Thanks to all of my fellow fodorites for your tips on our upcoming trip to Provence area end of May. I just wanted to ask about the train. It seems that it's too early to actually book but i wanted to get a sense of the schedule. I am seeing fares for about $200 pp round trip which would mean about $400 or so total for my husband and I. I thought that was a bit high but then again, maybe it isn't. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Maybe the times that i looked at were all sold out on economy fares? Not going to worry about it if that's what it is, but was just wondering if that sounded right.

Thanks very much.

The cheapest, nonrefundable prems tickets will be available on www.tgv-europe.com/en 3 months before your travel date.

IdTGV tickets for May are currently available for sale on idtgv.com. The idTGV schedule is more limited, but perhaps it will work for you. If not, check on the Prem's fares in late February for your trip in late May.

I generally spend about 40€ each way for a trip to Avignon. And that is often for 1st class.

Hi mik,

>...I am seeing fares for about $200 pp round trip...<

That sounds very high.

Where are you looking?

I was looking on raileurope.com which is what I got when i googled tgv.

Thank you. I thought it sounded very high.

seat61.com/france best tips for you wait for a prem

Good personal experience a beautiful restored nunnery 4 star Clarion Cloitre Saint Louis Hotel is a 4 Star Hotel in ...
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...l-171346-2.cfm
Nice place to stay close to station you can walk.
booking.com

Get off the Raileurope site immediately. Highest prices around.

Go to www.voyages-sncf.com or the tgv site given above. Wait until 3 months from your travel date, go on the site, fill out the form, and pick PREM fares (lowest possible, but nonrefundable and nonexchangeable). You should pay around 40-50 euro at most.

There are countless threads here on Fodors with information about PREM fares and using the SNCF websites.

Terrific information. Thank you so much.

If the train times work for you, the iDTGV fares are usually better than the PREM fares. Here's the link for the English language iDTGV site:

http://www.idtgv.com/en/

This site is easy to navigate and you can print your tickets. As mentioned previously, tickts for May are now on sale.

The next best option would probably be the www.tgv-europe.com/en . On this site, the PREM fare tickets go on sale three months before the date of travel.

iDTGV tickets and PREM fare tickets are non-refundable.

For Paris-Avignon the cheapest Prem's fare on regular TGVs is €25.00. The cheapest fare on iDTGVs is €24.90.

I'm about to hijack this thread based on a comment just made by Maine GG -- apologies in advance, but this is something others might want info about as well, and certainly the OP.

I get weekly offers from TGV ever since I booked PREM tickets online. And to the OP, the PREM tickets prices are GREAT and you can print from the computer!

So I am very intriged by iDTGV. I just looked it up and saw there are 2nd class tickets from 19 euro from Paris to Nice.

The best part is everything is done online, and you can print your tickets (like with the PREMS) from your computer.

So . . . is there anything additional I need to do -- do I need to sign up separately with idTGV or does the fact that I'm already signed up to get promos from TGV make it unnecessary for me to separately sign up.

Thanks for any info!

On the idTGV site, you can create an account (which streamlines the purchase of tickets). On your profile page, there is a box to check if you want promo e-mails. Also, you can like idTGV on Facebook, where they post regularly, and follow them on twitter.

The idTGV site has an English language option, which is very convenient. Another nice feature is that you can select your specific seats. (I am traveling with a group of friends who bought tickets at different times, but we were able to select seats in the same car.). Their customer service also responded quickly to an e-mail I sent.

For our trip, first class tickets cost only a few euros more than second class. I think the second class idTGV tickets were very close to the cost of the cheapest prems ticket, but the first class idTGV tickets were much cheaper than prems tickets. .

But be aware that despite several attempts, I could not use my Capital One MasterCard on the idTGV website last month. Cap One declined the first transaction (even though I had a travel notification on my account). After that, the transactions would go through to capOne and decrease my credit limit, but I didn't get any confirmation from idTGV; idTGV was declining to complete the transaction but not telling me. After several tries a few days apart with the CapOne card, I used a brand new Visa card and my purchase went right through. I had no problem buying tickets on the SNCF site with my CapOne card a year ago, so I was not expecting any problem with the idTGV tickets.

I bought two iDTGV first class tickets from Paris to Lyon last year for €26 each. On my first attempt to purchase them with my Capital One MasterCard, the payment was refused. The next morning it went right through. Why? Who knows.

If you click on my name, you can read about our iDTGV trip in detail in my trip report. I would certainly use iDTGV again.

I am actually in the middle of booking on the idtgv website and it's still saying processing payment...it's been about five minutes. I guess I will contact customer service.

Thanks for the info though. I'm sure I will sort it out. All great tips!

All set! It was actually my error with my credit card number. You may have already addressed this, but now that I have my printed tickets do I need to anything before boarding the train?

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

no, there is nothing you have to do iof you have your ticket and it has a seat number and car number on it. YOu know you have to go to that one.

Just show your printed ticket to the iDTGV agent who will scan the QR code.

iDTGV sent me an email two days before my scheduled train reconfirming the reservation details and advising that boarding would be 20 minutes prior to departure and would close 5 minutes prior to departure. At the Gare de Lyon, our train was a good 5 minutes walk from the waiting area. I was glad we had done a reconaissance of the station layout before the platform/quai was announced.

Thanks all for the iDTGV info! Perfect!

what is Id TGV?