French trains tickets - advance purchase vs walk up fares?

Question

Will be in Paris on couple day trip and would like to do a day trip to Chartes (leave early morning/return same day)...will be there in a couple months from now. Ideally I'd like to wait until last minute to get best weather/more flexibility, but if there is a considerable price difference buying in advance then would like to save the money as will be buying for a few of us. I once did a train trip in the UK when I bought a ticket in advance for about 10 quid, would have been about 80 quid day of trip.

Answer 1

Booking ahead guarantees you the best fares on TGV high-speed trains (long distance trips), but Chartres is so close to Paris that there is no difference in price. So you can buy your ticket once you are there. The fare is always the same: 12.90 €.

There are trains every 40 minutes during rush hour then every hour. Here is how to download the schedule: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Chartres is only an hour away from Paris.