She arrives in Paris on September 1st.

There is a TGV station in the airport. Check to see if there is a scheduled train to Aix about 2 hours or more after her arrival. I believe that in Aix she will have to take a shuttle into town.

The TVG station is in terminal 2 at CDG. If she arrives in Terminal 1, she'll need to take a shuttle to Terminal 2. I'd allow at least 2 hours, preferably more, to get through immigration/passport control and get there.

Ideally, you should have bought her tickets online 2+ months ago to get the best fares, but yes, go to www.voyages-sncf.com to buy tickets. There may still be some discounts available. Don't choose English or you'll be shunted to RailEurope, which will overcharge you.

Oh, and big luggage IS a problem. She'll have to lug it up and onto and off the train herself. If she can't manage that - and quickly - she's going to have a problem.

The train station in Aix is actually 15 km or 9 miles out of town!I did this once and never again-too much hassle so now I fly into Marseille and take the bus into Aix!

Yes, that was my main concern. She's only 20 and it's her first time to Europe. I am worried about how she'll manage to carry the bag by herself. She'll be there for 6 months, so a small suitcasecase won't do.

Perhaps I should book her another flight into Marseille? Then a taxi to Aix. There are porters at the airport but not at the train station.

Thank you for your responses.

There is a bus from the Aix TGV station to the bus station in Aix. It is the same bus, or was last time I took it, as the bus to/from the Marseilles airport. She can get a taxi from the station to her lodging.

Congratulate her on studying in Aix. Our son studied there, and it may have been the best thing that ever happened to him before he met his wife and became a father.

It is a wonderful city and an excellent base for touring the Mediterranean. But it gets quite a lot colder in the winter than one might expect, so tell her to be ready to buy a warm coat!

Maybe she should ship some of her stuff ahead of time. Seriously, when that train pulls up and there's a crush of people waiting to get on, and she's trying to figure out which car her seat is on, and then has to get up a handful of steep steps in a crowd and maneuver down the aisle and find a place to store the bag, it's pretty stressful. Done it myself a hundred times and I'm always a bit apprehensive - and I have a small carryon or rollaboard only.

Don't mean to scare you, but those train-boarding moments aren't usually fun, though if you're young and strong it's probably easier.

To minimize anxiety in the train station:

There is a board on every platform that gives the position of each car in the train. Platforms are divided by posted letters and the board will indicate under which letter each car will be. By being on the platform 10 minutes before the train arrival it is easy to position oneself on the platform where one's numbered car will be.

This is also useful when picking up. Friends of ours were on a Paris-Limoges train that was two hours late. They did not realize that the train was making up time and had arrived in Limoges. They got off at the last minute because they saw us waiting on the platform.

Is there some rule she has to carry every single thing with her? Why not take what she needs for the first week and have everything else shipped - so she doesn't have to schlep a bag weighing 80 pounds all over hell and gone. (And up how many flights of stairs is her apartment going to be?)

I remember heading off to school in Aix with two giant suitcases (prior to the days of wheeled luggage.) I thought my arms were going to rip out of their sockets. However, I made it. She's young. She'll manage. My semester in Aix was one of the best experiences of my life!

Shipping stuff is a really good idea and option. Note if the tgv is a double decker, make sure she gets the lower deck. It's a pain in the neck with big luggage getting on the train. Double that pain for getting it upstairs.

you might do better if you learn what "urgent" really is. And give a better heading to your post.I opened this thinking someone was stranded in a foreign country.

big luggage is a pain at CDG too. they have put very strange posts at the end of escalators and moving walkways so that fat or even just medium cases have to be manoeuvred round them. the best ones i saw for negotiating these obstacles are cases with 4 wheels.

the idea to ship the heavy stuff is a good one, but it might just be cheaper to give her the money to spend when she gets to Aix!

Some people love to find reasons to get offended. It's a travel forum, were you expecting me to be having a cardiac arrest?

ha, good one.

Aix is pretty far from the Marseille airport, I don't think you'd want to pay for a taxi from MRS to Aix. You could, of course, if money is no object, it's not so far as to be ridiculous.

I'd worry more about getting on the train rather than getting to the station within the airport. If she can't handle getting from the luggage carousel to the TGV station, some other plans should have been made to begin with. It's within the airport complex and the hallways are smooth, of course, but there are some escalators to get down to the train tracks (I think an elevator, also).

How big is this luggage? I wouldn't worry about getting off the train in terms of time, although you can't dawdle. She can get a taxi at the end train station to wherever she is staying, of course.

Somebody will probably help her with her luggage, but there are limits which is why I wondered how much she is really taking.

KM - I thought that your enquiry was a sensible one, in the circumstances. organising things in time for september 1st sounds pretty urgent to me.

personally I'm glad that you're not stranded somewhere or otherwise in extremis.

Seemed pretty urgent to me.

Especially if she needs to ship items to arrive when she does.

Luggage is a curse,, I pack relatively light and still find the numerous times I hated hauling my bags up and down stairs such a hassle. Train stations and luggage equal stress and hassle, and no ,, do not count on help , we helped a much older lady ourselves after watching people just whiz past her on a set of steps.. and we are 50 and loaded with our own stuff.
Ship stuff. Really. Its hard enough getting around without worrying about your stuff. Think about this, she is somewhere in a station and wants to go in bathroom, can her stuff fit in the stall with her???? She will have no one to leave it with and so how will she manage. PACK LIGHT .

Take TGV to Aix....then get a taxi from the station into the city....worth the money for the ease
of transfer. Ship stuff...pack light as recommended by justineparis. Make it EASY...don't
complicate the trip for a first-timer.

For a five month trip I packed a 21 inch suitcase and a regular sized backpack. It was more than enough, and I could schlep it myself. Shipping probably isn't worth the money especially when she might rather spend that money buying something locally.

Thank you all. You were very helpful.

Another problem is buying train tickets ahead of time. Her plane might be late. There might be a long line in immigration. As Michaelo and StCirq suggest, allow a minimum of 2 hours. If she misses the train, her ticket is no good; she'll have to buy a new one.

From what I see, all the later trains require a change. That means getting off the train, finding the right track for her next leg, and dragging her luggage there, probably up and down some stairs. Sounds pretty daunting for a young first timer on her own with a heavy bag.

So I think shipping the luggage is an excellent idea. Just write it down to part of the expense.

then how about "urgent luggage question".