Please bear with me! Here I am again trying to book those pesky old tickets. I called SNCF at the right number and got an English speaking person. She gave me a price of 900 euros plus. I explained that it was much cheaper on the web site. We talked about cards, she asked if I had one... no. She meant did I want one... yes. Well nevermind, phone call didn't work. We were disconnected after 15 minutes of frustration! SO I thought, I can do this on the internet. I get the Paris-Carcassonne part all lined up, go to select & get "A technical error has occured. We apologise for any inconvenience." This has happened three times today and two other days. So I try to book the Montpellier to CDG & all goes well until I have to look at long lists of countries on how to pay. Can't find US. May I just charge it on my VISA & pick up at a SNCF boutique? But how do I get past the technical error for 1st set of tickets?

Can you retry ordering the tickets over the inernet again to see if the error message will pop up again? Maybe the website is having problems.

No, you will not find the US listed because SNCF doesn't send tickets to US addresses. You do have to charge your tickets online and pick them up at any SNCF boutique outlet.

Also have you tried sending an email to SNCF describing your problem?

Maybe some one has said this earlier, but why not buy the tickets when you're over there? I wait until a few days before my excusion and go to the nearest gare, no matter what city I'm in.

You cannot say you are in the US because they won't send tickets there. At the very beginning, say you are in France, and then be sure to select "pickup". It doesn't have to be a SNCF boutique, you can pick them up at the rail station.

As for the technical problems, I believe some people have reported errors related to their ISP or browser or general operating system software/computer. Some don't do forms very well, I've noticed. It could be a temporary website problem also, and the only way to solve that is to try later.

Ah Ha! I dit it!. I had to break the Paris to Carcassonne into 2 separate tickets because the web site doesn't like connections. I did get an answer from them to my email and they said more than 2 connections wouldn't work... well one connection doesn't. There was no price difference. I now have my tickets booked. I will pick them up at an SNCF boutique near our Paris apt. Boutique? do they sell SNCF T-shirts? What a chore! Thanks to all.
to usbeauty: I was afraid to wait because we are so many and the timing is not flexible.

Glad it finally all worked out for you. I suspect stuff like this is why some people just wait until they get there or pay for the convenience of passes.

Great work! Now we know the secret! Thanks and have a great time.