Can U.S. citizens buy the carte jeune?

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margoc
margoc

A friend and I are traveling to France in August and trying to book our train tickets in advance. We are both under 26 and would like to buy a Carte Jeune to save money, as we'll be traveling by train most of the time. However, when we try to buy these on the SNCF website, we're asked to select our country of residence -- and the U.S. isn't an option.

Some other countries, like Australia, are left off as well.

I can't find anywhere on the website's rail card pages that says that these cards are limited to people from specific countries, but I was wondering whether anyone could confirm that U.S. citizens are able to buy them? If there's no restriction, we can buy the Carte Jeune-priced tickets now, I believe, and just pick up the rail card itself when we arrive, but I don't want to buy the tickets and find out we can't buy the rail card when we get there!

Thanks, any help would be appreciated!

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sfgirl42
sfgirl42

I looked at the pull-down menu on the sncf site and like you did not the Etat-Unis....but I did find the United Kingdom (Grande Bretagne)
But...you'd be using a credit card and it would indicatee your orign country...so that wouldn't work.
As you may have found looking online, others have asked the same question with no positive answers.
I wondered IF...since SNCF has a relationship with Rail Europe that SNCF won't sell the carte Jeune to residents in countries...so I checked and yes, there are websites for Rail Europe in both Oz and NZ.
So. You can buy the card once you're there (I suppose)...here's LP's guide to trains in France for overall info:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/transport/getting-around/train

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bjd
bjd

In principle it's open to everyone. Here is the page to buy it on: http://www.voyages-sncf.com/services-train/carte-abonnement-train

Don't order a discount fare without it because conductors check to see whether the passenger has the right to the discount when they check tickets.

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micolett
micolett

You can buy one at any french station's manned "window", all you need is proof of ID and one ID picture, and use CC or cash payment, 50€.
And a bit of patience, as there may be queues (try to do it off rush hours...)

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hello_bamboo
hello_bamboo

yes

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margoc
margoc

Hi all,

Thanks for your helpful responses! Based on all of this, it sounds like we should be able to buy the Carte Jeune fares in advance (since you don't need to provide a card number when booking those) and then buy the actual card on arrival? I wonder if anyone here has had experience doing that?

Or, have any Americans or Australians here personally purchased one of the French rail cards? It sounds like this is possible, but I'd love to confirm. Thanks!

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hello_bamboo
hello_bamboo

Yes, my daughter is American and she has a French rail card.

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wayoutback
wayoutback

Yes as an Australian I bought the card, from the Rail Europe office in London (back in the day).

It does require a photo.

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Thorn Tree

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