Buying train tickets for France trip before we arrive.
 

It was suggested in prior post that I look into buying rail tickets on the db bahn site.
I found a great train schedule but it won't let me buy them online (the key says "tariff abroad")
Does anyone know more about this? I am in the states, so to call Europe would cost me a pretty penny.
I can, of course, buy my tickets on rail Europe. But that site is driving me crazy! So user unfriendly!

bahn is the Germany rail site. You can only buy tickets for trains starting or ending in Germany. If you want tickets on French rail line then you need to use a French site - voyages-snch.com. Make sense?

www.tgv-europe.com is the French Railways English-language website, with cheap fares for France if you pre-book.

Booking opens 90 days ahead.

If you live in the USA, DON'T select United States as this automatically bumps you to Rail Europe with higher prices plus fees, to stay with TGV-Europe.com and pay the true cheap prices, select 'Antarctic'. Tickets are usally self-print or can be collected at the station.

'If you want tickets on French rail line then you need to use a French site - voyages-snch.com. Make sense?'

If you're looking for the French site, you'd do better with
http://www.voyages-sncf.com/

www.voyages-sncf.com = www.tgf-europe.com Same company, lalecture. Latter site operates in English. You're lucky to have a reply from www.seat61.com, the encyclopedia of the world's trains.

My suggestion..

Check both Rail Europe and SNCF.

I have actually found cheaper tickets on Rail Europe even with the "fee"

You just have to do the math....

<self-print or collect at train station>

Where at train station? Machine or what counter?

At the counter (guichet), TPAYT. You get a confirmation email from SNCF, which you take to the counter along with the same credit card you used to buy the tickets online with, and you get your tickets. That's only the case for tickets you can't/don't print out at home, though.

Thanks for the exact information.

The machines work too -- if your credit card has a chip.