namtrag

I am going to Paris with my son in about 10 days. we will be leaving Paris for Lyon on Monday, 8/31, hopefully on the first train at 6 am. Our travel agent told us we had to reserve seats even though we already have 4 day railpasses. She said to do it as soon as we land in Paris on the 28th of July. Someone else told me we needed to it sooner than that, so I went online to the Eurorail website. There was a place to make seat reservations, but it seemed like it was leading me through purchasing tickets first, so I exited out.

Question: do I need to make reservations now, or should I wait til we get to Paris?

If I do need the seat reservations now, can someone walk through how to do it?

Thanks for your help.

MorganB

Odds are the 6 am train will not fill up. Plus monday isnt a heavy travel day. You can either take time out of your schedule in Paris and make the reservation at a train station or SNCF boutique ( potential for long lines) or you can get it out of the way now. If your travel agent sold you the pass they should be able to handle your reservations. If they cant I suggest calling rail europe.

PBProvence

It will be heavy travel period - end of vacations, beginning of school and university. So book as early as possible.

PB

PBProvence

sorry - just realized you meant 7/31 when I read July farther down. In any event... still a very heavy travel period - all the French will be going on vacation !

PB

namtrag

i made a mistake, we are arriving on 7/28 into Paris, leaving on 8/1 for Lyon, already have the 4 day pass, but not the seat reservations.

Is it easy to make them online?

TimS

For peace of mind, it might be a good idea to make your reservations now since "everyone in France" will be on vacation and train travel will be heavy. If your travel agent sold you your passes, the agent can make reservations for you. However, doing it that way will cost more than waiting until you get to Paris so your agent may just have been trying to save you some money. RailEurope can do it, but the fees are fairly high. Probably the cheapest way would be to call the SNCF English-speaking number and have an agent make your reservations. If you're calling from the US, dial 011 (US international access code) + 33 (country code for France) + (0)8 92 35 35 39. Omit the initial zero in the number. It's in parentheses because it is only used for calls originating in France. If you get an automated message, press 2 and you should be connected with someone who speaks English.

Kristinelaine

I do not know if they still do it this way, but about five years ago we had French railpasses and a couple of days before our TGV trip went into a Paris rail station (don't remember which one), stood in line for about 1 1/2 hours (fun, fun) and then found out that the reservations we wanted was not possible because they have only a LIMITED number of seats set aside on TGVs for railpass holders!

Well, I was stunned and we had to make some not very desireable plan instead. IF IT IS STILL THAT WAY, I wouldn't be waiting til I got to Paris to take care of this.

If anyone knows more current info on this subject, please advise. I don't want to scare people unnecessarily.

TimS

Yes, it is still true that any train requiring rservations is free to limit the number of reservations they will allow for railpass holders. Besides the August vacation crunch, that's another reason to not wait until you arrive in Paris.