Direct Train from Paris to Switzerland

I understand that there is direct train from Paris to Geneve. And also to Lausanne?

I%26#39;m in the U.S., if you buy ticket online at SNCF.com, will I have problems getting the tickets?

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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;I%26#39;m in the U.S., if you buy ticket online at SNCF.com, will I have problems getting the tickets?%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;

You might want to go back and re-visit the SNCF web site with your itinerary requests. There are several direct (no train changes en route) TGV train between PARIS-Gare de Lyon and both Geneva and Lausanne during the day. There%26#39;s also a direct overnight train from PARIS-Gare de Bercy to Geneva.

SNCF-- www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/_SvHomePage…

Some fare categories offered on-line through the SNCF web site allow you to print out %26#39;paper tickets%26#39; on your own computer.But I%26#39;m pretty sure that for international train travel, you won%26#39;t be able to do this.

But, once you arrive in Paris, you may pick-up your %26#39;paper tickets%26#39; at ANY SNCF train station or SNCF %26#39;boutique%26#39; in Paris (or any other SNCF train station if France) at ANY time up until departure. All you need is your SNCF Reservation Cinfirmation Number and the SAME credit card that you used to make the original on-line reservatin. The %26#39;..system.. REALY does waork as simply and as well as that.

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Thank you for your advice. It%26#39;s very helpful.

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I took the high-speed TGV train between Geneva and the Gare de Lyon in Paris several years ago. It is a very nice, very fast train, with only a couple of stops as I recall.

I was in France last week and the day I departed, two weeks ago, I tried to use the SNCF website for the first time to buy TGV tickets for a trip I was taking within France. I selected my trains and hoped to pay the fare by credit card and pick up the tickets at the station in Paris a couple days later. For reasons still not clear to me, I was not able to complete the transaction on the website. So I just waited until I got to Paris and went to the station and made the reservation and bought the tickets in person a day or two before I intended to travel. I paid a little more than I would have on the website, but the ticket I bought at the station was a full fare and could be changed, which in the end turned out to be a good thing as I decided to change the time of my return trip.

Unless you plan to travel on a French holiday or some other particularly busy time, you can probably safely wait until you get to France to buy your tickets.

I would not recommend that you buy tickets through Rail Europe. People seem to think they%26#39;re getting a good deal because they pay in dollars, yet it always seems to me Rail Europe charges more for the convenience of buying tickets in the U.S. in dollars. I spoke with someone last week who booked the same trip I did, but did it several months ago through Rail Europe in the U.S. It sounded like she paid at least 25 or 30% more than I did through SNCF at the train station.

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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;Unless you plan to travel on a French holiday or some other particularly busy time, you can probably safely wait until you get to France to buy your tickets.%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;

The SNCF on-line system is not always the most %26#39;..user-friendly..%26#39; system to use. For starters, it is not espaecially %26#39;intuitive%26#39; and recognizes ONLY the information YOU enter. Make the smallest mistake, typo or other error in the input process and the system will refuse you or generate an error message that will not allow you to complete the transaction. On some occasions, even when you do everytihing right the some steps of the process are not as clearly stated or explained as they could be which can cause the user to make an error and...the system sends an error message due to the error created. So..the SNCF demands patiences, attention to detail and perserverance...but eventually it will generate tickets or reservations correctly.

There are very often SIGNIFICANT SAVINGS on fares available ONLY through the SNCF%26#39;s on-line system, so it%26#39;s usually WORTH your time and trouble to bear with some of it%26#39;s %26#39;..fussiness..%26#39; and follow the process through to completion so as to SAVE MONEY.

Though you can very often purcahse discounted fares, with some restrictions on changes and refunds, at significant cost savings through the SNCF system, if providing maximum itinerary flexibility and full refund and/or penalty-free re-scheduling is your primary goal, you can simply purchase FULL FARE tickets through the system, These FULL FARE tickets purchased directly at any SNCF train station, may be fully refunded, changed or transfered as necessary, as often as needed....and you still have a confirmed reservation.

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The problem that KDKSAIL describes with the SNCF system sounds like exactly what I experienced when I tried to book my tickets online just before I flew to France. I kept getting an error message that didn%26#39;t make any sense in the context of the step I had just completed and nothing I could do made it go away. Had I not waited until the last minute I would probably have logged off and waited until another day to try again online; but given the choice between catching my flight and getting the cheapest possible train ticket, I decided to catch the flight.

And it does sound like SNCF has discounts that are available only online. I was trying to book a roundtrip first class ticket. On the outgoing portion of this (for a trip that was about 3 days away) SNCF online quoted me a %26quot;last minute%26quot; fare that was close to half the one way first class fare. However, on the return portion, about 10 days away, it was quoting me a full fare. It occurred to me as I was doing this that the best way to get less expensive tickets, at least in 1st class, might be to book the two legs separately online, each a couple of days ahead of the actual journey in order to get these %26quot;last minute%26quot; fares. Of course, this would also involve access to a computer(and the time and patience to use it) in France for the return leg. Maybe someone else on this forum has experience booking tickets this way.

When I finally got to Paris and booked and bought my tickets at the Montparnasse train station the day before the first leg of my journey, that %26quot;last minute%26quot; fare was not offered to me, and I assumed it was an online only offer (and the train was not fully booked, as there were only 3 or 4 people in the car in which I traveled outbound and 6 or 7 inbound).