How to Book French Train Tickets: A Guide to Painless Trip Prep

You get to decide what to see; it’s hard to give recommendations because what you will enjoy in France varies so much from person to person. But I can tell you what I’ve seen work out great, and terribly, for the many, many friends whom I’ve seen come through this weird and fascinating place over the years.

• Travel slow; give yourself time to really enjoy each spot you visit and get to know it. Hoping on another train every day or every other day gets to be a bit of a grind.
• If at all possible, skip the sites you’ve already seen hundreds of photos of. Yes, that means skipping the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa. You can have better experiences, more unique to you. Your Instagram photo in front of some monument will not be better than anyone else’s stupid Instagram photo in front of the same thing.
• Go to places that allow you to do the things on your French holiday that you enjoy in your normal life. Go dancing, eat good food, drink good coffee, go sailing…all the while being open to experiencing the very different French ways of doing these things. Do you like punk rock? Check out a French punk rock show… etc.
• The opposite advice is also true: Go to places and delve into situations that you would not ordinarily experience.
• If you want to save money, visit spots on current Ouigo routes in France—these high speed budget trains are nearly always much cheaper than regular trains; when searching in Trainline or SNCF Connect you’ll see Ouigo next to conventional train options for such routes.
• You’ve surely already got some ideas of French spots that pique your interest; explore them! France has had an outsized influence on the world with its books, paintings, films, and more—it can be fun to explore the locations you have seen portrayed. You can also consult Unesco’s World Heritage list for France.

Most long-distance train tickets in France (TGV INOUI and INTERCITES, as well as Thalys) go on sale four months in advance, and this is the best time to buy for the cheapest tickets. As you get closer to the date of your travel, tickets become more expensive based on demand—very sought-after dates can cost several times what the trips cost when first released.

It’s often worth buying tickets ahead of time even if you’re not completely sure of your dates, as the SNCF’s policies about refunding and exchanging tickets have become a lot more flexible; you’ll be shown specific details when searching in Trainline or SNCF Connect. You don’t usually lose anything if you exchange at least a week ahead of your departure.

For special events and the French vacation period (August), tickets may go on sale either more or less than four months before the date of travel. Ouigo tickets can be available for purchase a lot more than four months before travel. Eurostar tickets go on sale 11 months ahead of travel. TER (regional) train tickets go on sale anywhere from three to five months ahead of travel, though there isn’t a particular advantage to booking ahead on these trains as prices are fixed.

Tickets for local commuter trains such as the RER in Paris are purchased in the station at the moment of travel from the ticket machines (which have English and other languages—but you’ll need to know the exact French name of the destination train station) or from humans in ticket windows (when available).

In a separate article we reviewed the variety of competing platforms that sell train tickets for France; some are good and some are not so good, the same as for airline comparison sites. They sell tickets at the same dynamic prices. In brief, we recommend:

• Trainline is the best of the private platforms we tested; it finds smarter routes and can save you money if you cross borders or take a complex trip. It finds the best combinations of routes and gets you the local prices from each operator’s system when leaving France. It also shows Trenitalia routes that operate in France (not available on the the SNCF website); these can also save money. Lastly, Trainline has a flexible dates feature that can show you whether it’s cheaper to travel a day or two before or after your dates . The only downside is that sometimes a booking fee of ~3% of your total order is tacked on at the end.
• SNCF Connect is the national train operator’s own booking website; it has lots of errors that make it difficult to use but there is no booking fee, so you can give it a shot and maybe save a few Euros on simple routes if you’re patient.

Both of these sites allow you to use e-tickets (discussed later), which you simply show on your phone and/or print out in advance.

Both of these sites (as well as the other competing platforms discussed in a separate article) pay us a teensy commission if you book your trip through the links above; that money keeps our little travel and research projects going.

You can buy your French train tickets from ticketing machines in train stations and/or use the machines to print out e-tickets purchased online (from Trainline or SNCF Connect) if you want to have a hard copy (rather than showing your ticket to inspectors from your phone).

The advantage of machines over human-staffed ticketing counters is that they are available in English and there is usually no wait. However, these ticketing machines are much worse than buying online because the translations are very incomplete, the machines produce errors, they are finicky with foreign credit cards, and they’re not exactly intuitive to use.

The prices are the same and it’s much easier to buy your tickets online on a computer or phone as recommended above. But if you find yourself using a ticket machine, here’s how to do it.

Purchasing from a Ticket Machine

After purchasing, your ticket will be printed out as a paper receipt with a scannable QR code as shown in the next section. The older-style, longer, rectangular tickets on card stock are no longer issued.

Printing an Already-Purchased E-Ticket

Here’s how you collect a ticket which was previously purchased online. You’ll get a paper ticket from the ticket machine and won’t have to show the electronic copy on your phone.

Switch to English (as shown in the previous section) and choose “Collect a ticket”. Enter the ticket information and your trip will be displayed on the screen.

