train journey planner france

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France journey planner / transit map.

France Station / Bus Stop List

• Orry-la-Ville-Coye
• La Borne Blanche
• Malesherbes(M3)
• Alexandre Dumas
• Alma Marceau
• Alesia Alésia
• Anatole France(Paris) Anatole France

France Railway List

• Paris Metro Line 1
• Paris Metro Line 2
• Paris Metro Line 3
• Paris Metro Line 3bis
• Paris Metro Line 4
• Paris Metro Line 5
• Paris Metro Line 6
• Paris Metro Line 7(for Mairie d Ivry) Paris Metro Line 7(for Mairie d'Ivry)
• Paris Metro Line 7bis(for Pre St Gervais)
• RER-A(Cergy le Haut-Marne la Vallee)

Nearest places

• レ・フィロゾフ 28, Rue Vieille du Temple 75004 Paris    Others (Eat out)
• フォー・バン・クオン14 129, avenue de Choisy 75013 Paris    Others (Eat out)
• カフェ・ベーツ 4 Av,de President Wilson 75016    Others (Eat out)
• フリュート・バー 19 Rue de L'Etoile 75017    Others (Eat out)
• レ・フジェール 10 rue Villebois Mareuil 75017    Others (Eat out)
• ダロワイヨ 101 Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore    Others (Eat out)
• ラオ・シャム 49 rue de Belleville 75019　Paris    Others (Eat out)
• 龍門茶荘 20 Boulevard Saint-Germain　75005 Paris    Asian Cuisine
• ル・パン・コティディエン 18-20, rue des Archives 75004 Paris    Others (Eat out)

Nearest hotels

• Les Suites – Maison Bouvier Val Claret ★★★★★     0m
• Chateau Forge du Roy 1592 route du chemin des forges Aquitaine ★★★★★     0m
• MyHome 7 Rue des Blanchisseries Rhone-Alpes ★★★★★     0m
• Le GOLD moderne et cosy Europole/Gare 18 ter Rue d'Alembert Rhone-Alpes ★★★★★     0m
• Vocation Resort Jardin Monet Giverny Vernon 11 Rue des Grands Jardins Upper Normandy ★★★★★     0m
• Hotel Crillon le Brave Place de l'Eglise ★★★★★     0m
• appartloulou 41 Rue Léon Gambetta Midi-Pyrenees ★★★★★     0m
• Le Logis du pecheur 7 Rue du Logis ★★★★★     0m
• Villa Riposa 77 Rue Fernand Sardou ★★★★★     0m

France Airport List

• AGF Agen Airport
• AJA Ajaccio Airport
• ANE Angers Marce Airport
• AUR Aurillac Airport
• AVN Avignon Caumont Airport
• BES Brest Bretagne Airport
• BIA Bastia Poretta Airport
• BIC Belle Ile Airport
• BIQ Biarritz Airport
• BOD Bordeaux Merignac Airport

North America

South america.

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Discover the best of French life with this spectacular France itinerary. Start your trip in beautiful Paris and let the train carry you down to the sunny Mediterranean, while cruising through hillside vineyards and endless lavender fields. Reserve a seat on France's TGV high-speed train for fast and comfortable journeys between major cities. Or take it easy and explore the French countryside with RET regional trains, one charming village at a time. When traveling with a Eurail Pass , you simply can't miss out on la belle France .

Itinerary in short

Cities visited in this trip:.

Click here or on the map to view this route in our Trip Planner.

For this itinerary we recommend:

• Eurail pass: France
• Travel days:  7 days within 1 month

Most of the high-speed trains in France, like the TGV and some InterCités, require reservations. These reservations are not included in your Eurail Pass. Make sure to book your seats in advance, there are limited seats available for Eurail Pass holders. It's also possible to avoid reservations all together, simply by taking regional trains . 

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Paris, France

Paris is known as the city of love, and what a lovely place it is! Take a stroll underneath the famous Eiffel Tower and have a glass of wine on the banks of the Seine river. You can do some fancy shopping on the Champs Élysées by day and visit the magnificent Paris Opera by night. The city is a haven for culture vultures, who could spend days exploring the wonderful collection of the Louvre museum . Make sure to visit the art district of Montmartre , where famous painters like Picasso, Dalí, and Van Gogh used to work. Here you'll also find the pristine white Sacré-Coeur Basilica , the second most famous church in Paris, after the hunchback's hideout - the Notre Dame .

From Paris to Versailles

Travel time:

Gare Montparnasse

Versailles, France

Versailles-Chantiers

For splendor with a capital S, visit the magnificent Palace of Versailles . A symbol of flamboyance, it was the royal palace for two centuries right up to the French Revolution. Take a stroll around the Versailles Gardens to follow in the footsteps of Louis XIV, the infamous Sun King. Inside the palace, you’ll find extravagance in every room. Don’t miss out on the Royal Apartments and the fabulous Mirror Hall (Galerie des Glaces). Visit the Hall of the Battles (Galerie des Batailles) to see France’s military history in paintings and in sculptures.

From Paris to Mont St. Michel

Reservation needed:

Reservation required

Rennes, France

Gare de Rennes

Mont St. Michel, France

Mont St. Michel

Mont Saint-Michel, France

An hour out of Rennes, just off the coast of Normandy, you'll find the tiny island of Mont Saint-Michel. It is dominated by the monastery from which it draws its name and was an important place of pilgrimage in medieval times. These days, Mont Saint-Michel is one of the major tourist attractions in France. For centuries, you could only reach the island when the tide was low, but these days a bridge connects the town to the mainland. Take a regional train from Rennes to get to Mont Saint-Michel.

From Mont St. Michel to Bordeaux

Nantes, france.

Gare de Nantes

Bordeaux, France

Gare de Bordeaux-St. Jean

The port city of Bordeaux is France’s uncontested wine capital. You’ll find many luscious vineyards and charming chateaux in the region, which have been producing wine since Roman times. If you're interested in a wine tour , by foot or by bike, beautiful Bordeaux is the perfect place for it! The city itself is rich in architectural highlights from all periods. Climb to the top of the bell tower next to Bordeaux Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-André) for a stunning view of the city. In the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux you can find a large collection of masterpieces by famous European painters.

From Bordeaux to Carcassonne

Carcassonne, france.

Gare de Carcassonne

On your way to the sunny Mediterranean, hop off the train in Carcassonne for a sight you'll never forget. The town's medieval citadel will make you believe you’ve stepped out of a time machine. Take a walk through history and visit the Chateau Comtal and the gothic Basilica of Saint-Nazaire . Stand in front of the impressive Narbonne Gate where the centuries look down upon you.

From Carcassonne to Nice

Marseille, france.

Gare de Marseille-Saint-Charles

Nice, France

The city of Nice is located on the Mediterranean coast near the Italian border. It’s one of the most popular tourist cities in France, second only to Paris. Enjoy the gentle sea breeze on the Promenade des Anglais and work on your tan on Nice’s beautiful beaches. Only twenty minutes away from Nice you’ll find the tiny city-state of Monaco . Take a daytrip there to see the yachts in the marina and the Lamborghinis in the streets. If you’re feeling lucky, you can place a bet at the famous Monte Carlo casino.

From Nice to Lyon

Avignon, france.

Gare d’Avignon Centre

Lyon, France

Lyon Part-Dieu

If you’re making your way back to Paris, the city of Lyon is the perfect stopover. For centuries now, Lyon has been known as the gastronomical capital of France. Go to a bouchon , a typical Lyonnais restaurant, to taste authentic local cuisine and have a glass of Beaujolais wine. In Lyon's bustling center, you’ll find plenty of interesting sights. Have a look inside the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière and observe the city from the top of Fourviere hill. If you’re looking for some peace and quiet, visit the Parc de la Tete d’Or , one of the most beautiful parks in France.

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The 8 most spectacular train journeys in France

Dec 25, 2023 • 11 min read

Traveling across France by train might be the ideal way to take in its glorious scenery © iandresr / Getty Images

Chugging past rolling hills full of heritage vineyards, cutting through spectacular mountainous backcountry, or zipping along the coastline of the Mediterranean: there’s no better way to experience the beauty and bounty of  France than from the window seat of a train. 

The superb rail network in la République makes it easy to explore the far corners of this rich, varied country. We’ve chosen the following journeys because they offer scenic beauty, keep up a vintage heritage or are just plain fabulous. All aboard for the best train rides in France!

1. Le Cévenol is the most remote and wild train ride

Clermont-Ferrand to Nîmes; 303km (188 miles)  

The savage beauty of the isolated Massif Central opens up on one of France’s oldest train routes – and one of the most challenging to build, given the topography of the Gorges de l’Allier. In the mid-1800s, the technology to blast through granite and basalt mountains didn't yet exist, so in a triumphant feat of engineering, workers used rudimentary techniques to blast out the line’s tunnels. Le Cévenol (also known as La Ligne des Cévennes) opened in 1870 for both passengers and freight, including coal headed to the Rhône region and wine to Paris. 

The Cévenol forms part of a longer, cross-country route linking Marseille to Paris , but most riders jump aboard at Clermont-Ferrand , in the heart of volcano country. You’ll start off admiring volcanic plugs dotting the landscape before heading through the pièce de résistance: the Gorges de l’Allier. High above the Allier River, magnificent views open up, stretching far across the gorge.

Along the way, you’ll cross three historic viaducts, wind through several impressive valleys and traverse 106 tunnels. The highest point is La Bastide-Puylaurent at 1024m (3360ft), while the Chamborigaud viaduct promises a heart-in-mouth experience as you teeter high above the landscape for 409 endless meters (1341ft). 

Planning tip: Maintenance work is often carried out in the spring, and SNCF buses replace trains. Be sure to check ahead before booking. 

2. Le Train du Montenvers will get you up close to a glacier

Chamonix-Mont-Blanc to Montenvers; 5km (3 miles) 

Mont Blanc towers over the Alps, its eternally snow-capped peak providing a majestic vista from afar. To get up close to this age-old mountain, hop aboard the famous cherry-red Train du Montenvers , as sightseers have done since 1908.

Departing from the main train station in Chamonix , the rack-and-pinion train trundles up the mountainside at an angle greater than 9%, climbing through dark forests and tunnels pierced through the rock. Sit on the left side of the train to take in glimpses of Mont Blanc between the fir trees.

It takes about 20 minutes to ascend 1000m (3280ft) up the mountain and – just when you think the high mountain scenery can’t get any more stunning – you arrive at the foot of Mer de Glace , a valley glacier (literally, “sea of ice”) at an altitude of 1913m (6276ft). From here, you can take in the north face of the Grandes Jorasses, an immense face of rock and ice.

Yet the most amazing sights are the dense, blue-colored ice caves of the glacier, through which you can walk to admire ice sculptures (the excursion is included in the price of the train ticket). The interactive Glaciorium , which recounts the glacier’s history, is another must-see. Grab a hot chocolate at Le Panoramique cafe before heading back down, or spend the night at the historic Refuge du Montenvers , with its stunning patio overlooking the Mer de Glace.

3. Marseille to Ventimiglia is the best train ride for dazzling sea views

Marseille to Ventimiglia; 187km (116 miles) 

Traveling from Marseille to Ventimiglia in southern France along the SNCF tracks might be a standard journey. The views, however, are anything but. You will be challenged to remain seated for much of the way, as stunning scenes of the azure-blue Mediterranean Sea slide by the train’s window, illustrating the allure of the South of France . Interspersed are glimpses of maquis-covered cliffs (maquis is the tantalizing blend of herbs that grow wild here), terracotta-colored villages, and palm-tree-bedecked hills. 

The stops along the way are fabled destinations unto themselves: legendary St-Tropez , made famous by then-unknown Brigitte Bardot; Cannes , with its star-studded legacy; Monaco , home of the Grimaldi royals; and Nice, with its intoxicating mix of world-class museums and legendary beaches. But there are lesser-traveled places as well, including gorgeous Èze Plage , with its medieval village perched impossibly high on a nearby peak, and down-to-earth Menton . Get out, explore, take in some sun – and catch the next train onward later.

The 50-minute stretch between Nice and Ventimiglia is perhaps the most stunning, as you glide past art deco villas, sparkling bays and pastel-colored towns marching up palm-tree-dotted hillsides. You end just at the Italian border, where you have the option of turning around and seeing it all over again.

4. Le Train des Pignes is a fabulous vintage train ride

Nice to Digne; 150km (93 miles) 

Behind the Mediterranean-lapped shores of Nice, the jagged gray peaks of the Mediterranean Alps beckon from afar. A ride aboard the “ Train of Pinecones ” chuffs from the glittery seaside up into those snowy mountains in just over three hours, providing stunning, ever-changing views along the way. From Provençal fields and olive groves, you’ll enter a land of deep river gorges and medieval fortresses.

