Need a site with train routes and costs, plus booking, within France?

Question

I'm starting to plan a trip to France next summer (will be hopping over a few borders for day trips too). Here's my issue: I have to be all over the country for different things. I have to visit my friends in Lille (Northern France), tour Paris for a few days, go just over the eastern border to Geneva, Switzerland, for a Celine Dion concert, and catch a stage of the Tour de France that's close to the western side of the country.

My sister and I are planning on renting a car for drives shorter than 5 hours, but would like to take the train for larger distances. Is there a good site to visit that would have info on train routes, costs, and booking? Site can be in French (I'm almost bilingual, lol).

Thank you!

Answer 1

The best

www.sncf.com

Answer 2

www.voyages-sncf.com is the best site to use. It's the official online vender of SNCF tickets. All other sites usually charge extra. If you order online, you will have to pick up the tickets at a guichet (ticket office) because I don't think the SNCF will send tickets abroad.

Answer 3

This is the French railway site:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/_SvH...

If you are fluent in French, you can go back to their home page in French (www.voyages-sncf.com) which has far more information, including car rental at the train station.

For driving routes including the price of tolls and gas (you first have to select which kind of car you will be using),go to

www.viamichelin.com

Highways are safer than other routes but less scenic and more expensive.

Car rental companies are pretty much the same everywhere: AVIS, Budget, Rent-a-car, Ford Rent, etc. Compare the prices.

For long trips what I have already done is put the car on the train (auto-train). It is a little pricy but at the same time you may get a discount at the rental agency for renting a car several weeks. The only drawback to that is you have to take the car to the station the night before you travel by train.

Answer 4

Seat 61 looked somewhat interesting to me, but it seemed awfully UK-centric. The obvious URL would be the SNCF site, the rail operator in France, but I have had a lot better luck for planning using the Swissrail site for choosing the route, then buying on SNCF's site. The Swissrail site seems to cover most of Europe's rail lines, not just within Switzerland (in the past the SNCF has barely recognized that there are other countries linked by rail).

The SNCF site is divided into several sections, depending on whether you want international and long distance,  regional travel, or light rail in Paris (not including the RER and Métro).

http://sncf.fr/indexe.htm  SNCF

http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en?  Swissrail

Answer 5

For car rentals,check out their Booking Page http://arklandtravel.tripod.com

Answer 6

the best train route site on the web is

www.seat61.com

Answer 7

Hi!

Here is the website of the french company for the trains: http://www.voyage-sncf.com

You can book travels by train, plane, cars and hotels.

If you are less than 25 years old, you can have a discount.

You can have a look here too: http://www.interrailnet.com/one_country_...

They propose unlimited travels in a specific zone in Europe during a month.

Here is a website to calculate the distances between places, with the price of the tolls highway and petrol (really really expensive now):http://mappy.com/

If you don't want to spend a lot of money for the accommodation, you can book rooms in youth hostels: http://fuaj.org/eng/index.php

Hope it helps!

Answer 8

www.sncf.com

voyages.sncf.com

Answer 9

Try www.sncf.com