Hi, I would be visiting France for a 1 month long course. On weekends, I would like to explore not just the French scenery but also the countries nearby. Should I buy a Eurail pass or something else you would suggest !!

You would have to state where you were going. You would also have to pay a supplement with a railpass (in addition to the cost of the pass) on most trains that go to another country along with supplements on some trains in France. In addition, some trains in France limit the number of passholders so you might find you can't get the use of your pass on certain trains. Sometimes you can buy a train ticket in advance cheaper than the supplement. Here's a list of supplements.

http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/pdfs/reservations.pdf

Check out the website www.seat61.com to learn about rail travel in Europe.

Unless you're traveling constantly, you will be better off buying your tickets online when you decide when and where you want to go. If you plan ahead, you might even be able to get one of the PREM discounted fares.

The bottom line with ANY rail pass is this: the more you use it the more money you will save. The "problem" is knowing just how much of that "use" you need to do in order for you to recoup the cost of the pass in the first place.

Some trains, as mentioned above, do limit the number of passholder fares BUT if you are one of those people who is willing to reserve far enough in advance to GET one of those passholder tickets you might save some money. IOW a lot depends on your timing.

You do not say where in France you are going to be studying (a lot of people are going to assume it is in Paris) and therefore we have NO idea what is "nearby" because we don't know where you will be.

The more specific you are the more help you are going to receive.

Well it depends on the type of pass - a Eurailpass perhaps no but a France-Benelux Pass or France-Germany pass or France-Spain; France-Italy, France-Switzerland, etc. - these two-country passes are much cheaper than a Eurailpass and thus can be a good deal if taking trains each weekend and not nearly all trains in France limit the number of passholder seats on trains though some popular TGV lines indeed do - the cost of a mandated seat reservation is usually just 3 euros so is almost nothing.

Until 2013 the Eurail Select Pass could have been a great deal for you - the pass where you select what countries you want it to be valid in - but France opted out of that pass as of Jan 1, 2013 so that is not an option.

but yes you have to have some idea of the places you will go to see if the Eurail Flexipass may be good - and there are overnight trains from Paris going to many places so you can cover long distances sans problems.

For lots of great info on European trains - check out these superb IMO sites - www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com as recommended above and also www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

As for discounted tickets they must be booked weeks in advance to get as they are sold in limited numbers and cannot be changed nor refunded - so you must lock your trains in concrete weeks if not months beforehand. With a pass you can chose which trains to take once there - I have never had a problem booking any TGV train in France if I could book a ticket some days in advance as you will be able to - you will have to go to the train station to do so but the fact that you may not get on many trains is just not true IME.

We did 34 days in Europe using a eurail pass on our first trip. Then we did eurail drive which is really great for exploring outside the cities. Car rentals are way cheaper if booked from America using hertz club and discounts etc. we never drove much after lunch due to the fact that many people on the road have had a carafe of nectar of the Gods during a long lunch. We used the Fodor book to list 3 hotels at each destination except Paris. Then we would ask the desk person to get our reservation for the next stop so we were more flexible if we wanted to stay longer (Amsterdam Hotel Hegra)

If you take overnight trains with a railpass then be congnizant of the 7pm rule on night trains - if you board the actual night train after 6:59pm then you unlimited travel day (on a flexipass) is the following day - you travel free 7pm to midnight and when the train arrives the next morning your railpass will be valid for the whole day.

Example take the overnight train from Paris to Munich and then use the pass the next day to say take the train to Fussen and back or to Salzburg, Austria and back - all on one day on a flexible railpass.

Or take the overnight train from Paris to Madrid - then use the train that day to go to Toledo, to me the absolute highlight of anything in the Madrid area and back - or the overnight train to Barcelona

Or overnight train to Madrid for a very long weekend like a holiday weekend and day train to Barcelona and night train back to Paris from there.

Of course from Paris you can take the Chunnel trains to London in just two hours - perfect for a long weekend. But fares vary a lot just like airplanes so be sure to book your Chunnel train (a k a Eurostar train) way in advance - there are youth rates for folks under 26 - www.eurostar.com has all the fares and if you book early you can save a ton of money - Eurailpasses or any railpass is not valid on the Chunnel trains.

Switzerland is an easuy few-hour train ride now from Paris - spending a few long weekends in say a ski resort or summer hiking resort is very unique and to me Switzerland is the natural scenery highlight of Europe. Zurich is about 4 hours from Paris now - Geneva or Lausanne too.