Kiosks should but may fail to print tickets if you purchased on SNCF Connect using a foreign credit card, as in this case the machine may require your credit card but be unable to read it. If that happens you’ll need to go to a staffed train station window (and allow time for this). I’d suggest avoiding all this and just using the e-ticket from your phone.

Tickets from either of the above-mentioned platforms can be used as e-tickets. These are generally preferable to old-fashioned paper because:

• You can show them to ticket inspectors on your phone or print them out yourself.
• You don’t need to wait for them to be mailed to you.
• You don’t need to validate e-tickets in the train station (insert them into a machine that stamps them) before boarding trains.
• Exchanges and refunds (when allowed for your ticket type) are simpler.
• If you lose your printout (or your phone, for that matter), you can easily access the ticket again by logging in to the platform you bought them from.

If you use an e-ticket you can display it in the ticketing platform’s app (SNCF Connect or Trainline) or display a PDF (zoomed in on the bar code) of the ticket on your mobile device.

You can also print the ticket yourself; a printed copy is a nice backup but not truly necessary. European A4 as well as American 8.5 x 11″ paper are both fine for printing your French train tickets.

Personally, I like to have printed copies of everything during my travels to refer to quickly, rather than rummaging through my phone, but some people find that more complicated. It is also true that the battery never dies on a piece of paper (though I also always travel with an external USB-C battery).

Finally, you can use the reference code to print out your tickets at train station kiosks if you purchased on Trainline (payment card not needed) or SNCF Connect (payment card may be needed and may cause problems if not French).

While e-tickets are what most travelers now use in France, it is still possible to travel with paper tickets, and the SNCF says that these are not going away completely (in French).

If you’re buying a ticket at a train station ticket window or from an automatic machine in a station, you can still get your ticket as a piece of paper. Instead of a card stock ticket as previously, you’ll have a simple piece of paper as your ticket with a QR code that can be read by scanners.

This means that ticket validation machines will soon be eliminated (in French) and validating your ticket is no longer something you need to worry about with these new paper tickets.

Whether booking with Trainline or SNCF Connect, you’ll generally have a few options to choose from, though these vary by train. The options are thankfully much more straightforward than they have been at times in the past.

Standard class (2nd / French: “seconde classe” or “2de”): This is the main, cheapest option. On TGV INOUI, the seats are four to a row and spacious enough and comfortable.

If you buy your standard class tickets early enough, you may have what are variously spelled as Prems or Prem’s; if you see that designation offered for your ticket it no longer really means anything other than that you’re getting a good deal — cheaper prices on the same 2nd class seats.

Standard/second class TGV INOUI tickets in France can be fully refunded or exchanged (paying any price difference with the new ticket) up to seven days before departure. From six days prior to departure, you pay €19 for this privilege. From 30 minutes prior to departure, they are only exchangeable for the same day of travel.

1st class (French: “première classe” or “1re”): This is usually (but not always!) more expensive than 2nd class and on TGV INOUI trains. These seats are a bit roomier, with more foot room and seating generally three to a row. Exchange and refund conditions are the same as for 2nd class.

Within this 1st class, you’ll see a much more expensive option noted as “Flexible” in Trainline or as “Business Premiere” in SNCF Connect; it offers the same seating but with a few extras like in-seat service (rather than going to the bar car) and access to the business lounges “Salons Grand Voyager TGV INOUI” in major train stations (listed here in French). These Business Premiere tickets can be exchanged or refunded free of charge up to 30 minutes after departure.

Ouigo tickets in France are all one class and are non-refundable; changes in the departure station, arrival station, or date are possible for €19. The Ouigo Plus option isn’t really for a different class of service; it simply allows you to choose your seat, carry more luggage, and arrive at Paris stations up to only 5 minutes ahead of departure.

When booking TGV INOUI and other fast trains, you can request in Trainline and in SNCF Connect to be on the upper or lower level and have a window or an aisle seat. Seats are roomier than on airlines and so aisle seats have less value, in my opinion; I always opt for upper level window seats to maximize my enjoyment of the views.

In some cases, it is possible to select forward facing seats and if so you will see the option in both Trainline and SNCF Connect.

Your seat preferences may or may not be fulfilled depending on availability.

Both Trainline and SNCF Connect also allow you to select your exact seat in certain cases, like when traveling on TGV INOUI first class. The option comes up on both sites after you select your train; you can choose the train car, the bottom or top deck, and the exact seat from those still available.

During the booking process, SNCF Connect’s seat map is a bit easier to read in my opinion than Trainline’s, and shows where luggage storage, tables, and the bar car are in relation to the seat you are selecting. Getting your exact seat is never completely guaranteed however.

This is a very quick summary of the main train types to know.

TGV INOUI: These are the cream of the crop: the flagship, comfortable, high speed trains that criss-cross the country serving over 200 destinations.

There are also similar high speed services with different names that connect France to other countries: Eurostar (connecting London, Paris, Lille, and Brussels), TGV Europe (for travel between France and Belgium, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, and Germany), and Thalys (for travel to/from Brussels, Cologne, and Amsterdam).

