We will be travelling from Paris to Avignon by TGV. I seem to recall people mentioning travelling backwards on the train.

I often get sick travelling and want to ensure I can sit on the train in the direction I am heading. Is this possible? How do I manage this?

I came from Paris to Avignon on the TGV on July 13th and traveled backwards. Since you can hardly feel the TGV moving a lot of the time, I don't really consider it to be a problem although I enjoy facing the way I am going as much as anyone.

If you are willing to pay more, you can certainly find seats in the "sens de la marche" -- if not, just go to the bar car and sit there facing the proper direction.

There is no way to ensure you receive a seat facing forward. However, the times we have purchased tickets and found they were facing backwards we asked the conductor to change seats and we were moved to forward facing seats. However, we did spend most of the trip in the bar car and weren't sure (and didn't care) which way we were facing).

I would think you would be less apt to be motion sick if you were sitting backwards. I think it's easier on the eyes to look at the scenery receding rather than rushing toward you. Of course you won't feel the motion as much if you don't look out the window.

You have two options:

Option one: when you make reservations or book tickets with an agent, indicate that you want "forward facing seats"

Option two: if you are unable to secure forward facing seats when making reservations, once you get on board, kindly ask those who have forward facing seats to exchange with you.

I become sick when traveling in the opposite direction. Throughout my one-month long city/country hopping journey, everyone agreed to exchange seats with me except when I took the Eurostar train from Paris--> London.

So remember, when you book your tickets, definitely mention this. Otherwise you are dependent on the mercy of strangers :I

I actually prefer sitting backwards - the ride is very smooth and my eyes tend to track better w/ the scenery going out behind rather than rushing towards me.

yeah, I think it's a problem because they don't really have seating charts online, so you can't really tell which direction you are heading. And it can change by car depending on the train. I usually travel first class for long TGV trips and I think every time the car has been empty enough that I could switch if my assigned seat ended up facing the wrong way. I seem to remember being able to choose direction on some train ticket I bought, but it might not have been on SNCF. I just checked now, and was not given a choice of direction for a SNCF TGV run. You get a choice of window versus aisle, and upper versus lower, and some other things (cote a cote or vis a vis or a solo seat) but I don't see direction. Maybe someone else knows how, but I must be thinking of some other train where I did that. I know on Thalys it gives you exact layouts of the train cars so you can tell. I use the French version and it should ask you to choose sens de la marche or something like that.

voila -- I just found it, there is a box to check next to the box about type of seat if you want to "voyager dans la sens de la marche" or direction you are travelling. You have to do that in the section where you choose your seat which may not be that obvious (it's easy to overlook, it's a small tab that appears when you select a date/route). When you click on "choisir ma place" it gives you a type of seat selection and gives you a choice of direction but it appears to only give you that choice on the TGV Est route, not the one to Avignon. At least that's what I see.

I missed adrienne's post - I agree . . . .

oh, those seats don't cost any more, at least not when you are allowed to select them online. I've never bought a TGV ticket in person, only online. You can even get them on a 20 euro PREM ticket from Paris to Nancy.

Travelling backwards is a problem for many. We had TGV seats with seats looking backwards and then we were between windows. The train was full so we couldn't change seats. It was off to the bar where the windows were either above or below our heads.

Thank you for all your replies when booking I will now know what to consider and what to ask. Not sure whether I will book the train myself or through an agent. It is very early morning Aussie time and all these final travel plans have been on my mind.

First trip to France, first trip on TGV, first renting in Paris and Provence. The list goes on. I have learnt so much through this forum

Does it matter on this type of route? My wife gets sick going backwards on routes with turns and stop and go, but Paris-Avignon is boringly straight once the train leaves the metropolitan area. On high speed segments of Eurostar and TGV, it does not seem to matter.

One way to assure a forward facing seat, especially on routes involving the train changing the direction (not Paris-Avignon) is to reserve face to face (I think it is called vis-a-vis) seats. At least one seat is always facing forward even when the train changes the direction of travel.

To clarify: when I said "agent" I meant the ticketing person (the person who sells you the official ticket) at the train station in France.

I would never book my ticket through a third person!