Just 90 minutes from Nice,  Entrevaux  is a good stop to wander enchanting medieval streets and explore an ancient citadel. Digne-les-Bains , at the end of the line, is cute as can be, with cobblestone streets, bougainvillea-draped stone villas and shops purveying honey, lavender and other local products.

With its diesel railcars and gleaming varnished wood benches, this line is the only remnant of the meter-gauge Chemins de Fer de Provence that once crisscrossed southern France.

The pigne in its name means “pinecone”: perhaps because the train used to run so slowly that passengers could jump off to gather cones or because when the train ran short on fuel, the engineers resorted to burning them. Whatever the case, majestic pine forests surrounding the route add to its scenic allure. 

5. Orléans to Le Croisic on Interloire is the best train ride for cyclists

Orléans to Le Croisic; 338km (210 miles) 

The Loire Valley unfolds like a fairy tale, with a stunning array of Renaissance castles, green-emerald rivers and charming medieval villages. ( Azay-le-Rideau castle was, after all, the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty .) The Interloire railroad (run by the TER Centre-Val de Loire and TER Pays de la Loire ) traverses this legendary valley from Orléans , the hometown of Jeanne d’Arc, to the fishing harbor town of Le Croisic on the Atlantic.

Must-visit stops include Blois , crowned by the château once occupied by Louis XII; Amboise , Leonardo da Vinci’s final home; and Nantes , a historic Breton town with an evocative 15th-century château. 

Planning tip:  You can hop on and off the train with your bike to peddle parts of the 900km (559-mile) Loire à Vélo, a relatively flat bike path through this quintessentially French landscape. The train even has a car dedicated to bicycles in the summer. 

6. Eurostar through the Chunnel offers a quick escape to London

Paris to London; 451km (280 miles)  

If you fancy a quick getaway from Paris to London , perhaps to say hi to Big Ben or to wander through the V&A Museum , count on the Channel Tunnel. Completed in 1994, this extraordinary engineering feat – nicknamed the Chunnel – burrows deep beneath the expanse of water between France and England, allowing passengers in sleek, high-speed Eurostar trains to travel the channel portion of the trip – 51km (31.5 miles) – in just 30 minutes, with a full 38km (23.5 miles) of that underwater.

From Gare du Nord in the heart of Paris to St Pancras International in the heart of London, the entire trip takes just 2½ hours from door to door. Along the way, you’ll enjoy pretty French and English countryside – inside the tunnel itself, you shouldn’t count on seeing any sea life, only blackness until you emerge into the light of day.  

7. The Nîmes to Le Grau-du-Roi Line is the best Wild West train ride

Nîmes to Le Grau-du-Roi; 37km (23 miles)

Wild bulls in Provence? And cowboys? Mais oui . Tucked away in the southwestern corner of Provence, the marshy Camargue – a river delta south of Arles where the Grand and Petit Rhône meet the Mediterranean – reigns as France’s version of the Wild West. Gardians – Camarguais cowboys – live on manades (ranches), riding indigenous white horses with flowing manes as they round up wild black bulls.

Bullfighting is a big part of the culture here (unlike Spanish bullfights, the bulls here are not killed or injured). As are paella (though Camargue rice differs from its Spanish cousin), jazzy  manouche music and an independent spirit developed from working a challenging landscape for centuries. You can get to the heart of it all aboard the Nîmes to Le Grau-du-Roi train route. 

Departing from Nîmes , the single-track train rumbles through the vineyards of Costières de Nîmes before passing by Aigues-Mortes . Kings departed on their Crusades from this medieval walled city, where you can still stroll ancient streets. From there, you head across the salt marshes and lagoons; keep your eyes out for horses and bulls, as well as pink flamingoes flying overhead. The route ends in Le Grau-du-Roi , just steps from the Mediterranean Sea. 

8. Le Petit Train Jaune is the most famous vintage train ride

Villefranche-de-Conflent to Latour de Carol; 64km (40 miles) 

This historic little train – or, literally, the “ little yellow train ” – may be the most famous of them all in France. It’s certainly one of its most stunning when it comes to scenery. Chugging through the mountainous Pyrénées-Orientales from medieval Villefranche-de-Conflent to Latour de Carol on the Andorra border, it winds through gorges and shadowy forests, across viaducts, past two historic fortresses and by one perilously perched ancient monastery. The highest point is the Bolquère Eyne depot, a gasp-inducing 1593m (5225ft) high – making it France’s highest station.  

Note that two different types of trains operate this route: a modern enclosed train as well as the vintage train that sometimes runs with open carriages. No need to worry about which one to choose, though – both are painted yellow.

Tips for train travel in France

Train options in France

Several different types of trains travel across France, including local and regional trains, overnight trains with sleeping accommodations and the TGV , the high-speed Trains à Grande Vitesse. To travel between most big cities, the TGV is your best bet: these pioneering high-speed trains travel between 255km/h and 320km/h (160mph and 200mph) and will get you there within hours.

Paris to Bordeaux, for example, is 2½ hours, with Paris to Marseille a mere 3 hours 40 minutes. That said, the slower local and regional trains open up lesser-traveled regions of the country.  TGV inOui is a new premium TGV train service operated by SNCF on certain high-speed rail services.

Two classes of tickets are usually available to purchase: first ( première ), with plush, reclining seats and ample space; and second ( deuxième ), which is still comfortable but often more crowded. Maps of the French rail network are available on the SNCF website.

How to book a train in France

While you can buy a ticket at the station, either from a ticket window or a vending machine, it’s often cheaper to book your ticket online in advance. Contact Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SNCF ) or, from the United States,  Rail Europe . 

Cheap train tickets in France 

France offers various rail passes, including the France Pass, with unlimited travel on the national rail network; and the Eurail Global Pass, which includes train travel to neighboring countries. Deals for hotels, museums and other attractions are often included, too. You’ll find more information on the  Rail Europe website .

The TGV offers Prem’s tickets (their term for affordable tickets) three months in advance (the booking horizon may be extended in summer).

The Eurostar high-speed train service connecting the United Kingdom with France (and Belgium and the Netherlands) offers a limited batch of discount fares six months in advance. The sooner you book, the better chance you have of getting a good price.

Set up a booking alert to be notified when discount tickets are released. 

How to get from Italy to France by train

You can get from Italy to France via Italiarail. It takes about 11½ hours to travel from Rome to Paris. SNCF also serves the route. 

How to get from Spain to France by train

Spain’s train company is Renfe . It takes about 10½ hours to get from Madrid to Paris, a route also served by SNCF. 

How to get from Switzerland to France by train

The TGV runs from Geneva to Paris in a little over four hours. 

How to get from Germany to France by train

The Deutsche Bahn ’s InterCity Express (ICE) is Germany’s high-speed train service, allowing travel from Frankfurt to Paris in as little as four hours (as long as you don’t have to connect in Cologne). SNCF also serves the route. 

How to get from Poland to France by train

It takes between 14 hours and 19½ hours to cross much of Europe from France to Poland, and you typically need to make two changes along the way. Train companies serving this route include Deutsche Bahn, SNCF and Eurostar (the French–Belgian high-speed train operator, which will take you as far as Cologne).

This article was first published Aug 5, 2022 and updated Dec 25, 2023.

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The Man in Seat 61

A beginner's guide to

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Train travel in europe..., train travel in asia..., train travel in africa..., train travel in america..., train travel in australasia, paris to nice, lyon or bordeaux from €25.

The best way to travel between French town & cities is by train, in comfort at ground level.  France's world-famous TGV travels at up to 199 mph, from city centre to city centre, and if you pre-book direct with the operator you can find some really cheap fares, too.

International trains to/from France

Station guides, general train travel information, useful country information, how to check schedules & fares.

You can check train times & fares for any journey in France at the French Railways website www.sncf-connect.com , called voyages-sncf.com until 2017.  There's no booking fee and if booking 1st class on a TGV you can choose your seat from a seat map.  It can be a little fiddly and has occasionally been known to struggle with non-European credit cards, but normally anyone from any country can use it.

You can also use either www.raileurope.com (formerly Loco2.com, prices in €, £ or $) or www.thetrainline.com (formerly Captaintrain.com, in €, £ or $).  These are easy to use, in plain English, international cards no problem and they sell tickets for other European operators too, not just for French Railways.  Both sites charge a small booking fee.

Maps of the French rail network

How to buy train tickets, do you need to buy in advance.

TER regional, local & suburban trains, no .

This includes all TER (Trains Express Régionaux), Paris suburban trains and all other local trains.  For example, Lyon-Grenoble or Dijon-Lyon TERs, Cannes-Nice-Monte Carlo TERs, Paris to Versailles or CDG airport by RER.

Simply buy a ticket at the station ticket office or from the self-service machines, you may still need to validate it ( composter ) in the little machines on the platform (although this requirement is being phased out), hop on the next train and sit where you like.  Or buy one online, just to save time, online TER tickets don't need to be validated.

No reservation is necessary or even possible, the train can't sell out and the fare is fixed so there's usually no price advantage in pre-booking.  There are a few exceptions to this, read more about TER ticketing .

Intercités, probably .

A few shorter-distance Intercité trains don't have compulsory seat reservation, so they can never sell out, you can always buy a full-price ticket at the station and hop on, sitting wherever you like.  Routes include Nantes-Bordeaux, Nantes-Lyon, Toulouse-Hendaye, Béziers-Clermont.  But you can still save some money by booking a cheap train-specific non-refundable prems fare in advance, so it's worth checking online.

However, most Intercités such as Paris-Limoges-Brive-Toulouse, Paris-Vichy-Clermont, Bordeaux-Toulouse-Montpellier-Marseille and Intercités de nuit require compulsory reservation, just like the TGVs explained below.

TGV high-speed trains, yes .

TGV high-speed trains are all-reserved.  All tickets for these trains come with a seat reservation automatically included and the price varies like air fares, so pre-book for the cheapest prices.  In practice there are almost always places available on most trains even just before departure, the issue is price.  On the day of departure you'd have to pay the expensive full-flex fare, for example Paris-Nice €140, but if you pre-book you can buy a cheap Prems fare, Paris-Nice from €25 upwards.  So it pays to book ahead!  Booking now opens up to 4 months ahead .

Fares explained

SNCF simplified TGV & Intercité fares in 2019 and there's now just one type of fare in 2nd class, although they call the higher prices Seconde and the cheaper prices Prems , which is SNCF's long-established brand name for cheap fares.

So you'll now see only one 2nd class price against each train, in contrast to the flexible, inflexible and semi-flexible fares they used to have.  In 1st class there are two fare types, Première & Business Première.

Prices are dynamic like air fares, cheaper in advance, more expensive closer to departure, cheaper on quiet trains, days & dates, more expensive on popular trains, days & dates.  All tickets commit you to a specific train.

All 1st & 2nd class fares are now changeable & refundable, free of charge until 30 days before travel, then there's a €5 fee until 3 days before travel, then a €15 fee until 30 minutes before departure.  You have to pay any difference in fare.

From 30 minutes before the train departs, tickets can be changed up to two times for the same day and the same journey, but they become non-refundable once exchanged.  Tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable after departure.

Business première fares are totally flexible, changeable without any fee until 30 minutes after departure.  From 30 minutes before the train departs, tickets can be changed up to two times for the same day and the same journey, but they are non-refundable once exchanged.  These fares are expensive, aimed at business travellers as their name suggests.

Local and regional ( TER ) trains just have one fixed price fare, usually termed Tariff normal .  These tickets are valid for one journey on any train leaving until midnight on the day they're booked for or (in some cases) after you validate it in a little composter machine on the platform.  Sometimes there are cheaper tariffs at off-peak times, but that depends on the region.

How to buy tickets at the station

It's easy to buy tickets at the station even if you don't speak French.  For local journeys such as Paris-Versailles or Nice-Cannes, you just turn up, buy a ticket and hop on, no reservation necessary.  You can buy tickets from the multi-lingual self-service machines at main stations.  Just touch the UK flag for English.

For long-distance trains including all TGV , Intercités & Intercités de Nuit overnight trains, reservation is compulsory, but there are usually seats available even on the day of travel and you can buy a ticket immediately before the train departs.  But there are much cheaper fares if you pre-book.

In some cases you need to validate your tickets by putting them into the little yellow machines marked Compostez votre billet at the entrance to every platform - there's a fine if you don't!  Print-at-home tickets don't need to be validated, and SNCF are steadily phasing out the need to validate tickets.  You already don't need to in some regions.

How to buy train tickets online

Bookings open 4 months ahead for TGV & Intercités , 3-5 months for TER regional trains.

Over the summer, booking horizons get longer:  In 2024 sales opened on 24 January for travel until 22 May, on 7 March until 5 July, on 13 March until 11 September.

Google SNCF ticket sales opening to find the page on www.sncf-connect.com where they give current sales opening dates.

For Christmas & New Year horizons get shorter:  Dates after the mid-December timetable change usually open in mid-October.

