Hi A,

You have had this much trouble with your TA and you are still using her?

Train schedules, prices and tickets are at www.voyages-sncf.com.

>we are going to be traveling with Seniors,...

High school, College, Old people?

How old?

Well i have pretty much told her we will take it from here. she did secure a nice rate at the victoria palace, but that is all.

I may just want to go ahead with the train tickets. Thanks for the site. Do the train tickets vary by price per site or are they all standardized?

Thnks for the quick reply.

Btw, the Seniors are 83!

Hi amp,

www.voyages-sncf.com is the French national railroad.

Look for reduced fares.

For folks in their 80's, my advice is to take a break every 0:30 - 0:45 hr. If they say that they are not tired, tell them that you are.

Bring water.

Never skip a chance to use a toilet.

To be honest, I don't think your travel agent can probably book seats on French trains, anyway. Few can do that, so if she did, it would probably be going through Raileurope. Of all the things you did, the train would probably be the last thing I'd get a travel agent outside France to do (assuming she isn't in France, and if she is, there's no excuse).

RailEurope is largely owned by the sncf or French Railways so isn't that like booking direct with the sncf, except for the inflated price?

Go to sncf.com NOW and you should be able to book PREM'S (discount) tickets for as low as 20 EUR in 2nd class and 35 EUR in 1st class. Leave France as the default country. Print the tickets yourself. You're done--except for remembering to take them with you to Paris.

If you have time, or an alternative to Strasbourg, Colmar is a delightful town about an hour south of Strasbourg.

Check it out on a guidebook or two your might have for the region.

ampsca,

You need professional help.

The B.E.T.S. company in Ann Arbor is pretty weak in marketing itself but strong in helping people in your situation.
http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/

ampsca,

Are you aware of the fact that SNCF will inaugurate the new high-speed line from Paris to Strasbourg (and on to Germany and Switzerland) with 16 trains in each direction on June 10?

This will cut the travel time to Strasbourg from 4 hours to 2 hours 20 minutes. Tickets are going on sale on April 10 with many promotional discounted tickets being offered throughout the summer of 2007.

This also explains why it is a pain to purchase tickets at this time.

Information on the new high-speed line is available on

http://www.tgvesteuropeen.com/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=77

The tickets can be purchased online at the site posted earlier.

Enjoy your trip

Phil.

thank you all. I will try the direct route. Yes, Phil i read about the high speed train, we leave two days before it begins!

I do plan to do the villages in Alsace including Colmar, Thanks rasta

thanks again Ira.

Everyone.

Enjoy your visit, amp

budgeteurope (BETS) is the best. We have traveled through Europe four times, fifth coming up next month and always have questions that my friends in Michigan can answer.

A propos de travel agents, we continually hear from people who assure me that their travel agent says they can take the train from Paris to Sarlat - not having noticed that part of the train track is now a very nice bicycle path!

Also they like to put people on the high speed train to Bordeaux, not having noticed that Sarlat is some way from Bordeaux (I know that in some cases it does make sense to do this, but often it's better to come straight down to Brive. ) At least they should be aware of the possibilities.

Phil - recently whilst in France i heard on French TV that folks riding the LGV-Est route were up in arms over the 40% increase in fares of the new trains as opposed to current ones.

So after the introductory specials we'll probably pay much more for higher speed - to stations that are well out of towns. Considering the transfer time into towns like Metz and Nancy the high-speed connections will not be that much faster.

But for folks who Park and Drive they will be - i guess the market sncf is aiming at.

Carlux:

Are you sure you are not mixing up the old rail line Souillac-Sarlat as being a bike path.

The current Thomas Cooks timetable does indeed indicate there are in fact trains to Sarlat from the west - from Libourne, on the Paris-Bordeaux line.

You could be right but this would be a very recent development and i do believe these travel agents may be right. And i think even the TGV to Bordeaux and back up to Sarlat might be quicker than the slow train from Austerliz to Le Buisson, where you can wait a long time for a connecting train or bus (buses are indeed substituted for trains at some hours on the Le Buisson-Sarlat line) - but if connections are good you may have a good point about taking that route.

Sarlat-Souillac rail buses are part of the sncf system i believe so railpasses are valid on them.

Again i may be wrong and if so i'd like to know so i don't give wrong info about trains right to Sarlat.

The www.tgvest.com site shows you exactly how much time you save, city center to city center. While the TGV line does not go to cities like Metz or Nancy, the trains themselves do. Metz goes from 2h45 to 1h25. Nancy goes from 2h45 to 1h30, for example.

thanks for info...good that trains will go right into the cities, kind of like at Tours i guess from St Pierre-des-Corps.

When i rode the Frankfurt-Paris day train a year ago some French were lamenting the fact that the new line's stations would be so far out of town and they'd have to take a shuttle to get there - a shuttle bus they thought and i thought that sucked too so nice the trains will go right into cities and with some dramatically reduced travel towns - unfortunately if TV report was right at about 40% more than classic trains.

I wonder if slower Corail type trains will run the old route for service at itermediate stations.

Hi Carlux,

www.voyages-sncf.com still lists Paris/Sarlat via Libourne or Souillac for as late as 1 June, 2007.

But the Souillac connection is by sncf bus - same as train for tariff reasons but definitely not by rail. Think trains still go to Sarlat though i think buses are at times substituted.

I bet www.bahn.de will clearly show the Souillac-Sarlat link is bus - but currently my computer won't let me on!

Hi PQ,

YOu are correct that www.bahn.de shouws Souillac/Sarlat via bus.

But, you don't have to go from Paris to Sarlat via Souillac.

Train from Libourne is direct.

SCNF clearly marks on its schedules when it is a bus, also, and they do so for going through Souillac. It's listed as "autocar" for that section, rather than Corail, TGV, or some type of train.

and these autocars SNCF, or buses substituted for trains like on the Souillac-Sarlat stretch accept railpasses as if they were trains. There are not many of these type SNCF buses but just a few in places that formerly had rail service, like on the pulled up line Souillac-Sarlat that is now a bike path apparently.