Voyages SNCF site
 

I am on the site looking to buy tickets to Nice in November but right after the date, it looks like a 24 time clock. I have no idea why that plays any role in buying my ticket since there are only 2 times available ...does it mean anything at all in my case?

The November tickets are not yet available. You'll have to wait until they load the fall schedule. You should also do the purchasing in French, otherwise you will be directed to Rail Europe.

The SNCF, French Rail, has a multitude of sites, you really need to specify which you are using. Generally, schedules are not available more than 3 months in advance. iDTGV schedules may be available as early as 5 months before any given travel date.

There is indeed a 24 hour time selection included in the search criteria when purchasing tickets. You may have only 2 departures to your destination on your chosen travel day but there could be a dozen or more available departure times. Allowing you to select a desired departure time speeds the ticket buying process for many if not most travelers.

According to the site there is a sale going on and my tickets are available NOW. You have answered my question about the 24 hour clock NOW all I need to know is how close the station Gare DE Lyon is to the Hotel Cecellia where we are staying.

They have 2 prices listed for our travel from Paris to Nice on IDTGV. 2nd class is 52E for 2 people and 1st class is 72E for 2. It does not sound bad but what do you get for 1st class? Is the price difference worth it?

You get three seats across instead of four.Scroll down to the pictures of 1st and 2nd.

http://www.seat61.com/tgv.htm#.Ub8IidgUo9g

http://tgv.en.voyages-sncf.com/en/second-class-tgv

Hey..those are super pictures! Thank you. It like 1st class is worth it not to be crowded for 5 or 6 hours.

I like to book iDTGV tickets on their site. It's easy to use.

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

It's easy to use and you can choose your seats from a seat map. We like the 1st class single seats that are face to face across a table. I think it is worth the €10 extra fare to have this type of seating. On the Paris-Nice route, it looks like you can choose between upper or lower deck seating.

Thanks for the help. I got my train tickets for 72E for 2 people 1st class. Seems like a pretty good deal.

YOu don't really have a choice as to how close a train station is to your hotel, unless you just want to know. I mean you can't choose which train station you want to come into. If you want to take the train, you have to go to where it ends up, there isn't any choice. YOu hotel is to the west of Paris and the Gare de Lyon is to the east, both on the Right Bank. So it's 4-5 miles (or maybe 7-8 km). Your hotel is very near the Etoile. You can actually get there very easily by taking the RER A, it goes direct to the CDG-Etoile stop.

This is completely off the subject at hand, but I was so excited to hear that someone is staying at the Hotel Cecilia; I stayed there my first trip to Paris (dare I say that it was in 1961?, and that I was in college?). I never hear of anyone staying there these days, and I've always wondered why. It was a lovely hotel then, and I've checked out the website, and it looks great today, too. Super location if you want to be in that area yet on a quiet street.

Sorry for the digression! Happy travels, and please come back to post about the hotel and your trip!

I love digressions that add to my knowledge that it is a nice hotel in a good location. Also it is just good to know that it isn't 20 miles from the train station. Since our train leaves at 742 AM. I already picked the hotel and I wouldn't have moved just to get closer to the train station.