Buy direct from SNCF at www.sncf-connect.com

This is French Railways' own website selling tickets in € with no booking fee .  You print your own ticket or can show it on your phone.

It's a little fiddly until you get used to it, it's almost as if they made it that way deliberately.  The language selector is out of sight towards the bottom of the page and their home page has just one mysterious all-purpose entry field which confuses a lot of people, instead of having from and to fields like a normal site.  However, I've set up all links to www.sncf-connect.com to go to a page in English with conventional from and to fields, at least I can help you with that!

A key advantage of www.sncf-connect.com is that when booking a 1st class ticket on a TGV or Intercité you can usually select your seat from a seat map.

Another key advantage is that it can sell all SNCF products including Billets Bambin (which gives infants under 4 their own reserved seat) and Espace Privatif (sole occupancy of a couchette compartment on French overnight trains).  It can sell tickets with the Carte Avantage discount applied (SNCF's discount card) and can sell tickets for Ouigo lo-cost trains as well as full-service TGV InOui.

The vast majority of tickets can be printed or shown on your phone.  In rare cases where www.sncf-connect.com only offers you a collect-at-station ticket you'll need a chip & PIN credit card to collect from the machines (without chip & PIN you'll need to use the busy staffed ticket counter) but if you buy at Raileurope.com or Thetrainline.com no credit card is necessary to collect tickets, just the booking reference.

www.sncf-connect.com normally works for anyone from any country, so give it a try.  In the past I've occasionally known it to reject some overseas credit cards, but if you have any problems you can simply switch to www.thetrainline.com .

Buy at www.thetrainline.com

Three young French entrepreneurs thought they could sell SNCF tickets better than SNCF themselves, and they were right.  They started a website called Capitainetrain which was later acquired by well-known UK ticket retailer The Trainline and absorbed into www.thetrainline.com .  It connects to SNCF's ticketing system and sells the same tickets at the same prices, with a small booking fee.  You can pay in €, £ or $.  Who are Thetrainline.com?

It's easier to use than www.sncf-connect.com , anyone of any nationality can buy tickets at www.thetrainline.com , international credit cards are welcome.  You print your ticket or show it on your phone.  They ask you to print in A4 size, but if you're American printing tickets on Letter size paper is absolutely fine.

Like sncf-connect, when booking a 1st class ticket on a TGV or Intercité you can usually select seats from a seat map, a big plus.

Thetrainline.com can sell Billets Bambin , Espace Privatif and tickets for Ouigo lo-cost trains , and can apply the Carte Avantage discount.

Buy at www.raileurope.com

Two young British entrepreneurs started Loco2.com, aiming to make buying train tickets easier.  Loco2 was acquired by SNCF in 2018, rebranded Raileurope.com in 2019 and sold on again in 2020.  It links to SNCF's ticketing system and sells the same tickets as SNCF at the same prices, with a small booking fee.  You can pay in €, £ or $.  Who are Raileurope.com?

It can sell Billets Bambin to give your infant under 4 their own reserved seat.

However, it can't sell tickets for Ouigo lo-cost trains or Espace Privatif on overnight trains, nor can it sell tickets with a Carte Avantage discount.  It offers a wide range of seating options including upper and lower deck on a TGV Duplex, but unlike SNCF-connect and Thetrainline it doesn't offer seat selection from a seat map.

It's easier to use than www.sncf-connect.com , international credit cards welcome.  You print your ticket or show it on your phone.  They ask you to print in A4 size, but if you're American printing tickets on Letter size paper is absolutely fine.

Which website should you use to buy French train tickets ?

Here's a summary of the features of each website, you can draw your own conclusions.  As far as price is concerned, all the sites below charge the same basic fare (give or take exchange rates).

Type = offers basic choice of aisle, window, table-for-four or (in 1st class) a table-for-two or solo seat. 

Deck = offers choice of upper or lower deck on a double-decker TGV Duplex, I recommend top deck for the best views.

Map = you can select your seat from a seat map when booking 1st class on a TGV nor Intercité.

Ouigo = Special lo-cost budget-airline-on-rails TGV trains branded Ouigo, see the Ouigo page for information .

FB = Billet Bambin , allows you to pay a few euros to reserve a seat for your infant aged 0-3, more information here .

EP = Espace Privatif , allows you to book sole occupancy of a 4-berth couchette on a French night train, more information here .

CA = Carte Avantage , can this website sell tickets if you have SNCF's Carte Avantage discount card?

* www.sncf-connect.com usually works with any credit card, very occasionally I receive an It's rejected my credit card email from overseas users such as Americans or Australians, but give it a go, with one of the other sites as a fall-back if it doesn't.

Buy train tickets by phone in the UK

If you live in the UK you can buy French train tickets by phone with a number of UK-based train travel specialists, see the list of agencies and phone numbers here .  But it's quicker and easier and cheaper to book online.

How to contact SNCF

You can call SNCF telesales & customer service on 00 33 184943635 , listen out for option 85 for English.  Lines open 08:00-20:00 French time, 7 days a week.

Back to top

SNCF's discount card : Carte Avantage

What is a carte avantage.

Carte Avantage is SNCF's discount card for leisure travel.  You buy it for a year and it gives discounts on travel.  It may justify the price even for one or two long trips, especially if you're booking close to your departure date when fares would normally be expensive.

Man in Seat 61's top tip

You can read the small print until you're blue in the face, but the only way you'll know for certain what benefit a Carte Avantage gives is by running an enquiry with and without a Carte Avantage added and seeing what effect the card has.

So before buying a Carte Avantage, run an enquiry for the specific journeys you plan to make, on the same days of the week, using either www.thetrainline.com or www.sncf-connect.com (a) without any Carte Avantage and (b) with a Carte Avantage discount added.

You can add a Carte Avantage reduction to the passenger details without entering a card number.  See what that does to prices.  If you see no difference, the discount may not apply to your particular route/train/day.  If you see a difference, do savings justify the cost of the card?

Types of Carte Avantage

Carte Avantage Adulte costs €49 at the time I write this and lasts one year, see details & buy online at sncf-connect.com .

It can be bought by anyone regardless of nationality or country of residence.

It gives 30% discount on French domestic TGV & Intercité journeys and 25%-50% on some TER regional trains if your journey is:

(a)  one-way on a Saturday or Sunday; or

(b)  a return journey on any day of the week which includes a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night away; or

(c)  one-way or return on any day of the week if accompanied by at least one child under 12.

One accompanying adult also gets the same discount - in other words, if there are 2 of you, you only need one Carte Avantage.

Up to 3 accompanying children under 12 years old get 60% off TGV & Intercité fares, and a varying amount off TER fares.

In addition, fares are capped if you have a Carte Avantage so they remain affordable even close to travel date where they'd otherwise be high.

The 30% discount also applies to some international journeys, notably the Paris-Luxembourg TGVs, Paris-Milan TGVs , Paris-Barcelona TGVs ; TGVs & ICEs between Paris & Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich; and TGV-Lyria between Paris & Switzerland.

However, there is no discount on Eurostar or Eurostar (formerly Thalys) , and no discount on TER trains in some French regions.

There is no discount on one-way journeys on weekdays (unless you're travelling with a child), or on some international journeys, so see my top tip above to check whether a Carte Avantage will work for your own specific journeys.

Carte Avantage Jeune is for anyone aged 12 but under 28 years old, see details & buy online .  This costs the same as the adult version, but the discounts apply one-way or round trip on any day of the week, without the weekend or accompanying child restriction.  However, there's no discount for a second adult.  You can buy wherever  you live and whatever your nationality.

Carte Avantage Senior for anyone over 60, see details & buy online .  This costs the same as the adult version, but the discounts apply one-way or round trip on any day of the week, without the weekend or accompanying child restriction.  However, there's no discount for a second adult.  You can buy wherever  you live and whatever your nationality.

How to buy a Carte Avantage

See details & buy online

The card is digital, you can either print it out and carry it as a .pdf document or load it into the SNCF-Connect app to show on your phone.  Either way, there's a QR code which conductors can scan.

In theory, you can upload a photo of yourself to make the card fully digital with no separate ID needed (your photo will appear on the conductor's device the moment he scans your ticket).  However, SNCF's photo upload system doesn't work and will repeatedly reject any photo you try to upload.  So don't waste your time on it, if you can't upload a photo (which you can't), you simply need to carry some alternative form of photo ID, such as a passport or driving licence.

How to buy tickets with Carte Avantage discount

As soon as you've bought your Carte Avantage, you can buy tickets with the relevant discount at either www.thetrainline.com (small booking fee) or www.sncf-connect.com (a little more fiddly, no fee).

When using www.thetrainline.com , don't click Add railcard as you'll only see UK railcards, first set up a journey with a French origin and/or destination, then click Add loyalty and railcards, then click SNCF - Discount cards .

You can also use your Carte Avantage if buying French train tickets at Omio.com .  Unfortunately, you can't use a Carte Avantage at www.raileurope.com .

What are French trains like ?

Trains à grande vitesse (tgv).

TGVs or Trains à Grande Vitesse are SNCF's premier high-speed trains.  They run on major routes covering most of France at up to 300 km/h (186 mph).  In fact, they run at up to 320 km/h (198 mph) on the new TGV-Est route from Paris to Reims, Strasbourg, Metz, Luxembourg & Basel, opened in 2007.  Smooth & quiet even at high speed, it's a very relaxing way to travel.  All but a handful of shorter-distance TGVs have a cafe-bar, and all have power outlets, free WiFi, toilets, wheelchair accessible spaces and luggage space.

Seat reservation is compulsory on TGV services, and all tickets come with a seat reservation automatically included.

SNCF's full-service TGVs are branded TGV InOui , to distinguish them from the no-frills lo-cost Ouigo trains .

See the TGV page for more photos, tips & information about travelling by TGV .

SNCF used to have a subsidiary company called iDTGV to run special cheap TGVs, but iDTGV was discontinued in December 2017.

Intercités is the name given to SNCF's remaining non-high-speed long-distance express trains.  They come in two varieties, Intercités with compulsory reservation and Intercités without compulsory reservation.

Intercités with compulsory reservation are mostly smart locomotive-hauled trains running at up to 125mph, many using stylish air-conditioned cars formerly branded Téoz like the ones shown below, although SNCF has ceased using the Téoz branding.  New electric units are slowly coming on stream for Intercité services to replace the locomotive-hauled cars.  All seats have access to power sockets.  Intercité routes include the Paris-Limoges-Brive-Toulouse (POLT) route and Nantes-Bordeaux-Toulouse-Perpignan-Marseille.  All tickets for these trains come with a seat reservation for a specific train automatically included.  See seating plan .

Intercités without compulsory reservation usually use similar locomotive-hauled coaches with a plainer interior.  There are only a few routes left now, Nantes-Bordeaux, Nantes-Lyon, Toulouse-Hendaye, Béziers-Clermont.  Most other routes in this category have now been handed over to the French regions and have become TER, notably Paris-Boulogne-Calais & Paris-Normandy.  As the name suggests, you don't need a reservation for these trains, you can just turn up, buy an open ticket which can never sell out, get on and sit where you like.  Seat reservation is an optional extra if you want it.  Although these trains don't need to be pre-booked, if you book in advance you can often find cheaper train-specific prems fares which save money over the on-the-day full-flex price.

All Intercités have plenty of room for luggage, toilets, and often some form of catering - either a trolley service or a cafe-bar.

Some routes formerly branded Intercité have become TER (for example, Paris-Amiens-Boulogne-Calais), whilst Paris-Normandy Intercités have been rebranded Train Nomad with modern unit trains replacing or about to replace the old locomotive-hauled carriages.

Tip: It's possible to pre-order drinks & snacks for delivery to your seat on most Intercités.  Go to www.sncf-connect.com/train/services-train/restauration-intercites (please let me know if that link stops working), order what you want (the cut-off seems to be just hours before departure), enter your train number, you car & seat number, your name & email, and pay.

Intercités de Nuit

SNCF's overnight sleeper trains are called Intercités de Nuit .  Taking an overnight train with couchettes can be great fun and the most time-effective way to travel, in effect faster than flying.  Sleep your way to the south of France in a comfy couchette, from Paris to Cannes, Nice, Narbonne, Perpignan, Toulouse, Rodez, Briancon or Latour de Carol for as little as €29 each way booked at www.raileurope.com or www.thetrainline.com .  You can book sole or dual occupancy of a couchette compartment as explained here .

For more information, photos & a video guide see the Intercités de Nuit page .

Trains Express Régionaux (TER )

Trains Express Régionaux (TER) come in all shapes and sizes, typical single-deck & double-deck TERs are shown below.  TERs are local regional trains, there are no seat reservations, you just sit where you like.  Some TERs are double-deck such as the Cannes-Nice-Monaco-Ventimiglia TERs and a few use locomotive-hauled mainline carriages including the Paris-Dijon-Lyon and Marseille-Nice TER trains.  All TER trains have space for luggage on various racks (or it simply sits on the floor) and many carry bikes too.  They generally have toilets.

