Rail travel in France Voyage Tips and guide

Trains are a great way to get around in France. You can get from pretty much anywhere to anywhere else by train. For long distances, use the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, or High-speed train) on which reservations are obligatory. But if you have time, take the slow train and enjoy the scenery. The landscape is part of what makes France one of the top tourist destinations in the world.

Map of high speed rail in France

The French national railway network is managed by SNCF Réseau, a branch of the nationalised company SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français).

Passenger trains are operated by different companies:

• SNCF Voyageurs operates most of the trains (high-speed, long-distance normal-speed, regional normal-speed).
• Ouigo is a brand of SNCF, which operates low-cost TGVs, and some classic slow trains. This service is modelled after low-cost airlines: tickets are cheap (starting at €10), but you'll have to pay extra if you want to bring large bags or want a seat with a power socket, and you'll have to be at the train station 30 minutes before departure. Most OUIGO trains serve the same popular train stations as regular SNCF services.
• Trenitalia France operates high-speed train service between Paris, Lyon, and Chambéry (further to Milan), as well as between Paris, Lyon, and Marseille.
• Renfe operates high-speed train service between Lyon, Marseille, and Perpignan (further to Barcelona and Madrid).
• International high-speed services connecting to the rest of Europe are operated by several companies, including Eurostar (London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne), TGV Lyria (Switzerland), Deutsche Bahn (Germany), Trenitalia (Milan), and Renfe (Barcelona).

Each company has its own conditions of carriage, and most of them do not accept SNCF Voyageurs' discount cards for international journeys (Ouigo is also distinct from SNCF Voyageurs within France despite being a brand of SNCF Voyageurs).

The SNCF Gares & Connexions website provides live train schedules, keeping you informed about platform numbers and delays. This information is also available on smartphones via the free application Ma Gare SNCF.

Several train categories run in France, each with its own rules.

Regional trains, managed by the French "Régions". Each Région has its own fare structure, sometimes even its own brand (Normandie uses Nomad, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur uses ZOU!, etc.).

Although most trips have a fixed price, some Régions offer cheap advance non-refundable tickets, and Normandie uses dynamic pricing to/from Paris.

Some lines, especially to/from Paris, require compulsory reservation.

National intercity train services, running at conventional speed, either day or night (Intercités de Nuit), managed by the French government. As of 2026, SNCF Voyageurs operates all lines, and their fare structure is retained for all services, including their discount cards. Some lines require compulsory reservation.

The 2025 route map is still valid as of 2026.

SNCF operates on its own a number of different kinds of high-speed and normal trains, shown on this route map:

• TGV InOui (Trains à Grande Vitesse): The world-famous French high-speed trains run from early morning to evening in most of France. Most trains operate to/from Paris, reaching Lille in 1 hr, Reims in 45 minutes, Metz or Nancy in 1 hr 30 min, Strasbourg in 1 hr 45 min, Dijon in 1 hr 30 min, Lyon in 2 hrs, Marseille in 3 hr, Nice in 5 hr 45 min, Montpellier in 3 hr 30 min, Toulouse in 4 hrs, Bordeaux in 2 hr, Nantes in 2 hr, Rennes in 1 hr 30 min, but some trains also link cities without stopping in Paris. There is a bar in coach 4 or 14 that sells drinks, snacks, and microwaved meals, but no proper restaurant (there is no bar service between Paris–Lille and Paris–Reims). All TGV InOui tickets are exchangeable and refundable, minus a fee, before departure. On those trains, you have to travel on the exact train you bought a ticket for. Tickets are generally cheaper the further in advance they are purchased.

• Ouigo Grande Vitesse: the low-cost version of TGV, with service between Tourcoing (next to Lille), Rennes, Nantes, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Marseille, Strasbourg. Some OUIGO trains to Nantes, Rennes, and Bordeaux, leave from Paris-Montparnasse, but most OuiGo trains serve stations in the suburbs (Massy TGV, Marne-la-Vallée-Chessy TGV - Disneyland, Charles de Gaulle airport TGV) that can be reached in about 45 minutes from the centre of Paris with public transit. This service is modeled after low-cost airlines: tickets are usually cheaper (start at €10), but you'll have to pay extra if you want to bring more than a hand luggage, a seat with a power socket, or access to the on-board Wi-Fi, and you'll have to be at the train station at least 30 minutes before departure. There is no food or drink service on board. Tickets can be exchanged if you bought the corresponding option when buying them, but aren't refundable. On those trains, you have to travel on the exact train you bought a ticket for. Tickets are generally cheaper the further in advance they are purchased. Interrail/Eurail passes are not valid.
• Ouigo Vitesse Classique: conventional speed trains between Paris and Rennes, Nantes, and Bordeaux. Here also, tickets are usually cheaper (start at €10), but you'll have to pay extra if you want to bring more than a hand luggage, a seat with a power socket, there is no Wi-Fi access, and you'll have to be at the train station at least 30 minutes before departure. There is no food or drink service on board. Tickets can be exchanged if you bought the corresponding option when buying them, but aren't refundable. On those trains, you have to travel on the exact train you bought a ticket for. Tickets are generally cheaper the further in advance they are purchased. Interrail/Eurail passes are not valid.

