TGV ticket translation help
 

I'm on the Voyages/SCNF site purchasing our tickets from Paris to Avignon and can select our seats but I'm having difficulty translating my options -

salle haute
salle basse
salon
salle haute salon
salle basse salon

Can anyone help me?

Thanks,

Sam

Well, I don't know what salon means..I can tell you that train has two decks , the upper is salle haute and the lower is salle basse.
Hope someone can help better :)

Well, salon doesn't have a specific meaning outside of living room, which this obviously doesn't mean.

I am guessing these are:

regular side-by-side seating upper deck

regular side-by-side seating lower deck


And that the salon seating refers to those compartments you see on TGVs where there's an aisle on the side of the train and compartments with doors leading of the aisle. Inside the compartments are two facing rows of seats. So you'd have the option of compartment seating on the upper deck or lower deck as well as regular seats.

I haven't seen any closed compartments on TGV's myself. They still exist on some Corail trains, though. 'Salon' may refer to the family seating areas that many of them have.

Almost every TGV I've ever taken to Bordeaux or Libourne has had compartments.

And none has ever had an upper deck.

Maybe different trains on different routes.

Avignon to Paris had an upper deck in 2006. I remember schlepping luggage up those steps and then thinking that the folks down below couldn't see over a lot of the cement barriers that ran alongside the rails for miles (or was it kilometers?)

My appreciation to all you "experts." I've relied on much information from you guys previously (and had actually studied previous threads regarding SNCF ticket purchases) and am sure I will in the future. And, BTW, I'd kind of guessed that that might have referred to compartment seating but just thought I'd check (kind of like Eurostar train we took from Rome to Naples a few years ago).

My LATEST problem in purchasing is that SNCF said that my credit card (AMEX) refused to accept the charge. I've called AMEX to clear another ticket purchase attempt, so good luck to me!

Sam

Hurray -

Got the PREM tickets, printed them out! Now all we have to do is show up at Gare de Lyon on May 24 early enough and we're good to go to Avignon!

Ended up charging to Visa instead of AMEX. AMEX opened the account to the SCNF charge, but the SCNF internet site continued to claim that my financial institution refused to accept the charge - likely a problem with the SCNF server.

BTW - we selected the "salle haute salon" seats.


Sam