TER ticketing :  TER trains have affordable fixed-price open tickets, so you may as well just buy at the station on the day - although you will now find some cheap train-specific tickets if you book a few days or weeks in advance and commit to a specific departure.  TER trains can never 'sell out' as Tarif normal tickets should always be available, but see the following paragraphs!

Can TERs sell out?   On 95% of TER routes there are no reservations, Tarif normal tickets are fixed-price with unlimited availability and can be used on any TER train that day.  But since the pandemic, SNCF sometimes plays a dirty trick, some TER departures can be shown as 'full' ( complet in French) on trains they think will be very busy.  This has often backfired, it makes it difficult for people to buy tickets and has lead to photos of half-empty 'complet' trains posted on social media!

The workaround :  It's simple!  Buy a full-price Tarif normal TER ticket for any TER train before or after the 'full' train on the same day, a Tarif normal ticket is good for any train that day, so you can use it on the train that was shown as Complet .  Simples.

TERs with compulsory reservation:   There are exceptions to every rule!  TERs on a few routes in Normandy have compulsory reservation, such as Paris-Caen-Cherbourg.  Some longer TER routes in the east (notably Paris-Strasbourg) will have them at some point in 2024.  These TERs can indeed sell out.

Travel tips

Maps of the French rail network:   See the maps section on the Train travel in Europe page .

Printing your ticket :  These days you'll often get a print-at-home ticket for a French train journey.  You should print it out full-size on normal A4 paper, but if you're American it's absolutely fine to print on US Letter Size paper which is very similar.

Collecting your ticket :  Some tickets can't be self-printed so need to be collected from the self-service ticket machines at any French station.  If you bought your tickets online at www.raileurope.com or www.thetrainline.com or any Rail Europe site, all you need is the booking reference and lead passenger name, you don't need the credit card you used.  However, if you bought online at www.sncf-connect.com (any version) you'll need to insert the original credit card, which will need to be chip n PIN for the machine to work.  If your credit card isn't chip n PIN and you bought from www.sncf-connect.com you'll need to collect from the staffed counter, rather than from the machines.  See photos showing how to collect tickets .

Ticket validation (compostage) :  Originally, all French train tickets had to be validated just before you boarded your train, by putting them into the small yellow machines marked Compostez votre billet at the entrance to each platform.  There was a fine if you didn't!   This process is being phased out and machines removed, it's already unnecessary for TER tickets in some regions of France, and unnecessary if you have a train-specific ticket for a TGV or Intercité.  And of course you can't validate an e-ticket on your phone!  But the need to validate still exists with some tickets in some regions, so be aware of it and if in doubt where there's a machine, validate your ticket.

Language problems :  First-time visitors often think this will be a problem, but it hardly ever is.  At stations, signs are usually in English as well as French, or easy-to-understand pictograms are used.

Food & drink on French trains :   Most long-distance trains have a cafe-bar, serving tea, coffee, wine, beer & snacks.  French domestic trains no longer have restaurant cars, though a few key Monday-Friday business services offer pre-bookable at-seat meals in first class.  However, feel free to bring your own food and drink (even a bottle of wine, if you like) onto the train, there's no rules against that on the rails!

A meal at the Gare de Lyon?   If you're passing through Paris via the Gare de Lyon, consider dining at the famous Train Bleu restaurant inside the station .  It was originally the Gare de Lyon's grand buffet, opened in 1903 and decorated in a sumptuous art nouveau style.  It's not the cheapest restaurant around, but the food is superb and the surroundings are perhaps the most spectacular you will ever eat a meal in.  It's an experience in itself, and well worth it!  The restaurant's website is www.le-train-bleu.com , just email them to book a table.  You can also use their bar section to wait for your train while you have a coffee or beer, far better than waiting for your train at one of the draughty cafe tables downstairs on the concourse!

Luggage on trains :  You don't check your bags in, you simply take them with you onto the train, placing them on the racks at the end of each car, or above your head.  More about luggage on trains .

Luggage limits:   Since February 2024 SNCF has had a more formal luggage policy for its TGV InOui trains which will be enforced from September:  There are no weight limits, but you must be able to carry it yourself in one go.  You can carry either 1 hand luggage + 2 suitcases or 1 hand luggage + 1 suitcase + 1 specific item.  Your hand luggage can measure up to 40 cm x 30 cm x 15 cm.  Your suitcase(s) can measure up to 90 cm x 70 cm x 50 cm.  Your specific item (musical instrument, pushchair, bike in cover, folded bike, scooter) can measure up to 130 cm x 90 cm.  Bikes, musical instruments, snowboards, and skis must be under a labelled cover.  You can travel with your pair of skis, without a maximum size, one pair per person.  If you exceed these limits there's a €50 fee, but it's not yet clear how tough staff will be.

Left luggage at stations :  Major French stations including Paris Gare du Nord, Paris Gare d'Austerlitz Est & Paris Gare de Lyon have left-luggage lockers in various sizes, up to suitcase-sized.  Expect to have your bags X-rayed before entry to the locker area.  More information on left luggage lockers including current prices .

Bicycles :  You can take a bike with you free of charge on suburban & regional trains.  On Intercités de Nuit overnight trains & TGVs on a few routes, you can take them for a small fee, about €10.  On other TGVs, you'll need to place you bike in a zip-up 'bike bag' & they then travel free.  For more information, see the bicycles by train page .

Dogs & pets:   Dogs can be taken on all French trains, sometimes free, sometimes for a small fee.  For more information, see the dogs & pets page .

Can I book a seat facing direction of travel?   Only on some routes, and then only if you book through the right website!  You can book a seat facing the direction of travel on a handful of TGV routes where the trains have been equipped with a special seat numbering system.  On these trains, each seat has two possible numbers and the relevant one lights up depending on the direction of the train.  Routes equipped with this system where you can choose a seat facing direction of travel include TGV-Atlantique Paris-Brittany, Paris-Bordeaux/Biarritz/Lourdes/Spanish border and most TGV-Est trains Paris-Reims-Nancy-Strasbourg, Paris-Luxembourg and also the Paris-Italy TGVs Paris-Turin-Milan.  Choosing a facing seat is not possible on TGV Duplex, or on routes such as Lille-Lyon-Avignon/Marseille/Bordeaux/Montpelier, Paris-Avignon-Marseille-Nice, Paris-Lyon, Paris-Nimes-Montpelier.  But if there are two of you and you choose dual face to face in 1st class, or a table for 4 ( family or facing ) in 2nd class, you'll know you always have at least one seat facing.  See this comparison table to see which websites can book a forward-facing seat where it is an option, and which sites can't.

Can I book a reserved seat for my baby or infant?   Infants under 4 go free on French trains, no ticket necessary, just buy tickets for yourself and bring your infant along without a ticket.  However, they don't get their own seat if they go free, so they'll have to sit on your lap.  You may want a seat for your baby carrier or wriggly 2 or 3 year old, I know I would!  No problem, on French domestic TGV and Intercité trains you can pay an extra flat €9 for a Billet Bambin and get a reserved seat for your infant next to yours, in either class.  You can only buy Billet Bambin at www.raileurope.com , www.thetrainline.com or at www.sncf-connect.com .  If you want a Billet Bambin, simply add a passenger with age 0-3 and it will be added automatically.

How to change trains & stations in Paris

Which station in paris .

The Gare du Nord serves trains to the north:  Lille, Amiens, Boulogne, Calais, Dunquerque, London, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Cologne.

The Gare de l'Est serves trains to the east:  Nancy, Strasbourg, Reims, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, sleepers to Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Moscow

The Gare de Lyon serves TGV trains to the south-east:  Lyon, Avignon, Marseille, Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo, Nîmes, Montpellier, Narbonne, Perpignan, Turin, Milan, Geneva, Bern, Lausanne, Basel, Zurich.

The Gare d'Austerlitz serves Téoz trains to Limoges, Toulouse, & overnight couchette trains to Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo, Toulouse, Perpignan, Narbonne, Lourdes, Biarritz, Madrid & Barcelona.

The Gare Montparnasse serves TGV trains to the southwest: Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes, Biarritz, Lourdes, Brest, Rennes.

The Gare St Lazare serves Dieppe and the immediate north.

The Gare de Bercy , a little known station down the road from the Gare de Lyon, now handles most trains to Clermont Ferrand.

Charles de Gaulle airport has its own station, served by TGV high-speed trains on the Paris by-pass line and by RER express metro trains into central Paris, see the section below .

Disneyland Paris is right next to Marne La Vallée station.  This is linked to central Paris by frequent turn-up-and-go RER express metro trains, just buy tickets at the station on the day.  Marne la Vallée is also served by mainline TGV high-speed trains on the Paris by-pass line, carrying trains from Brussels & Lille in the North to Lyon, Avignon, Marseille, Nimes & Montpellier in the south, for times & tickets use www.thetrainline.com .  For park information & tickets see www.disneylandparis.com .

Places not served by the main rail network

Mont St Michel has no station, the nearest station is Pontorson-Mont St Michel which is about 5 miles away.

Option 1, cheapest & easiest, but slower, total journey from Paris around 4h30:  Take a regional train from Paris Montparnasse to Pontorson-Mont St Michel then an integrated connecting bus to Mont St Michel.  You can book from Paris to Mont St Michel as one transaction at www.thetrainline.com or www.sncf-connect.com , you'll get a through ticket covering both the train and the connecting bus.  There aren't many departures per day, typically one morning service out and one late afternoon service back, allowing day or weekend trips from Paris.  If these don't suit you, buy a ticket to/from Pontorson-Mont St Michel station and use a taxi between the station and Mont St Michel. 

Tip:  When selecting your seating options on www.thetrainline.com , don't panic when it says 'no places available' against the bus (or in French 'car').  That just means there are no allocated seats, you can sit where you like.  It does not mean the bus is full!  And yes, it's a bus between Pontorson and Mont St Michel, not a train, whatever it looks like in the data.

Option 2, faster, total journey from Paris around 3h:  Take a high-speed TGV from Paris Montparnasse to Rennes in 1h30 then a connecting Keolis bus from Rennes to Mont St Michel in around 1h10.  From April to September there are 3 buses a day between Rennes & Mont St Michel in each direction, see keolis-armor.com .  Book a suitable train to/from Rennes at www.thetrainline.com or www.sncf-connect.com .  Buy the bus ticket at Rennes bus station, see keolis-armor.com for prices & more info.

Option 3, between May & September there's also a daily bus from St Malo to Mont St Michel, journey time 1h20, see keolis-armor.com for dates, times, prices & more info.  St Malo is linked by ferry to Portsmouth with www.brittany-ferries.co.uk and with Paris by train.

St Tropez:   Take a train to St Raphael.  Bus 876 links St Raphael bus station (next to the railway station) with St Tropez bus station every hour or so, journey time 1h25, fare around €3, check times and buy tickets using the Zou regional transport phone app at zou.maregionsud.fr .

The Nice-Digne railway is a private and very scenic line linking Nice (CFP station) with Digne.  Highly recommended, see www.trainprovence.com .

Corsica:   Corsica can easily be reached by comfortable ferry from a variety of ports in Southern France, including Marseille, Toulon or Nice.  The principal ferry operators are www.corsicalinea.com (formerly SNCM and Corsica Ferries ( www.corsicaferries.com ).  For train service on Corsica see cf-corse.corsica .

Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport station

For journeys between CDG Airport and central Paris, simply use the frequent RER express metro - RER Line B has stations at both Terminal 1 & Terminal 2.  RER trains run every 6 to 15 minutes, journey time into Paris around 50 minutes, fare around €10 valid to any RER or metro station in central Paris.  No reservation is necessary or possible for the RER, just buy a ticket at the station on the day.  For more info see http://easycdg.com .

Charles de Gaulle Airport also has its own TGV station , which is on the high-speed line that by-passes Paris.  It's served by TGVs to Lille & Brussels in the north and to Lyon, Avignon, Marseille, Perpignan, Cannes, Nice, Rennes, Nantes, Le Mans, Poitiers, Bordeaux, Toulouse to the south.  You can check TGV times & prices and buy tickets from CDG to destinations across France at either www.raileurope.com or www.thetrainline.com .

Remember that TGV tickets are only valid on the specific TGV you book.  Cheap tickets become worthless if your flight is late and you miss your train, so I recommend allowing at least 3 hours between your flight's scheduled landing time and any TGV leaving CDG station.

You'll find more frequent trains to these destinations from the relevant station in central Paris , often with greater availability of cheaper tickets, so if you don't see a convenient departure with an attractive price leaving direct from CDG, use www.raileurope.com or www.thetrainline.com to check train times & prices from central Paris to your destination, leaving Paris at least 4 hours after your flight lands, and simply hop on the RER express metro to the relevant central Paris station as explained above.