INTERCITÉS: These are the standard speed trains that still fill in some gaps in the high speed and regional services, and offer daytime as well as some night services. Some of these require reservations (dynamically priced and can sell out) and some do not (fixed price, do not sell out).

OUIGO: This is the SNCF’s answer to budget airlines. We’ve written about the Ouigo experience, but in a nutshell its trains are slightly more cramped than standard offerings and almost always a lot cheaper. The vast majority are high speed, getting you around the country just as quickly as TGV INOUI. There are also now a few “Ouigo Classic” routes that offer cheap service at standard speeds to smaller destinations between Paris and Nantes and between Paris and Lyon.

If booking on Ouigo pay careful attention to the baggage restrictions as these are tightly enforced; pay for a full-sized luggage piece if you have more than a carry-on.

TER: These are small, regional trains. There are not class distinctions and tickets can be purchased at any time for the same price. For the Paris region, the local service is called Transilien.

You can get one-country Interrail (for European residents, including the UK) and Eurail (for non-Europeans) passes for France, though these are no longer worth it for hardly anyone, not even for those who like to travel by the seat of their pants and visit lots of destinations in a very short period.

When you have a Eurail/Interrail pass in France, Ouigo trains, the very convenient and cheap high speed trains are not included on your pass. And even among those French trains that are included, the ones you’re most likely to want to take, like TGV INOUI, require the payment of seat reservations plus sometimes supplements. But if you’re patient, you can check out our article about how to compare whether Interrail / Eurail is worth it. Then check prices for point-to-point tickets by putting the same itinerary into one of the ticketing platforms mentioned above, and see what actually works out cheaper.

There are also Global Interrail and Global Eurail passes available for travel beyond France and across the continent, though the same basic caveats apply and it’s hard to make them worthwhile either.

If—and only if—you spend a lot of time in France and travel frequently on non-Ouigo trains, it could perhaps be worth investing in a discount card. These are purchased and mailed to you and are valid for one year. We’ve written more about these discount cards for children, adults, and seniors; if you do get them the discounts can be applied when buying tickets in either Trainline or SNCF Connect. Here is the SNCF’s page with details on the various discount card options. Do be wary about the many exceptions for when they can be used; in my personal experience they did not end up actually saving money.

If you’ve purchased your ticket on Trainline, go to the manage my booking section of the site to see your options for replacing or exchanging your tickets directly with Trainline—it’s just a few steps.

For tickets purchased with the SNCF, you can do so with the SNCF Connect booking section, SNCF offices or train stations (including at self-service kiosks), or by calling +33 1 84 94 36 35 (or just 3635 from a French phone).

First, relax. You don’t really need French to buy French train tickets; the online ticketing platforms recommended above have English versions. And even if you’re waiting until the last minute and in a French train station, you can always purchase via the ticketing kiosks, which have English and multiple other languages.

Also, the odds are low that your poorly pronounced attempts at French phrases learned in a guide like this are going to save you from confusion in a French train station. French people working in trains are used to speaking English as well as perhaps a bit of Spanish, German, and Italian.

That said, French people tend to be embarrassed of their own self-perceived poor level of English, prefer speaking their own language, and value foreigners who at least attempt a bit. And their are some French words that are tied to French concepts of train travel that are good to have a deeper understanding of, beyond the pure translation.

So whether you speak a bit of French already and want to have some key vocabulary ready for train travel, or you just want a few basic words for communication, this guide is designed to focus on the words you might actually need and use.

The Most Important Vocabulary for Trains and Train Stations in France

You absolutely must know the following general items before boarding a French train.

Train Station Vocabulary

Vocabulary in French Trains

That’s all you really need, but if you want to go further and amuse yourself chatting to fellow passengers, we have a handful of articles on fun, flirty, and explosive vocabulary building in French, as well as, I think, the internet’s best strategies for true communicative language learning.

Do I need to print my tickets for trains in France?

Tickets purchased online through the platforms mentioned above do not need to be printed; you can simply show the e-ticket on your phone with the PDF that is emailed to you or on the app.

How can I buy train tickets in Paris?

If you’re looking for long distance trains (leaving the Paris region) you’ll want to go to purchase online as discussed above or else go to any train station (“gare”) in the Paris or SNCF ticket office.

If you’re traveling in the Paris region (known as “Île-de-France”) you’ll use the commuter network RER and buy tickets at vending machines (usually less waiting if you know what you’re doing) or from ticket windows. Here is trip planning and more information in English on Paris region trains (run by the Transilien SNCF).

How are French train tickets priced?

Long distance train tickets in France are dynamically priced, meaning that the prices go up and down based on demand, as with modern airfare pricing. For the best prices, you generally want to book about three to four months ahead of your trip.

The exception generally is regional trains (TER) with fixed prices, which you can purchase in advance if you like but there is no particular advantage to this.