Bought Railpasses. Now What?

I just bought some railpasses for France. My family and I will be there in August. We will be traveling by train from Tours to Toulouse, Toulouse to Cannes, then Cannes to Paris. What do we do now? Do we reserve our seats for each trip, or do we just get on the train the day of travel? This is the first time I get railpasses, so I'm not really sure how the whole process works.

Reservations are required on some of the trains you'll be taking (TGVs). They're cheaper (about €3) if you make them at a station in Europe than if you make them from home. Note: If you have to change trains, you'll have to pay a reservation fee for each leg on trains that require them. If you take the night train from Cannes to Paris, you'll have to pay a supplement for your sleeping accommodations, starting at about 20 euro for a bunk in a six-person couchette and going up from there for compartments for fewer people.

Train companies reserve the right to limit the number of seats they set aside for pass holders. Since you'll need multiple reservations and you'll need to be sure every member of your family can get them for the same trains, you might want to make them from home. For a one-time processing fee of $45,
Euraide you can get all of them at the in-Europe price. You can also make them through Rail Europe, but you'll pay a lot more.

The EurAide link I gave you was for making reservations on night trains. Here's the page for reservations for day trains.

Just to complete, for trains that does not require reservation, you just hop on those, and show your pass if there are ticket inspections. Make sure you are in the right wagon for 1st or 2nd class seats. I guess you have eurail passes which is just first class. If it is the case it would be less crowded in most cases. One tip, in paris, there are lines that are operated by SNCF, so your pass is valid in some RER lines. There's also a train line that goes fto Versailles.

Thanks for the info. I do have first class tickets for myself, my husband and my four year old. We also have a 1 year old, but he's supposed to ride for free. So you recommend making the reservation from home just to make sure that we get seats for everyone? I have some relatives that live in France, can they make the reservation for us from any train station?

So long as you give your relatives all the pertinent personal information on your passes--and the specific trains you wish to take, of course--I think they should be able to make your reservations for you.

Before you use the train for the first time, you MUST have the passes validated. This just takes a few minutes, but be prepared to wait in line at the station (maybe 10-15 minutes), and the clerk will enter pertinent information such as the beginning/ending dates, and will put an official stamp on, and from that point on, you can just hop on any train except for the TGV, which will require a reservaton.
I've always avoided travel in France during July/August, and perhaps it's different then, but I've usually just made reservations--especially for a TGV in 1st class just before travel.
In your case, because you'll all want to be certain about being together, I think that you could go to the station in Tours (or any station) and validate the passes and take care of any necessary reservations--- you could do that as soon as you've arrived in France. I think that you can make reservations for use with your pass by doing it on the SNCF website ( I've bought tickets/reservations, which can be retrieved in France by showing your confirmation number to a clerk; there are kiosks at stations where you could simply your credit card to retrieve your ticket/reservation but, for some reason, they can't read American credit cards).

You CANNOT make reservations alone on the SNCF site. You can do it at a station or SNCF ticket boutique. Or you can do it by calling the SNCF English-speaking number in France.

The ticket machines require using credit cards which have embedded chips. Since US cards don't have those chips, you have to present your card to a clerk at a ticket window.

I will try to get my relatives in France to reserve the seats for me. I did not know that you're supposed to validate the passes at the station, thanks Basie for letting me know. I guess I need to plan on getting to the station 15-20 minutes before departure.

If there's anything else that you guys can think of, please let me know.

Thanks.

I think American Express have those chips for kiosks, but not sure..