You can't reach every French destination from CDG TGV station - If you're bound for Normandy, Limoges, Brive, Cahors or Clermont Ferrand for example you'll have to take the RER into central Paris as explained above and then take a train from the relevant station in central Paris .

Railpasses for France

By all means check out the Interrail pass for France (for European residents, see the Interrail pass information page ) or Eurail passes for France (for non-Europeans, see the Eurail pass information page ).  However, passes have lost their convenience factor as all TGV, ex-Téoz Intercité de jour, & Intercités de Nuit overnight trains now require a seat reservation before boarding.  A €10 or €20 reservation fee needs to be paid on top of the pass price for each long-distance journey which must be factored into your budget - the €10 seat reservations have a limited quota, when it sells out the fee becomes €20.  For one or two specific journeys, you may find it easier just to book regular cheap advance-purchase tickets at www.raileurope.com or www.thetrainline.com .

Click the images to buy at Amazon.co.uk

Or buy in the usa from amazon.com.

Alternatively, you can download just the chapters or areas you need in .PDF format from the Lonely Planet Website , from around £2.99 or US$4.95 a chapter.

European Rail Timetable & maps

Rail Map Europe is the map I recommend, covering all of Europe from Portugal in the west to Moscow & Istanbul in the east, Finland in the north to Sicily & Athens in the south.  Scenic routes & high-speed lines are highlighted.  See an extract from the map .  Buy online at www.europeanrailtimetable.eu (shipping worldwide) or at www.amazon.co.uk (UK addresses).

Custom-made tours of France

Railbookers, railbookers.co.uk.

Railbookers are a train travel specialist who can put together a tour or short break for you as a package, including rail travel, hotels & transfers.  On their website you'll find a range of suggested tours & holidays which can be varied or customised to your own requirements.  And as you're booking a package, they'll take care of you if anything happens to one part of the itinerary such as a strike or delay.  They now have offices in the UK, USA & Australia.

Tailor Made Rail, tailormaderail.com

Tailor Made Rail can arrange tours of France by train based on your own requirements, they welcome complex itineraries.  As it's a package, they'll take care of you if anything happens on one part of the trip, for example, a national strike.  They're TTA-protected - like ATOL, but not only for agencies that sell air travel.

Call their dedicated seat61 phone line 020 3778 1461 and quote seat 61 when booking.  From outside the UK call +44 20 3778 1461.  Lines open 09:00-17:30 Monday-Friday.  Their website is www.tailormaderail.com/destinations/france .

Find hotels in Paris & France

Hotels near the gare du nord & other paris stations:.

If you need to stay over between trains, here are some suggestions that are both very close and get good reviews:

Hotels near the Gare du Nord with good reviews:  Libertel Gare du Nord Suede (5 min walk from Gare du Nord, 2-star), 25 Hours Terminus Nord (formerly the Mercure Terminus Nord, now refurbished in a decidedly funky style, 3-star, directly across the road from the station);  Art Hotel (3-star);  Avalon Hotel (2-star);  Hotel Cambrai (5 min walk from Gare du Nord, 1-star).

Hotels near the Gare de l'Est with good reviews:  Libertel Gare de l'Est Français (opposite the station, 3-star);  Libertel Gare du Nord Suede (350m from the Gare de l'Est, 2-star);  OKKO Hotels Paris Gare de l'Est (2-star).

Hotels near the Gare de Lyon with good reviews:  Citizen M Hotel (just along the road from the station, 4-star, great reviews), Hotel Terminus Lyon (right in front of the station, 3-star);  Mercure Paris Gare de Lyon (on the station itself, 4-star);   Novotel Paris Gare de Lyon (opposite the station, 4-star);  Mistral Hotel (800m from Gare de Lyon, 1-star);  Hotel 26 Faubourg (5 min walk from Gare de Lyon, 2-star);

Hotels near the Gare Montparnasse with good reviews:  Mercure Paris Gare Montparnasse (150m from the Gare Montparnasse, 4-star);  Best Western Sevres Montparnasse (15 minute walk to Gare Montparnasse, 3-star);  La Maison Montparnasse (10 min walk from station, 2-star);  Hotel du Maine (5 min walk from station, 2-star).

A special hotel for that romantic break in Paris

There's the famous & flashy Paris Ritz in the Place Vendôme of course (over €900 a night) or the similarly-priced Le Meurice , but if you want a really special hotel for a luxury break or romantic weekend and can afford to splurge around €280 a night, I'd recommend the small, sumptuous and intimate L'Hotel .  It's on the bohemian left bank, walking distance from the Seine, the Ile de la Cité & Notre Dame.  Oscar Wilde spent the last days of his life here in room 16, and the hotel has been used by many famous people from Sinatra to Mick Jagger.  Rooms are on the cosy side, but they are beautifully decorated and have character that other hotels lack.

Backpacker hostels: www.hostelworld.com

www.hostelworld.com :  If you're on a tight budget, don't forget about backpacker hostels.  Hostelworld offers online booking of cheap private rooms or dorm beds in backpacker hostels in Paris and most other European cities at rock-bottom prices.

Travel insurance & other tips

Always take out travel insurance.

You should take out travel insurance with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover from a reliable insurer.  It should cover trip cancellation and loss of cash & belongings up to a reasonable limit.  These days, check you're covered for covid-19-related issues, and use an insurer whose cover isn't invalidated by well-meant but excessive Foreign Office travel advice against non-essential travel. An annual policy is usually cheapest even for just 2 or 3 trips a year, I have an annual policy with Staysure.co.uk myself.  Don't expect travel insurance to bail you out of every missed connection, see the advice on missed connections here .  Here are some suggested insurers, I get a little commission if you buy through these links, feedback always welcome.

Get an eSIM with mobile data package

Don't rely on WiFi, download an eSIM with a European mobile data package and stay connected.  Most newer mobile phones can download a virtual SIM including iPhone 11 & later, see device compatibility list .  There's no need to buy a physical SIM card!  Maya.net is a reliable eSIM data retailer with a 4.5 out of 5 Trustpilot rating and a range of packages including unlimited data .

Get a Curve card for foreign travel

Most banks give you a poor exchange rate then add a foreign transaction fee on top.  A Curve MasterCard means no foreign transaction fees and gives you the mid-market exchange rate, at least up to a certain limit, £500 per month as I write this.  The money you spend on your Curve card goes straight onto one of your existing debit or credit cards.  And you can get a Curve card for free.

How it works:   1. Download the Curve app for iPhone or Android .  2. Enter your details & they'll send you a Curve MasterCard - they send to the UK and most European addresses.  3. Link your existing credit & debit cards to the app, you can link up to two cards with the free version of Curve, I link my normal debit card and my normal credit card.  4. Now use the Curve MasterCard to buy things online or in person or take cash from ATMs, exactly like a normal MasterCard. Curve does the currency conversion and puts the balance in your own currency onto whichever debit or credit card is currently selected in the Curve app.  You can even change your mind about which card it goes onto, within 14 days of the transaction.

I have a Curve Blue card myself, it means I can buy a coffee on a foreign station on a card without being stung by fees and lousy exchange rates, just by tapping the Curve card on their card reader.  The money goes through Curve to my normal debit card and is taken directly from my account (in fact I have the Curve card set up as payment card on Apple Pay on my iPhone, so can double-click my phone, let it do Face ID then tap the reader with the phone - even easier than getting a card out).  I get a little commission if you sign up to Curve, but I recommend it here because I think it's great.  See details, download the app and get a Curve card , they'll give you £5 cashback through that link.

Get a VPN for safe browsing.  Why you need a VPN

When travelling you may use free public WiFi which is often insecure.  A VPN encrypts your connection so it's always secure, even on unsecured WiFi.  It also means you can select the geographic location of the IP address you browse with, to get around geoblocking which a surprising number of websites apply.  See VPNs & why you need one explained .  ExpressVPN is a best buy with a 4.7 out of 5 Trustpilot ranking which I use myself - I've signed up as an ExpressVPN affiliate, and if you go with expressvpn.com using this link you should see a special deal, 3 months free with an annual subscription.  I also get some commission to help support this site.

Carry an Anker powerbank

Tickets, reservations, hotel bookings and Interrail or Eurail passes are often now held on your mobile phone.  You daren't let it run out of power, and you can't always rely on the phone's internal battery or on being near a power outlet.  I always carry an Anker powerbank which can recharge my phone several times over.  Buy from Amazon.co.uk or Buy from Amazon.com .

Touring cities?  Use hill walking shoes!

One of the best things I've done is swap my normal shoes for hill-walking shoes, in my case from Scarpa.  They're intended for hiking across the Pennines not wandering around Florence, but the support and cushioning for hiking works equally well when you're on your feet all day exploring foreign cities.  My feet used to give out first and limit my day, now the rest of me gives up before they do!

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An SNCF TGV high-speed train locomotive in Paris .

TGV Train Routes

Rail Timetables in France

Related Content

Helpful links:, the 16 things most worth knowing..., taking a tgv, taking an intercités service:, taking a ter service:, travelling with bicycles:, booking in advance online:, saving money:, buying tickets at the station:, seat reservations:, child tickets:, detailed train ticket guides:, by train to and from paris, journeys from paris, journeys from lyon, journeys from marseille, journeys from lille, a general note about the timetables:, the most scenic routes:, international rail routes from france:, good to know:, left luggage:, detailed info on the major stations, please support showmethejourney, other travel guides, related resources.

• Cities & Stations

• France by train

Welcome to the guide on how to save money, time and confusion when travelling in France by train.

Travelling on French trains can be an exhilarating experience, and once you’re used to the many quirks of national rail operator SNCF, it can be less complicated then it first seems.

These are the seventeen things that are particularly useful to know about French rail travel:

• The French national rail operator is SNCF and it manages virtually all train services in France.
• Most French cities are served by high speed rail lines on which trains travel at up to 300 km/h, but those which aren't include Caen, Clermont-Ferrand, Le Havre, Limoges and Rouen.
• On most of the high speed routes there is a choice between a regular InOui service , or a typically cheaper, but more basic Ouigo service - TGV trains are used for both.
• These TGV trains can travel beyond the high speed lines to serve cities that include Brest, Nice, Perpignan and Toulouse.
• Intercités are the long-distance express trains which don't use the high-speed lines and they primarily operate on these routes:
• Paris - Nevers - Vichy - Clermont-Ferrand
• Paris - Limoges - Toulouse
• Marseille - Nimes - Montpellier - Toulouse - Bordeaux
• Nantes - Bordeaux
• Nantes - Bourges - Lyon
• The timetables on long-distance French rail routes are typically irregular, aside from Paris ↔ Lille and Lyon, the express train routes don't typically have hourly departures.
• Discounted tickets also known as Prems tickets are available for travel by InOui and Intercités services.
• Seat reservations are complimentary and are therefore included when booking tickets for a journey by an express train - InOui, Intercités and Ouigo.
• It's not uncommon for all seats to be sold out on specific InOui services ahead of the day of departure, particularly when heading to holiday destinations - during July and August 2023 around 40% of InOui services were fully booked prior to departure.
• The local and regional trains are known as TER services , but if you book the cheapest type of ticket for last minute travel at a station, you can only travel by these trains and cannot board any of the express services .
• TER trains depart at least hourly on routes around Lyon, Nice, Metz and Lille, but gaps of two hours or more between departures are fairly common on other routes.
• All international daytime trains to and from Paris are high-speed services: Eurostar - to/from London, Amsterdam, Brussels and Cologne
• TGV and ICE - to/from Frankfurt and Stuttgart
• Lyria - to/from Basel, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich
• TGV and Frecce trains - to/from Milan and Turin
• TGV trains - to/from Barcelona.
• Nightjet trains now link Paris to Berlin and Vienna.
• Overnight trains , which don't convey sleeping cabins, connect Paris to destinations in southern France including Nice and Perpignan.
• At major French stations , the voie (platform / track) that each train will be leaving from will appear on the departure screens around twenty minutes prior to departure.
• The departure info shows where to wait for easy boarding into the coaches of the TGV and Intercités train in which reserved seats will be located.
• The centre of Paris is surrounded by multiple stations used by long-distances trains to / from different destinations.
• Est = trains to/from Colmar, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Metz, Nancy, Reims, Strasbourg and Stuttgart
• Lyon = trains to/from Antibes, Avignon, Basel, Barcelona, Cannes, Dijon, the French Alps, Geneva, Grenoble, Marseille, Montpellier, Mulhouse, Nice, Nimes, Valence and Zurich
• Montparnasse = trains to/from Biarritz, Bordeaux, Brest, La Rochelle, Le Mans, Nantes, Poitiers, Rennes and Toulouse
• Nord = trains to/from Amsterdam, Brussels, Calais, Cologne, Lille and London
• St Lazare = trains to/from Bayeux, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre and Rouen
• Transferring between the different stations in Paris can often be avoided by taking InOui and Ouigo services which use routes which circle around the capital and provide direct links, such as:
• Lille ↔ Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Rennes and Strasbourg.
• Nantes and Rennes ↔ Lyon, Marseille and Strasbourg
• Bordeaux ↔ Strasbourg.

