We are planning a trip to Paris and Provence (St. Remy). Was originally planning to book RT tickets between Paris and Avignon, but now thinking of going one-way and returning to Orly from Marseille via Air France as we are planning to stay by Orly for the last night before heading home on early am flight. Are tix for TGV cheaper RT? The one-way airfare for 3 people is about $250, so that seems reasonable. Any pros/cons for either approach that I might be forgetting?

These are PREM tickets (purchase ahead of time, non-refundable)? They would be the cheapest

Discounts for round trips are rare in train fares and generally concern only residents.

Do you know where you would be staying at Orly? There are not nearly as many hotels as at CDG. The two closest ones are the Hilton and the Ibis.

Kerouac -- At Orly there is a Holiday Inn that I have booked. It has a free airport shuttle and I figured we could take it to the hotel and back out again, thus saving taxi fare from Gare de Lyon to Orly if we return on the TGV. We will have spent 7 nights in Paris prior to Provence so not too concerned about not being in central Paris the night before we leave.

PREM tickets must be purchased as soon as they are available to get the best price. That means that the return ticket cannot be purchased at the same time for the same deal. So as far as PREM tickets are concerned, one purchases one way tickets.

Basically no difference return or oneway.

Why go through the hassle of flying when it can be much cheaper--and certainly more comfortable--to take the train.

If you book well in advance (up to three months allowed) at www.tgv-europe.com, you can get a Prem's fare as low as €22 each way for Paris-Avignon and Avignon-Paris. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares, choose Great Britain as your country of residence.

TimS, I need to buy a one way ticket from Paris to MIilan. If I use the tgv-europe.com site and check off Great Britain as residence will I have any problem purchasing and getting the tickets (if I am US citizen)? I was hoping to be able to print them out but not sure what is available methods on the website.

Don't say you're British. Put France in as the country of residence. The computer can't tell where you live.

But I'm also not at all sure that PREMs are available for Paris to Milan.

I looked at an earlier date (we are going on May 28) and they showed a 30euro prem ticket one way non stop. Do you know if I will be able to print it out if I buy it online when it becomes available? I know I did that a couple years ago for Paris-Nice tgv ticket. Thanks.

If it says "Prem's" yes you can print it out.

macdogmom,

If you do what StCirq suggests and choose France as your country of residence on tgv-europe.com, the site will switch to French. Do what I said. Even though you are a US resident, choose Great Britain. You will have no trouble booking.

In this case kappa1 is wrong. You can print Prem's tickets for routes within France but not for international routes. For Paris-Milan you'll need to pick up your ticket at any SNCF station or boutique (ticket shop).

TimS, thanks for info. Hopefully I can get the prem rate for the date we are going. We will be in Paris for 6 days before we leave for Italy so I will pick up tickets then.

TimS thanks for the correction !