to have them send them to me. But the reservation fees for this trip don't warrant using a rail pass day for it, unless it's going to be a real hassle to get the Paris-Tours ticket.
Posted by
Chicago
2876 posts
If you purchased your ticket online you can pick it up at any SNCF train station ticket window (but NOT a Metro ticket window), or SNCF boutique. You'll need your email confirmation with the file reference number and the credit card that you used to buy the ticket. Don't know about picking it up in other countries. Found all this out in France last year when we had a similar situation.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
If you book your Paris-Tours ticket at www.tgv-europe.com ASAP, you still can get a Prem's fare of €24 and you CAN print your own ticket. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares, choose Great Britain as your country of residence.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
You're welcome, Katherine. The reason you had to book separate discount fare tickets is that Amsterdam-Paris is on Thalys trains and Paris-Tours is on SNCF trains. Each train company sets its own discount fares.