I'm going from Paris to Bruges in March. When you go to the sncf site it gives you trains via Brussels. Someone on this board suggested going through Lille instead so I tried that on the sncf board and now I have two questions. It looks to be much less expensive that way (about 50Euros vs 100Euros). Is there any significant difference in the trains? They look to take about the same amount of time. But also, it looks like you have to change in Ghent (between Lille and Bruges). The other question is - how much time does it take to change trains in Lille. The schedule works that you either have about 5 minutes or else you have to wait about an hour. Seems like 5 minutes would be cutting it too close. What if you have a ticket for that train but miss it. Can you use the ticket for the next one. Reservations don't seem to be required for that leg of the trip. Thanks in advance for your help.

You won't have a ticket for a time, just a route, (except for TGV), so if you miss it, you can get on the next. You will probably make it though, European trains are usually timed pretty well. Some people rave about the Thalys, I found it no big deal, the regular trains were just fine, and cheaper, often only slighty slower.

Thanks. Do you know if the Paris to lille train is Thayls or TGV or just plain train. It only takes an hour or so so it must be pretty fast.

TGV<BR>The German rail site:<BR>http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en<BR>covers all of Europe, and will give you lots of info.

We took the Thalys from Paris to Brussels,then changed to a slower train to Brugge. Don't remember how long it took.

Paris/Lille/Gent/Brugge: the first part of the traject is on TGV which means that a reservation is obligatory for this part. <BR>For the part Lille/Gent you will have to pay an Intercity surcharge. <BR>In Gent you will have only 4 min. to change trains which is very short. There are 3 trains from Gent to Brugge every hour (at .07, .32 and .41).