Dear all,

thought to spend a short break in South France and am now researching about French train system. Seems the pricing system of TGV is much more complicated than our SBB... Does anyone book and print the TGV train tickets using http://www.voyages-sncf.com/ ? Is the saving worth the trouble? Seems the website is in French...

Thanks for experience sharing! Anyone has tips for South France (Nice, Marseille etc.) are most welcomed too. In particular where to have budget but nice French food... Have enough of the rainy weather here in CH!

Hi there,

Where are you looking at getting the TGV from and to? I often use TGV via SBB if I am leaving a Swiss station the pricing is the same, however for inter- France you could try http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/ and I have used raileurope before http://www.raileurope.com/train-faq/...tgv/index.html

Well, I am looking to travel from Nice to Marseille and then Marseillle back to Geneva in CH. I just read somewhere there might be some offers which are only available in French version of SNCF website. Not sure how true is that though...Thanks for your tips anyway.

If you are getting your tickets in France for journeys within the country, then raileurope.co.uk site pretty handy, and you can get your tickets at the automatic distributors in the Franch stations.

You can also get your tickets that come to Geneve, starting in France.

SNCF website is an absolute nightmare.

I've never found any of those offers to work out any better or cheaper than on rail europe, I have logged into both sites simultaneously for TGV Lyria and the prices layout and options are identical.

As stated for any leg with a Swiss station involved just use SBB any discounts are fed through here also....

I got stuck a few times in Paris on business, with a last minute change in schedules. Each time I managed to scrap through and get a ticket home at the last minute. The ticket has always been cheaper from France to CH.
You'll be fine even if you have to stand for a few hours