Travelling on the trains:

SNCF is the national rail operator in France and it provides virtually all French train services, which are grouped into these five categories

(1) TGV InOui = standard (superior) TGV services, which use the high speed lines for all or most of their journeys.

(2) Ouigo - More basic lower cost TGV services, which provide an alternative to the TGV InOui services on the high speed lines.

(3) Intercités = Express train services which don't use the high speed lines. Cities which are only served by Intercités trains include Clermont-Ferrand and Limoges.

(4) TER services = The regional train services in France, but this encompasses a broad swathe of services including;

• trains that can spend more than two hours travelling between cities; and some of these routes can parallel the high speed lines;
• the local trains outside Paris.
• many of the services to and from Paris which until fairly recently were categorised as Intercités services, - these include the trains between Paris and Belfort, Boulogne, Cherbourg and Le Havre. How tickets can be purchased and used on these TER services from/to Paris can differ from the norm.

(5) Transilien services = the longer distance 'commuter' trains to/from Paris. (The RER trains which travel across central Paris are co-operated between SNCF and RATP, which also operates the Paris Metro).

All on board announcements on domestic trains are French language only. The conductors may not speak English on IC and TER trains, particularly those that don’t serve Paris.

The modernised trains used for many 'InOui' services offer enhanced Wi-fi, but if you will be travelling on other TGV trains, the connectivity can be patchy and is only theoretically available on the high speed lines. Few other train services have Wi-Fi, it's not available on the Ougio or Intercités services.

There are four* different types of regular TGV train , which travel on the TGV InOui routes.

You can check which of these TGV trains will be used on a departure you will be taking by following these simple steps .

*Technically there are more than 4 types of TGV train, but we have focused on the four trains, that will have obvious differences in the on-board experience.

The Ouigo Services:

However, on most the high-speed routes, travellers now have a choice between travelling on standard TGV InOui service, OR on low-cost, more basic TGV services, which are branded ' Ouigo '.

In contrast to TGV InOui services, the Ouigo services:

• are 2nd class only,
• have no catering facilities available
• have no Wi-Fi etc,
• don't permit bikes on board,
• require pre-booking for pushchairs/strollers,
• have a less generous luggage allowance
• have a different boarding procedure
• have tickets that that can be booked up to 6 months ahead, but can't be refunded.

Previously most Ouigo services had used alternative stations away from the city centres, some still do so, but new Ouigo routes now offer a like-for-like comparison with TGV InOui services. Particularly because many Ouigo services now depart from stations in central Paris.

Away from the LGVs (high speed lines):

TGV InOui trains can travel long distances away from the high speed lines. But on these non-high speed routes, travelling by InOui services can* be more expensive than taking alternative Intercités or TER services.

* Tickets for the TGVs will be more expensive if you book last minute at the station, but will usually be cheaper if you book in advance.

The most popular routes on which the InOui trains don't travel at high speed are:

• Bordeaux ↔ Toulouse
• Marseille ↔ Nice
• Bordeaux ↔ Biarritz/Hendaye/Lourdes
• Rennes ↔ Quimper/Brest

Somewhat confusingly there are two distinct types of non-high speed express train services, which are both branded 'Intercités'.

(1) Longer distance trains which are the top-tier services on long distance routes that have no, or very limited, TGV services. We have used the Intercités branding on ShowMeTheJourney for these train services, because they have specific ticketing terms and conditions, including the fact that seat reservations are compulsory (so are included when booking tickets).

(2) Other cross-country express train services. ShowMeTheJourney has classified these services as ' IC France ' - due to the differences in ticketing terms with the other Intercités trains.

TER train services are the regional trains in France, they can vary between local stopping trains in cities or rural areas - and faster services, which cross multiple regions.

The four key things worth knowing about TER services are:

• Seats can't be reserved.
• On routes which don't serve Paris, tickets aren't discounted, so you will pay the same price if you book last minute at the station; so if you'll be making a journey by most TER trains there's no need to book online.
• Though discounted tickets are offered on the longer-distance TER services between Paris and destinations to the north now branded as 'Krono' services; these are the routes on which Intercités services have been replaced by TER services in recent years.
• No on-board catering services will be provided.
• A wide variety of trains are used for TER services, you could be travelling on a brand new train, or a train that still conveys its sense of 1970s style.

The usual travel ‘rules’ in France for folding bikes, bagged and placed on the floor by your seat, can also apply to standard bikes IF you can fit your bike in a bag measuring 120cm X 90cm max, by removing its front wheel and then by placing it and the rest of the bike in the bag.

If you CAN'T meet those requirements, the rules for taking a non-folding bike on a train vary according to both the type of travelling you will by AND in which region you will be travelling; though it is now much more likely than not that you will be able to travel on French trains if you don't disassemble your bicycle.

What is particularly useful is that the recently launched national train ticket / travel ticket service, SNCF Connect , has incorporated the ability to add a wish to travel with a non-folding bicycle, into its journey search service. So without buying a ticket, you can look up a journey and check which departures you can take a non-folding bike on board.

The ticket prices you will see for journeys by TGV and Intercités trains will include both your travel AND the bike’s; general info about booking French train tickets is available here .

Taking bikes on express trains in France:

You can take a non-folding bicycle on board Intercités trains for a flat fee of €5 regardless of the distance you will be travelling; and this price has recently been reduced by 50%.

For journeys by TGV, a recent changes is that a flat-rate reservation fee of €10 now covers journeys by any TGV InOui service, including the previously excluded double-deck TGV Duplex trains.

If you will be travelling by an Intercités, TGV Atlantique, TGV Duplex or TGV POS train, you usually have to interact with the train conductor, so when you’re at the station it’s worth checking what you’ll need to do. Particularly if you won’t be joining a train at its starting point, so will have limited time on the voie (platform/track) to work out what the procedure is, when the train arrives.

However, the new TGV Oceane trains have been fitted with bike racks, so when you book a bike ticket on these trains, you will be reserving a space on the rack.

What’s also worth knowing is that you can’t book Premiére/1st class tickets for journeys by TGV or Intercités if you want to travel with a bike; presumably because the bike storage on these trains isn’t adjacent to the Premiére Class seating areas.

Taking a bike on regional trains in France:

In France the regional trains are the TER trains and most local train services outside of the Paris area are also classified as TER services.

You won’t need to purchase bike tickets for journeys by TER trains, but each region in France co-manages its TER trains with the national rail operator SNCF and the region can set certain stipulations, such as bikes not being allowed on trains at all at busy times. Though what is universal is that when dedicated bike spaces are provided, they will be the only places on the train in which bikes can be stored and they're allocated on a first come, first served basis. Meaning that you can't absolutely guarantee that space will be available for your bike(s); and many TER routes, particularly in rural areas, have gaps of two hours or more between departures.

Specific info is available by clicking the names of the regions on this list, though you'll need to use a translation facility if you can't read French - Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes ; Bourgogne-Franche-Comte ; Bretagne (Brittany); Centre val de Loire (the popularity of exploring the Loire Valley by bike has led to the creation of a special Train Velo Loire service , which can accommodate up to 83 bikes); Grand Est ; Hauts De France ; Normandy ; Nouvelle Aquitaine ; Occitaine ; Pays de Loire and Provence-Alps-Cote d’Azur .

You can also take a bike on board a Transillien train , the longer-distance commuter routes to/from Paris EXCEPT when travelling on Monday to Friday between 6:30 - 9:30 and 16:30 - 19:30.

Notes on the ticketing:

On your ticket ‘voiture = the coach/carriage number, ‘Place Assise’ = the seat number.

Also have your passport (or another form of ID) with you on any journey including domestic journeys solely within France. You need ID with you for ANY ticket to be valid.

The earlier you can book journeys by Intercités and TGV InOui trains, the more money you can save. That's because only limited numbers of the most heavily discounted tickets are made available on most routes taken by TGV and Intercités trains, but not by TER services. Though on some routes by TER trains to and from Paris specific types of discounted tickets are available, but the saving is typically less than €10. As the limited numbers of discounted tickets at the cheaper prices, inevitably sell out faster, the earlier you can book, the more likely it is that you will save money.

Tickets for journeys by Intercités and TGV InOui trains are now generally placed on sale 6 months (180 days) ahead of the travel date; this a relatively new extension of the advance booking period, which used to be 4 months. In contrast tickets for Ouigo services are now typically available up to 9 months ahead!

If you look up journeys MORE than 6 months ahead on SNCF Connect, on routes shared by TGV InOui and Ouigo services, you will usually only see the Ouigo departures listed; so in these circumstances, don't assume that travelling by a Ouigo service will be your only journey option. SNCF will alert you to the fact that additional tickets will become avaialable.

Looking up journeys for travel after the second Sunday in December

The booking period can be shorter when looking up journeys which involve travelling after the second Sunday in each December. The nationwide and international train timetables / schedules have a major annual update, which takes effect from the second Sunday in December. However, tickets can't be placed on sale until the new timetable is confirmed and this confirmation tends to occur around mid-October, there isn't a set date for this. So if you will be be looking up a journey for travel after the second Sunday in December and can't find any tickets on the route you want to take, it will be because the tickets haven't yet been made available.

Introducing SNCF Connect:

SNCF Connect is the new website for French rail tickets, hence ShowMeTheJourney's guide to what to look out for when making a booking .

Though some less obvious key features when booking on SNCF Connect, which are also different to the norm when booking European train tickets, are:

• For any journey in 2nd class on most French trains (Ouigo services are the exception) it isn't possible to choose between different types of ticket at the time of booking, only one type of ticket will be offered.
• It isn't possible to separate direct trains from journeys which involve connections.
• Journeys which involve more than two connections between trains (excluding transferring between stations in Paris) aren't available.

Aside from booking in advance for journeys by Intercités and TGV InOui trains, other money saving tips are:

• Ticket prices can be dependent on how popular a specific departure is likely to be, so different Intercites and InOui trains leaving the same day can be (much) cheaper than others.
• If you can book ahead, it's possible that tickets for the TGV InOui trains and Intercités may be cheaper than taking the TER trains, so you can have the option of getting to your destination faster AND saving money. TER train tickets can cost more than you might expect.

And if Ouigo trains are an alternative to the TGV InOui trains when making a high speed journey, you'll save money by taking a Ouigo.

If you will be travelling by local or TER trains, tickets will cost the same price if you buy them last minute at the station (some TER routes to/from Paris are now an exception). However, when you buy a ticket(s) at the station it will be train service specific, meaning that if you buy a ticket that is valid for a journey by TER train services, you cannot then use on Intercités or TGV InOui trains.

All tickets* must be stamped at on the small yellow machines prior to boarding a train. Normally these can be found at the entrance to a voie/track/platform. *Tickets = tickets printed out by ticket machines or issued at ticket counters.

Reservations are compulsory for all journeys by TGV InOui trains, irrespective of whether the journey is on a high speed line, AND on some (but not all) Intercités trains. The reservation will automatically be included, when booking tickets for journeys by these trains online; this also the case when booking tickets for Ouigo journeys

If you are booking 2nd class tickets for TGV InOui services you can choose the part of the train you would prefer to travel in. However when booking 1st class tickets, you can also select specific seats from a seating plan; the more expensive of the two types of Ouigo tickets also enables the selection of specific seats.

Reservations are also mandatory on virtually all express trains to and from France including:

• on Eurostar,
• RENFE/SNCF,
• TGV France/Italy services
• the TGV trains between France and Belgium The reservation will automatically be included when booking tickets for journeys by these trains.

Children aged under 4 travel for free. Children aged 4-11 pay half fare on all trains EXCEPT for Ouigo services, on which they travel at a flat rate of €5. The adult rate is charged for all travellers aged 12 and over.

There is no main central station in Paris instead the city is ringed by seven terminals.

Train services between Paris and destinations to the north depart from and arrive at the Gare Du Nord , while those between Paris and the south-east France use the Gare De Lyon . The two stations are linked by frequent RER (commuter) trains.

However there are direct TGVs between Lille and many destinations served by trains to/from the Gare De Lyon, including Avignon, Lyon, Marseille and Montpellier.

The journey guides include access to booking links and information about the trains, tickets and destination stations. Plus for the scenic routes there are insights on how to make the most of the rides on the trains.

Search for a journey:

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French train timetables are often irregular, many specific train services/departures only operate on certain days of the week.

Also few train services operate at regular intervals; timetables on which trains leave at the same minutes passed every hour are comparatively usual in France. Though what's becoming more common is that the same departure and arrival times are used on each day, but the train services can be travelling to and from different final destinations on different days of the week. Meaning that the shorter the distance you will be travelling, the more likely it is that you will able to take trains leaving at regular intervals.

