I have a complicated trip to France coming up: My best friend and I are celebrating our 50th birthdays, staying in Paris for a week, then travelling to Lyon, Saint Didier in Provence, Agde, then back to Paris. As a graduation present, my son and his friend are coming along, but will stay in Paris longer, then travel to La Rochelle, then meet us in Saint Didier, then join us to go to Agde and back to Paris.
To accomplish all this, I would like to know whether it would be easier and most cost-effective (easier is almost more important here) to get rail passes to do all this, or whether the trains that go to these places will be the types that require reservations and it would be simpler to just buy the tickets either ahead of time, or as we go. I'm not clear on how you know which trains do and don't require reservations. For example, will my teenaged son and his friend be able to hop on to non-reservations trains with their passes to go to La Rochelle, Saint Didier, Agde, and back to Paris, or will it be more complicated for them when they are not with me? What would you say is the best way to accomplish this hopping around? Thanks so much for any advice about the best way to do this!
You do not want rail passes, pretty much ever, in France. For long-distance, high-speed trains (TGVs) you would need to make reservations (at extra cost) and would be limited to a very few possible seats. No hopping on a TGV whether you have a pass or not; TGVs require reservations. TERs and Intercités trains do not.
Spend some time on the website of The Man in Seat 61 to figure this out. If you want to get the best deals possible, buy your tickets online 3 months before the dates of travel (for TGVs; the shorter routes are always the same price). If you read French and have a European credit card, use www.voyages-sncf.com. If not, use www.capitainetrain.com. Even if the cheap tickets aren't available yet, you can get a good idea of schedules by looking at those websites now.
concur with stcirq - SNCF are actively trying to make travelling France on a pass as unattractive as possible (mandatory reservations for TGVs at quite some surcharge, limited seats for passholders, further, there's no France single country pass etc.). Paris-Lyon and Agde-Paris (and to/from La Rochelle) are the only really expensive legs, here booking in advance would be recommendable and probably not even unconvenient. Lyon-Avignon and Avignon-Agde you might as well buy on the spot, the savings likely do not justify the restrictions of booking ahead (yet do as you please).
BTW, La Rochelle-Avignon will take almost the whole day, I hope the place is really that important to your son.
Both your posts are extremely helpful, thank you! My son only wants to go to La Rochelle because he wants to visit the family he stayed with on his one-week high school trip last year, but he is only going to stay in La Rochelle for one night! I will warn him about the travel time to be sure he really wants to do this. I am so glad to know that the rail pass is not worth the trouble. We will buy the longer journeys ahead of time and book the shorter journeys as we go. I really appreciate this advice.
Would it be easier and more direct for my son to go from La Rochelle to Lyon, and then go with us from Lyon to Avignon, or is that an unnecessary extra step?
glad you found our remarks helpful!
I don't see an advantage in the La Rochelle-Lyon option, all in all it will be quite similar in terms of time and money, so decide on what's most convenient.
you didn't mention whether money is a very relevant factor, thus I'll just draw attention to SNCF budget subsidiaries Ouigo and IDTGV, that run Paris-Lyon-Med - however there are some bothers, so check carefully whether these offers appeal to you: http://www.seat61.com/idtgv.htm#.VtobBEDkfZc
<<book the shorter journeys as we go>>
Keep in mind that you can buy a ticket for any train trip at any train station (or SNCF boutique, but that's not likely useful for you), so you can save yourself some time (lines for tickets at some train stations can be looooonnnng) by picking up tickets for all legs of your journey at the first train station you're in (make sure to give yourself extra time for this). And be sure you get dates right - European dates are date/month/year (U.S. is month/date/year), so a journey on, say July 12, 2016 would be 12/07/2016.
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