I would appreciate any help with the trains. We will be renting a car in Paris and driving to the Loire- we would like to take the TGV(fast train) back to Paris for a few days. My questions- is this a direct train-Poiters to Paris? Or are we switching trains mid trip? Also any idea if we can leave our car at the train station? How much is parking? Are second class tickets ok? Or should we buy the first class tickets (we are 2 adults and 3 children traveling). And last question- Should we buy the tickets online or when we get to the station? We are doing this trip mid vacation and then at the end of our vacation we thought we should turn in our car at the Poiters car rental and take the train to CDG airport(is this direct?). I have done some research for this info but it still seems confusing. Thanks for any help.

TGV services run throughout the day Poitiers-Paris without the need to change. You can check schedules at the SNCF site www.sncf.com or by using the GermanRail site at
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Should I look into the family 3 day pass for the train? Would this pass work for our situation? Thanks again

Bogey - there is a direct TGV from Poitiers to CDG - takes about two hours! And the car rental companies' offices are all opposite the train station - very convenient!

What is the family 3-day pass? If you travel with 1 child under 12, you qualify for a 25% reduction in fare. If you buy the Enfant+ Carte (€63), you get a 50% reduction if there are places available. The best way to compare prices would be to input your dates and trips on the SNCF site and see how the total compares with the family pass.

I just input random dates and find that for all five of you it would cost €75 one-way Poitiers-Paris or vice versa. That would be 225 for all three trips plus a one-time charge of +63 for the Enfant+ card (good for a year). The fares are limited to space available, so I would buy the tickets ahead of time either online or through the English SNCF phone line 011-33-892-35-35-39.

LVSue and all others thanks for the help. I still have a question about how to purchase the enfant card and the tickets. If I call up and get them do they mail them to my address or do I pick them up at the window? Also I read somewhere that they need a passport size photo for the enfant card. Whose photo do they need all of ours or our childs? Sorry this train just seems so confusing. Thanks

I called to get tickets and they gave me a confirmation number that I used to pick up my tickets (be sure to have the same CC wih you to pick thm up). Others on the board have said they will mail them to your house, but I forgot to ask and they didn't offer.

Bogey, I have never bought a discount card for SNCF, so I don't know about the picture. If one is needed, I'm sure it is of the child.

At this point, I think it would make sense to call the French SNCF office for more information. You know enough to be able to ask specific questions and the person I dealt with was very nice. The office is open from 7am-10pm French time. A cheap way to call Europe if you don't have an international plan is PT-1: 101-68-68 (10 cents/min).

Let us know how it goes and what you learn.

I'm having trouble as well understanding the sncf website! We want to take the TGV from Charles de Gaulle airport (does anyone know where the train station is at CDG?) to either Tours or St Pierre des corps and pick up a car there. SNCF will sell a ticket online to Tours but not to St Pierre. I have read on Fodor threads that St Pierre is easier traffic wise. Any thoughts? Are the car rental offices at the train stations?

That's odd I just selected CDG from the drop down as my departure and keyed in "St Pierre des Corps" for the destination and www.sncf.com came right back with a ticket to buy. Second class adult, one way for 52.30euro.

There are almost always car rental agencies at larger train stations in France and a lot of the smaller ones too. St Pierre des Corps would be easier to drive away from than the heart of Tours where their train station is located.

Hi

There is at least one thread on Chenonceau. Do a text search.

http://www.voyages-sncf.com

will give you schedule information from Paris Gare Montparnesse to St Pierre des corps.