we are taking a train from dijon to rennes in May
we are at gare de lyon and depart from montparnasse.
Is1 hour 18 minutes enough time to get off the train w/suitcases, get a taxi (are lines likely?) and get to our train at montparnasse?

Is it better to buy tickets as early as possible from the US? on the SNCF website? or buy closer to travel date?
which website sncf? or raileurope?

You are already too late to purchase cheap discount tickets. There was an "early" sale this year. Last week I purchased 1st class tickets from Avignon to Paris on July 1 for 38E. If I check tickets from Dijon to Rennes for late May, they are now 85-95E 2nd class for reasonable schedules.

I would be comfortable with a minimum 2 hr arrival/departure time frame between Gare de Lyon & Montparnasse. Anything can happen. Last Oct when we arrived in Paris by train, there was a "demonstration" and taxi drivers would lot take us to where we wanted to go. On another similar situation in 2015, it took us 45 mins to get a taxi.

Purchase tickets here
https://www.trainline.eu/search

Stu Dudley

Plenty of time to change stations, particularly by metro. You will be at Montparnasse more than half an hour before they even post the platform number.

>>Plenty of time to change stations,<<

Yes - it everything operates normally.

Last year in Oct there was another USA woman in line behind us who had to get to the Gare du Nord to catch a train leaving in 1 hr. She had lots of luggage and did not speak French (my wife does). We had to argue/negotiate with about 3 taxi drivers before one agreed to take us (there were no problems getting to where we wanted to go). We tried to help the woman behind us who wanted to go to the Gare du Nord - but she had a great amount of trouble (even with our help) conversing with various taxi drivers. I don't know if she made it - but she was at the taxi stand for about 45 mins when we got into our taxi. I think the taxi drivers wanted to only pick up "fares" to destinations where it was easy & fast to get to - with all the demonstrations in Paris on that day.

Stu Dudley

$hit happens.

People taking a lot of trains should not burden themselves with more luggage than they can carry -- including in the metro.

Including on any STAIRS in that Metro, too.

Luggage is the issue, not the transfer time, which is plenty. Pack light.

There are several factors that can impact a taxi trip.

- rain. If it is raining, taxis are in high demand elsewhere and more people want to take taxis at the station = long queue
- rush hour. Depending on which day and what time of the day you are doing, this can be a very very slow going.

I have done this in about 30 min in a taxi, BUT, it was Saturday and in the mid afternoon on a sunny day.

The SNCF has a page describing how to do this by public transit:
https://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/trave...e-montparnasse

Metro transfer is a chore with luggage. The bus gets you closer to the station, but also suffers from the surface traffic congestion.