Hello -- I just found this site today, am enjoying reading lots of the posts and have become a Fodorite. I'm wondering about travel in France. My husband and two teens and I will be doing a double house exchange in August. Once we are at the exchange homes, we have the use of the other families' cars, but it's getting to the homes that we're muddling about with. We are flying into Roissy from Canada arriving 1pm on a Sunday. By bedtime we want to be at the first house which is just south of Le Mans in the Loire Valley. Two weeks later we'll take a train to Alsace-Lorraine for our second exchange, then a week or so later a train to Paris where we'll spend 4 nights in a hotel (have booked the hotel already).

First question -- how to get from Roissy to the Gare Montparnasse (train station where we catch a train to the Loire). We travel light, so carrying the backpacks and bags wouldn't be too bad on the metro, but maybe it would be too tiring to take the train into Paris, metro to another station and then train to Le Mans and then smaller train to our village after our long flight. Would we be better off taking some sort of bus from the airport to the train station for our Le Mans train? Or maybe with 4 of us, travelling by taxi wouldn't be much more expensive?

Next question -- for the 3 train trips (Paris to LeMans, LeMans to Paris to Sarrebourg, Sarrebourg to Paris) we thought we'd get a rail pass before the holiday, but the bit from Paris to LeMans has a TGV and I'm not clear if that is covered by the pass, so I'm not sure if it's best to get a pass or just buy point to point tickets once we're there. I've read that it's good to reserve seats on TGV and summer trains, but I have no idea how long we'll be at the airport before we get our luggage, etc. and how long it will take to get to the Gare Montparnasse so I don't know which train to book. Also, RailEurope.com offers a 3-day pass, but I've read in a few places that there are 4 day and more passes which I can buy at RailPass.com Is Rail Europe as reputable as Rail Pass -- it doesn't seem to be mentioned as often.

I'd appreciate any suggestions. We've never been to France before.
Sue

Air France runs a shuttle bus that goes directly from CDG to Gare Montparnasse. The round-trip fare is 18€ for adults and 6€ each way for under 12-yo. A taxi would probably cost from 45€-55€.

The <i>cheapest</i> way to get there would be the suburban express for 8&euro;, 1/2 fare for under 12s. The M&eacute;tro leg is included in the ticket, but there's a fair amount of walking to the train platform. You would ride RER B to Denfert-Rochereau, then M&eacute;tro Ligne 4 (Direction Porte de Clignancourt) to Montparnasse-Bienvenue.

TGV rides are included in railpasses; the only stipulation is that you pay a mandatory seat reservation fee - about $8 the last time I did it.

To see if you even need a pass, enter your itinerary at http://www.railsaver.com/railsaver.asp and check &quot;Only if rail passes save me money.&quot;

The French national railway, http://www.SNCF.fr, offers deeply discounted fares called PREMs that you might want to check out budgeteuropetravel.com

I can't see how a pass can possibly save you money - the TGV from Paris/Montparnasse to Le Mans costs E33.30 full fare 2nd class one way, and 26.- for the advance special called &quot;prem&quot;.

2nd class is just fine unless you're supremely picky and on a lavish budget.

Double that fare to get back to Paris and - at worst - you spend E66.-. Count a little more for Paris-Sarrebourg (I think it's more kilometers) at full fare, maybe 150 Euros total, or about 190 Dollars for all four legs (Paris-Le Mans, Le Mans - Paris, Paris - Sarrebourg, Sarrebourg - Paris) and you're still nowhere near the 233 Dollars or so for a pass (202 Dollars for three days of travel plus the extra day for 31 dollars).

And if you take advantage of the prems, you come in way under that.

The trick in reserving online at www.voyages-sncf.fr is this: You select France as the country of purchase, and you print out the web pages and the email confirmation you'll get and take them with you.

When you get to France, go to a ticket window at the first station, in your case Montparnasse, and produce the identical credit card you had used when making the online transaction. This is crucial, more crucial than showing ID with a picture that looks like you!

Ask the agent to print all the tickets, and guard them with your life.

Before boarding a train, look at the big board to see if the departure track number has been posted - that sometimes happens only minutes before a departure. Then proceed to that platform/track number and, near the entrance to the platform, locate a yellow box on a post or on a wall - insert the tickets upside down and &quot;left&quot; end first to validate them with a time stamp.

Then proceed and hop onto the train.

If you have seat reservations, locate first the carriage number and then the seat numbers. The carriage numbers are posted near the doors at each end, either in a backlit window or with a magnetic tag attached nearby.

If it gets real close to departure time and you haven't found your carriage yet, hop on and walk the length of the train inside, you'll find your seats while the train is in motion.

Have fun!

WK

Hi M,

You can take the TGV train directly from CDG station (Terminal 2) to Le Mans for about 40E for adult fare.

See www.voyages-sncf.com

Before buying any railpasses, enter your itinerary at www.railsaver.com and click &quot;only if it saves money&quot;.

Have a nice visit.

Thank you for the suggestions. I can see on the SNCF site that there really is a TGV that goes from the airport to Le Mans. Amazing! I checked with Railsaver and found that it's cheaper to skip the rail passes and just purchase individual tickets, so I appreciate the detailed description about putting the tickets in the yellow box. One confusing thing -- I looked at the SNCF PREMs, and Roissy to Le Mans is not listed as a choice. Paris to Le Mans yes. Roissy yes. but not to Le Mans. I guess that means the lower fare isn't available for that route. I can check at a later date and maybe it will appear. Still, I'm better to pay more for the train and go from Roissy rather than paying to get to Montparnasse. WK -- you suggested I buy the tickets on the Internet and I can see how to do that, but how am I supposed to know which train I'll be able to catch after waiting for luggage, etc at the airport? Make a guess? Or, since I can't seem to get a PREM anyway, maybe I should just book them at the station when we arrive and know which train we're in time for? Or might the tickets be sold out? For the rest of the trip though -- Le Mans to Sarrebourg and then Sarrebourg back to Paris, I think you're suggesting I should book the PREMs over the Internet because I gather those good prices are not available later. Correct? That means making definite decisions now about the exact times of travel. Not as convenient as hopping on with a pass whenever I arrive at the station, but cheaper. Then I have the little detail of having to get from Le Mans to La Suze which would be covered by a pass, but I'll have to pay extra with separate tickets. Gets confusing, but still cheaper to go with the separate tickets I think. I'll keep working at the math.
Thanks.
S