On TGV InOui routes the service can vary from a train every 30 mins at peak times, to gaps of two hours or more between trains in the middle of the day.

The longer distance regional TER trains also tend to operate to very sporadic timetables. 1 x train per hour is the exception rather than the norm; on many TER routes there can be gaps of 3-4 hours between trains.

The most stunning journeys taken by long-distance trains are:

• Nimes <> Clermont Ferrand
• Marseille <> Toulon - Les Arcs > Nice
• Chambery <> Bourg St Maurice
• Beziers <> Clermont Ferrand
• Grenoble > Veynes > Marseille
• Chambery <> Modane
• Geneve <> Aix-les-Bains
• Geneve <> Bourg-en-Bresse
• Besancon <> Belfort (not the high speed line)

Other beautiful journeys by local and regional trains include:

• Toulouse <> La Tour de Carol
• Marseille <> Sausset-Les-Pins (the Cote Bleu route)
• Vallorcine > Chamonix - St Gervais
• Perpignan <> La Tour De Carol (not SNCF)
• Nice <> Cuneo
• Nice <> Digne (not SNCF)
• Nice <> Ventimglia
• Gap <> Briancon
• Perpignan <> Cerbere

Short videos showcasing some of these journeys have been uploaded to the ShowMeTheJourney channel on YouTube .

Notes on using the major stations:

Most of the main stations in French cities are very evocative of how they were originally constructed back in the 19th century. So they can be beautiful locations in which to wait for and board a train, but they weren't built to accommodate 21st century travel requirements.

As a result the access to and from the trains at some non-terminal stations can be comparatively awkward, because at this type of station, a passage beneath the tracks can be the only means of accessing many of the voies (platforms/tracks) which the trains depart from and arrive at. And these passage ways are often not equipped with escalators or lifts (elevators); if they are provided at all, their use is restricted to travellers who require mobility assistance. Meaning that staircasess can be the only means of transferring to and from the trains, at some or most of the platforms/tracks at many stations including Bordeaux St Jean, Dijon-Ville and Toulouse Matabiau.

More info, including how to find your way to your train, is available on the guide to using French train stations .

Eight things that are particularly good to know when using any major station in France.

1 . 'Voie' = the platform/track.

2 . The voie (platform/track) that an express train will depart from is divided into zones, a repére = a zone.

3 . Letters and not numbers are used for each repére (zone), but at some major stations the voies (platforms/tracks) also have letters in place of numbers.

4 . If you be will taking an Intercités or TGV service, for easy boarding when you are on the voie (platform/track) that your train will be leaving from, you can use the info screens to check which specific repére (zone) each 'voiture' (coach) will occupy. This repére (zone) information is only usually available when you are on the voie (platform/track).

5 . The number or letter of the specific voie (platform/track) that a train will be departing from will not usually be confirmed until 20 minutes before the departure time It may only be confirmed only 5 minutes in advance. As a result the concourses at major stations can become crowded.

6 . Because the voie (platform/track) is only confirmed so soon before departure, few major stations have departure sheets/posters. If, for example, you want to check the return timings of a TER train, a good option is to pick up a pocket timetable for the route you will be taking, from a ticket office or 'Accueil' information desk.

7 . However, not all 'Accueil' information desk staff will speak English.

8 . All tickets* must be stamped at on the small yellow machines prior to boarding a train. Normally these can be found at the entrance to a voie/track/platform. *Tickets = tickets printed out by ticket machines or issued at ticket counters.

French stations have staffed luggage offices, you need to process your bags and then having done so, you take them to a locker. Therefore pay attention to the opening times when you drop off your luggage, you can only return and retrieve it at designated hours.

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Train strikes in May 2024: Full list of dates and lines affected this week

Rail lines are set for disruption in the week following the first May bank holiday as train drivers at 16 rail companies strike on different days.

Tuesday 7 May 2024 16:00, UK

Train drivers will stage a fresh wave of strikes and overtime bans this week, causing disruption to the rail network.

The strikes are part of a long-running dispute over pay.

Members of Aslef union at 16 rail companies will walk out on different days from 7 to 9 May.

Additionally, all members will refuse to work any overtime from 6 May to 11 May.

Here is a full list of the services affected by strikes and when.

Rail strike dates

Tuesday 7 May

Strikes will affect c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express and South Western Railway.

Wednesday 8 May

Strikes will affect Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern Railway, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway and West Midlands Trains.

Thursday 9 May

Strikes will affect LNER, Northern Trains and TransPennine Express.

Overtime ban dates

From Monday 6 May to Saturday 11 May union members will not work overtime.

Overtime bans, an action short of a strike, means some services may not be running or may be reduced as drivers refuse to work their rest days.

People are advised to check before they travel, as some areas may have no service.

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

How do strikes and overtime bans affect services?

Strikes tend to mean services on lines where members are participating are extremely affected or cancelled entirely, whereas overtime bans often lead to reduced services.

Are there strikes on the Tube too?

There have been regular strikes on London Underground too recently, and while there aren't any planned walkouts for drivers, customer service managers refused to work overtime between 29 April and 5 May.

This action followed strike action taken by the same workers on 10 April, which the TSSA union said had a "real impact" with "many stations shut at short notice" - something TfL denies, saying instead that the action "closed a handful of stations", with most closures "not lasting the whole day".

The TSSA says it is "extremely concerned" about TfL's 'Stations Changes' proposals.

"We have made it clear that our union will not accept the continued threats to our members' roles, locations, terms, and conditions to stand unchallenged," a TSSA spokesperson said.

"We will continue to take sustained action until London Underground is prepared to negotiate with us in good faith."

A TfL spokesperson responded: "We are disappointed that TSSA is continuing with this dispute following a consultation process. While the action did not cause significant disruption, we urge TSSA to continue to work with us to help find a resolution. There are no planned job losses as part of these vital changes which will improve the service we provide to customers at our stations."

How can I stay in the loop?

You can use the National Rail's journey planner to see when trains are running.

Be sure to check it close to when you plan to travel, as it will be updated regularly.

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

Why are the strikes still happening?

Aslef rejected a two-year offer of 4% in 2022 and another 4% this year, saying it is way below inflation, and is linked to changes in terms and conditions.

Aslef said train drivers have not had an increase in salary for five years, since their last pay deals expired in 2019.

The union said after its members voted overwhelmingly in February to continue taking industrial action, it asked the train operating companies to hold talks.

General secretary Mick Whelan said the year-old pay offer of 4% and another 4% was "dead in the water".

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A Plan to Remake the Middle East

While talks for a cease-fire between israel and hamas continue, another set of negotiations is happening behind the scenes..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[MUSIC CONTINUES]

Today, if and when Israel and Hamas reach a deal for a ceasefire fire, the United States will immediately turn to a different set of negotiations over a grand diplomatic bargain that it believes could rebuild Gaza and remake the Middle East. My colleague Michael Crowley has been reporting on that plan and explains why those involved in it believe they have so little time left to get it done.

It’s Wednesday, May 8.

Michael, I want to start with what feels like a pretty dizzying set of developments in this conflict over the past few days. Just walk us through them?

Well, over the weekend, there was an intense round of negotiations in an effort, backed by the United States, to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

The latest ceasefire proposal would reportedly see as many as 33 Israeli hostages released in exchange for potentially hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

US officials were very eager to get this deal.

Pressure for a ceasefire has been building ahead of a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah.

Because Israel has been threatening a military offensive in the Southern Palestinian city of Rafah, where a huge number of people are crowded.

Fleeing the violence to the North. And now they’re packed into Rafah. Exposed and vulnerable, they need to be protected.

And the US says it would be a humanitarian catastrophe on top of the emergency that’s already underway.

Breaking news this hour — very important breaking news. An official Hamas source has told The BBC that it does accept a proposal for a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

And for a few hours on Monday, it looked like there might have been a major breakthrough when Hamas put out a statement saying that it had accepted a negotiating proposal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the ceasefire proposal does not meet his country’s requirements. But Netanyahu says he will send a delegation of mediators to continue those talks. Now, the terms —

But those hopes were dashed pretty quickly when the Israelis took a look at what Hamas was saying and said that it was not a proposal that they had agreed to. It had been modified.

And overnight —

Israeli troops stormed into Rafah. Video showing tanks crashing over a sign at the entrance of the city.

— the Israelis launched a partial invasion of Rafah.

It says Hamas used the area to launch a deadly attack on Israeli troops over the weekend.

And they have now secured a border crossing at the Southern end of Gaza and are conducting targeted strikes. This is not yet the full scale invasion that President Biden has adamantly warned Israel against undertaking, but it is an escalation by Israel.

So while all that drama might suggest that these talks are in big trouble, these talks are very much still alive and ongoing and there is still a possibility of a ceasefire deal.

And the reason that’s so important is not just to stop the fighting in Gaza and relieve the suffering there, but a ceasefire also opens the door to a grand diplomatic bargain, one that involves Israel and its Arab neighbors and the Palestinians, and would have very far-reaching implications.

And what is that grand bargain. Describe what you’re talking about?

Well, it’s incredibly ambitious. It would reshape Israel’s relationship with its Arab neighbors, principally Saudi Arabia. But it’s important to understand that this is a vision that has actually been around since well before October 7. This was a diplomatic project that President Biden had been investing in and negotiating actually in a very real and tangible way long before the Hamas attacks and the Gaza war.

And President Biden was looking to build on something that President Trump had done, which was a series of agreements that the Trump administration struck in which Israel and some of its Arab neighbors agreed to have normal diplomatic relations for the first time.

Right, they’re called the Abraham Accords.

That’s right. And, you know, Biden doesn’t like a lot of things, most things that Trump did. But he actually likes this, because the idea is that they contribute to stability and economic integration in the Middle East, the US likes Israel having friends and likes having a tight-knit alliance against Iran.

President Biden agrees with the Saudis and with the Israelis, that Iran is really the top threat to everybody here. So, how can you build on this? How can you expand it? Well, the next and biggest step would be normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

And the Saudis have made clear that they want to do this and that they’re ready to do this. They weren’t ready to do it in the Trump years. But Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, has made clear he wants to do it now.

So this kind of triangular deal began to take shape before October 7, in which the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia would enter this three way agreement in which everyone would get something that they wanted.

And just walk through what each side gets in this pre-October 7th version of these negotiations?

So for Israel, you get normalized ties with its most important Arab neighbor and really the country that sets the tone for the whole Muslim world, which is Saudi Arabia of course. It makes Israel feel safer and more secure. Again, it helps to build this alliance against Iran, which Israel considers its greatest threat, and it comes with benefits like economic ties and travel and tourism. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been very open, at least before October 7th, that this was his highest diplomatic and foreign policy priority.

For the Saudis, the rationale is similar when it comes to Israel. They think that it will bring stability. They like having a more explicitly close ally against Iran. There are economic and cultural benefits. Saudi Arabia is opening itself up in general, encouraging more tourism.

But I think that what’s most important to the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is what he can get from the United States. And what he has been asking for are a couple of essential things. One is a security agreement whose details have always been a little bit vague, but I think essentially come down to reliable arms supplies from the United States that are not going to be cut off or paused on a whim, as he felt happened when President Biden stopped arms deliveries in 2021 because of how Saudi was conducting its war in Yemen. The Saudis were furious about that.

Saudi Arabia also wants to start a domestic nuclear power program. They are planning for a very long-term future, possibly a post-oil future. And they need help getting a nuclear program off the ground.

And they want that from the US?

And they want that from the US.

Now, those are big asks from the us. But from the perspective of President Biden, there are some really enticing things about this possible agreement. One is that it will hopefully produce more stability in the region. Again, the US likes having a tight-knit alliance against Iran.

The US also wants to have a strong relationship with Saudi Arabia. You know, despite the anger at Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, the Biden administration recognizes that given the Saudis control over global oil production and their strategic importance in the Middle East, they need to have a good relationship with them. And the administration has been worried about the influence of China in the region and with the Saudis in particular.

So this is an opportunity for the US to draw the Saudis closer. Whatever our moral qualms might be about bin Salman and the Saudi government, this is an opportunity to bring the Saudis closer, which is something the Biden administration sees as a strategic benefit.

All three of these countries — big, disparate countries that normally don’t see eye-to-eye, this was a win-win-win on a military, economic, and strategic front.

That’s right. But there was one important actor in the region that did not see itself as winning, and that was the Palestinians.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

First, it’s important to understand that the Palestinians have always expected that the Arab countries in the Middle East would insist that Israel recognize a Palestinian state before those countries were willing to essentially make total peace and have normal relations with Israel.

So when the Abraham Accords happened in the Trump administration, the Palestinians felt like they’d been thrown under the bus because the Abraham Accords gave them virtually nothing. But the Palestinians did still hold out hope that Saudi Arabia would be their savior. And for years, Saudi Arabia has said that Israel must give the Palestinians a state if there’s going to be a normal relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Now the Palestinians see the Saudis in discussions with the US and Israel about a normalization agreement, and there appears to be very little on offer for the Palestinians. And they are feeling like they’re going to be left out in the cold here.

Right. And in the minds of the Palestinians, having already been essentially sold out by all their other Arab neighbors, the prospect that Saudi Arabia, of all countries, the most important Muslim Arab country in the region, would sell them out, had to be extremely painful.

It was a nightmare scenario for them. And in the minds of many analysts and US officials, this was a factor, one of many, in Hamas’s decision to stage the October 7th attacks.

Hamas, like other Palestinian leaders, was seeing the prospect that the Middle East was moving on and essentially, in their view, giving up on the Palestinian cause, and that Israel would be able to have friendly, normal relations with Arab countries around the region, and that it could continue with hardline policies toward the Palestinians and a refusal, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said publicly, to accept a Palestinian state.

Right. So Michael, once Hamas carries out the October 7th attacks in an effort to destroy a status quo that it thinks is leaving them less and less relevant, more and more hopeless, including potentially this prospect that Saudi Arabia is going to normalize relations with Israel, what happens to these pre-October 7th negotiations between the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel?

Well, I think there was a snap assumption that these talks were dead and buried. That they couldn’t possibly survive a cataclysm like this.

But then something surprising happened. It became clear that all the parties were still determined to pull-off the normalization.

And most surprisingly of all, perhaps, was the continued eagerness of Saudi Arabia, which publicly was professing outrage over the Israeli response to the Hamas attacks, but privately was still very much engaged in these conversations and trying to move them forward.

And in fact, what has happened is that the scope of this effort has grown substantially. October 7th didn’t kill these talks. It actually made them bigger, more complicated, and some people would argue, more important than ever.

We’ll be right back.

Michael, walk us through what exactly happens to these three-way negotiations after October 7th that ends up making them, as you just said, more complicated and more important than ever?

Well, it’s more important than ever because of the incredible need in Gaza. And it’s going to take a deal like this and the approval of Saudi Arabia to unlock the kind of massive reconstruction project required to essentially rebuild Gaza from the rubble. Saudi Arabia and its Arab friends are also going to be instrumental in figuring out how Gaza is governed, and they might even provide troops to help secure it. None of those things are going to happen without a deal like this.

Fascinating.

But this is all much more complicated now because the price for a deal like this has gone up.

And by price, you mean?

What Israel would have to give up. [MUSIC PLAYING]

From Saudi Arabia’s perspective, you have an Arab population that is furious at Israel. It now feels like a really hard time to do a normalization deal with the Israelis. It was never going to be easy, but this is about as bad a time to do it as there has been in a generation at least. And I think that President Biden and the people around him understand that the status quo between Israel and the Palestinians is intolerable and it is going to lead to chaos and violence indefinitely.

So now you have two of the three parties to this agreement, the Saudis and the Americans, basically asking a new price after October 7th, and saying to the Israelis, if we’re going to do this deal, it has to not only do something for the Palestinians, it has to do something really big. You have to commit to the creation of a Palestinian state. Now, I’ll be specific and say that what you hear the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, say is that the agreement has to include an irreversible time-bound path to a Palestinian state.

We don’t know exactly what that looks like, but it’s some kind of a firm commitment, the likes of which the world and certainly the Israelis have not made before.

Something that was very much not present in the pre-October 7th vision of this negotiation. So much so that, as we just talked about, the Palestinians were left feeling completely out in the cold and furious at it.

That’s right. There was no sign that people were thinking that ambitiously about the Palestinians in this deal before October 7th. And the Palestinians certainly felt like they weren’t going to get much out of it. And that has completely changed now.

So, Michael, once this big new dimension after October 7th, which is the insistence by Saudi Arabia and the US that there be a Palestinian state or a path to a Palestinian state, what is the reaction specifically from Israel, which is, of course, the third major party to this entire conversation?

Well, Israel, or at least its political leadership, hates it. You know, this is just an extremely tough sell in Israel. It would have been a tough sell before October 7th. It’s even harder now.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is completely unrepentantly open in saying that there’s not going to be a Palestinian state on his watch. He won’t accept it. He says that it’s a strategic risk to his country. He says that it would, in effect, reward Hamas.

His argument is that terrorism has forced a conversation about statehood onto the table that wasn’t there before October 7th. Sure, it’s always in the background. It’s a perennial issue in global affairs, but it was not something certainly that the US and Israel’s Arab neighbors were actively pushing. Netanyahu also has — you know, he governs with the support of very right-wing members of a political coalition that he has cobbled together. And that coalition is quite likely to fall apart if he does embrace a Palestinian state or a path to a Palestinian state.

Now, he might be able to cobble together some sort of alternative, but it creates a political crisis for him.

And finally, you know, I think in any conversation about Israel, it’s worth bearing in mind something you hear from senior US officials these days, which is that although there is often finger pointing at Netanyahu and a desire to blame Netanyahu as this obstructionist who won’t agree to deals, what they say is Netanyahu is largely reflecting his population and the political establishment of his country, not just the right-wingers in his coalition who are clearly extremist.

But actually the prevailing views of the Israeli public. And the Israeli public and their political leaders across the spectrum right now with few exceptions, are not interested in talking about a Palestinian state when there are still dozens and dozens of Israeli hostages in tunnels beneath Gaza.

So it very much looks like this giant agreement that once seemed doable before October 7th might be more important to everyone involved than ever, given that it’s a plan for rebuilding Gaza and potentially preventing future October 7th’s from happening, but because of this higher price that Israel would have to pay, which is the acceptance of a Palestinian state, it seems from everything you’re saying, that this is more and more out of reach than ever before and hard to imagine happening in the immediate future. So if the people negotiating it are being honest, Michael, are they ready to acknowledge that it doesn’t look like this is going to happen?

Well, not quite yet. As time goes by, they certainly say it’s getting harder and harder, but they’re still trying, and they still think there’s a chance. But both the Saudis and the Biden administration understand that there’s very little time left to do this.

Well, what do you mean there’s very little time left? It would seem like time might benefit this negotiation in that it might give Israel distance from October 7th to think potentially differently about a Palestinian state?

Potentially. But Saudi Arabia wants to get this deal done in the Biden administration because Mohammed bin Salman has concluded this has to be done under a Democratic president.

Because Democrats in Congress are going to be very reluctant to approve a security agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

It’s important to understand that if there is a security agreement, that’s something Congress is going to have to approve. And you’re just not going to get enough Democrats in Congress to support a deal with Saudi Arabia, who a lot of Democrats don’t like to begin with, because they see them as human rights abusers.

But if a Democratic president is asking them to do it, they’re much more likely to go along.

Right. So Saudi Arabia fears that if Biden loses and Trump is president, that those same Democrats would balk at this deal in a way that they wouldn’t if it were being negotiated under President Biden?

Exactly. Now, from President Biden’s perspective, politically, think about a president who’s running for re-election, who is presiding right now over chaos in the Middle East, who doesn’t seem to have good answers for the Israeli-Palestinian question, this is an opportunity for President Biden to deliver what could be at least what he would present as a diplomatic masterstroke that does multiple things at once, including creating a new pathway for Israel and the Palestinians to coexist, to break through the logjam, even as he is also improving Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia.

So Biden and the Crown Prince hope that they can somehow persuade Bibi Netanyahu that in spite of all the reasons that he thinks this is a terrible idea, that this is a bet worth taking on Israel’s and the region’s long-term security and future?

That’s right. Now, no one has explained very clearly exactly how this is going to work, and it’s probably going to require artful diplomacy, possibly even a scenario where the Israelis would agree to something that maybe means one thing to them and means something else to other people. But Biden officials refuse to say that it’s hopeless and they refuse to essentially take Netanyahu’s preliminary no’s for an answer. And they still see some way that they can thread this incredibly narrow needle.

Michael, I’m curious about a constituency that we haven’t been talking about because they’re not at the table in these discussions that we are talking about here. And that would be Hamas. How does Hamas feel about the prospect of such a deal like this ever taking shape. Do they see it as any kind of a victory and vindication for what they did on October 7th?

So it’s hard to know exactly what Hamas’s leadership is thinking. I think they can feel two things. I think they can feel on the one hand, that they have established themselves as the champions of the Palestinian people who struck a blow against Israel and against a diplomatic process that was potentially going to leave the Palestinians out in the cold.

At the same time, Hamas has no interest in the kind of two-state solution that the US is trying to promote. They think Israel should be destroyed. They think the Palestinian state should cover the entire geography of what is now Israel, and they want to lead a state like that. And that’s not something that the US, Saudi Arabia, or anyone else is going to tolerate.

So what Hamas wants is to fight, to be the leader of the Palestinian people, and to destroy Israel. And they’re not interested in any sort of a peace process or statehood process.

It seems very clear from everything you’ve said here that neither Israel nor Hamas is ready to have the conversation about a grand bargain diplomatic program. And I wonder if that inevitably has any bearing on the ceasefire negotiations that are going on right now between the two of them that are supposed to bring this conflict to some sort of an end, even if it’s just temporary?

Because if, as you said, Michael, a ceasefire opens the door to this larger diplomatic solution, and these two players don’t necessarily want that larger diplomatic solution, doesn’t that inevitably impact their enthusiasm for even reaching a ceasefire?

Well, it certainly doesn’t help. You know, this is such a hellish problem. And of course, you first have the question of whether Israel and Hamas can make a deal on these immediate issues, including the hostages, Palestinian prisoners, and what the Israeli military is going to do, how long a ceasefire might last.

But on top of that, you have these much bigger diplomatic questions that are looming over them. And it’s not clear that either side is ready to turn and face those bigger questions.

So while for the Biden administration and for Saudi Arabia, this is a way out of this crisis, these larger diplomatic solutions, it’s not clear that it’s a conversation that the two parties that are actually at war here are prepared to start having.

Well, Michael, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

On Tuesday afternoon, under intense pressure from the US, delegations from Israel and Hamas arrived in Cairo to resume negotiations over a potential ceasefire. But in a statement, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that even with the talks underway, his government would, quote, “continue to wage war against Hamas.”

Here’s what else you need to know today. In a dramatic day of testimony, Stormy Daniels offered explicit details about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump that ultimately led to the hush money payment at the center of his trial. Daniels testified that Trump answered the door in pajamas, that he told her not to worry that he was married, and that he did not use a condom when they had sex.

That prompted lawyers for Trump to seek a mistrial based on what they called prejudicial testimony. But the judge in the case rejected that request. And,

We’ve seen a ferocious surge of anti-Semitism in America and around the world.

In a speech on Tuesday honoring victims of the Holocaust, President Biden condemned what he said was the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in the United States after the October 7th attacks on Israel. And he expressed worry that too many Americans were already forgetting the horrors of that attack.

The Jewish community, I want you to know I see your fear, your hurt, and your pain. Let me reassure you, as your president, you’re not alone. You belong. You always have and you always will.

Today’s episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Clare Toeniskoetter, and Rikki Novetsky. It was edited by Liz O. Baylen, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for The Daily. I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

• May 9, 2024   •   34:42 One Strongman, One Billion Voters, and the Future of India
• May 8, 2024   •   28:28 A Plan to Remake the Middle East
• May 7, 2024   •   27:43 How Changing Ocean Temperatures Could Upend Life on Earth
• May 6, 2024   •   29:23 R.F.K. Jr.’s Battle to Get on the Ballot
• May 3, 2024   •   25:33 The Protesters and the President
• May 2, 2024   •   29:13 Biden Loosens Up on Weed
• May 1, 2024   •   35:16 The New Abortion Fight Before the Supreme Court
• April 30, 2024   •   27:40 The Secret Push That Could Ban TikTok
• April 29, 2024   •   47:53 Trump 2.0: What a Second Trump Presidency Would Bring
• April 26, 2024   •   21:50 Harvey Weinstein Conviction Thrown Out
• April 25, 2024   •   40:33 The Crackdown on Student Protesters
• April 24, 2024   •   32:18 Is $60 Billion Enough to Save Ukraine?

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Michael Crowley

Produced by Nina Feldman ,  Clare Toeniskoetter and Rikki Novetsky

Edited by Liz O. Baylen

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Elisheba Ittoop and Dan Powell

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If and when Israel and Hamas reach a deal for a cease-fire, the United States will immediately turn to a different set of negotiations over a grand diplomatic bargain that it believes could rebuild Gaza and remake the Middle East.

Michael Crowley, who covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times, explains why those involved in this plan believe they have so little time left to get it done.

On today’s episode

Michael Crowley , a reporter covering the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The New York Times.

Background reading :

Talks on a cease-fire in the Gaza war are once again at an uncertain stage .

Here’s how the push for a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia looked before Oct. 7 .

From early in the war, President Biden has said that a lasting resolution requires a “real” Palestinian state .

Here’s what Israeli officials are discussing about postwar Gaza.

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Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state. More about Michael Crowley

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