Discount cards. If you plan to do more than 4 long-distance trips during your stay, investing in a discount card may be worth it. It costs €49, is valid 1 year, and you will need to put a photo on it. The discount applies to TGV InOui and Intercités tickets on full or normal fares, 1st and 2nd class, for travel in France and abroad, but the conditions of applicability depend on the age group the card is issued for.

• Carte Avantage Adulte can be subscribed by people aged 27–59.
  The card holder is granted a 30% discount on one-way trips on Saturdays and Sundays, or on one-way trips on weekdays when travelling with a child aged 4–11. The discount is also granted on round-trip tickets with at least one week-end night (i.e. Friday/Saturday/Sunday night) between each leg (they can be separated by up to 61 days). When applicable, the discount of 30% is also granted to one accompanying adult, and 60% for up to 3 kids aged 4–11 travelling with the card holder
• Carte Avantage Jeune for youths aged 12–27, Carte Avantage Senior for adults 60 years or older.
  The card holder is generally granted a 30% discount, without any restrictions, on all days of the year, and 60% for up to 3 kids aged 4–11 travelling with the card holder.

Besides being entitled to discounted tickets, card holders are eligible for last-minute offers.

There is another discount card on offer: the Carte Liberté. It costs €399 which doesn't make it suitable for normal tourists, but only for people who undertake many trips within one year. The card holder is granted a discount of 60% on 2nd-class tickets and 45% on 1st-class tickets off the full or normal fares. Alternatively, the same discount as with Carte Avantage may be chosen, which will be profitable only when being accompanied by children. As an extra bonus, card holders benefit from more flexible exchange and refund conditions.

For more details see the information provided at SNCF Voyageurs' website.

The discount rate offered on TER tickets depends on the region you travel in: some regions offer up to 50% discounts with these cards, others offer nothing, see this map. Moreover, most Régions have their own discount cards.

The Italian company operates three Frecciarossa high-speed rail services in France, with multiple trains each day on each route:

• Paris-Lyon - Lyon-Part Dieu - Lyon-Perrache
• Paris-Lyon - Lyon-Part Dieu - Chambéry - Saint Jean de Maurienne - Modane (further to Milan)
• Paris-Lyon - Lyon-Saint Exupéry - Avignon TGV - Aix en Provence TGV - Marseille Saint Charles

3 comfort classes are offered on board:

• Standard (2nd class), either in Allegro or Silenzio (quiet) section
• Business (1st class), either in Allegro or Silenzio (quiet) section, includes a small snack
• Executive, a Premium offering with only 10 seats, with a full meal and drinks included in the ticket

All tickets can be exchanged for free (plus the fare difference with the new ticket) and refunded with a 20% fee up to departure.

The Spanish company operates two daily return trips in France:

• Lyon-Part Dieu - Valence TGV - Nîmes - Montpellier - Narbonne - Perpignan (further to Barcelona)
• Marseille - Aix en Provence TGV - Avignon TGV - Nîmes - Montpellier - Narbonne - Perpignan (further to Madrid)

Many companies operates lines between France and the neighbouring countries, but there is almost no competition between them.

Eurostar is the only option, with high-speed trains between Paris, Lille in France, and and London in the UK, from early morning to late evening, several times a day

Detailed timetables are available on the Eurostar website.

Three classes are available:

• Standard, the equivalent of the 2nd class
• Plus, the equivalent of the 1st class, with a light meal
• Premier, the equivalent of the 1st class, with a full meal, and access to Eurostar lounges in Paris and London

Wi-Fi and power sockets are available in all trains.

Due to safety regulations, and the fact that the UK is not part of the Schengen area, Eurostar has airport-like facilities at the train stations, with passport control and X-ray of your luggage: you will have to be at the train station at least 30 minutes before your scheduled departure (15 minutes if you hold a Business Premier ticket).

Book early (reservation opens 6 months in advance), as fares can be really expensive on Eurostar (up to €328 one-way between Paris and London in Standard class). Return tickets are cheaper bought together than separately. If you're really flexible, Eurostar Snap offers discounted tickets between 1 and 2 weeks before departure, but you'll only get to select the day and a morning or afternoon departure: your exact schedule will be given only 2 days before departure.

European Sleeper, Eurostar, SNCB, and SNCF Voyageurs offer services between France and Belgium, but mostly don't compete with each other. Eurostar took over the old Thalys routes.

European Sleeper offers 3 return trips per week between Paris and Brussels (evening from Paris, morning from Brussels).

Eurostar operates high-speed trains from Paris to Brussels and Antwerp, with dynamic prices starting at €29 in Standard class.

Free Wi-Fi and power sockets at the seat are available in all trains.

SNCB operates Intercity trains between Lille and Mouscron, Kortrijk, Ghent, Antwerp, Tournai, Mons, and Namur.

SNCF Voyageurs operates

• high-speed TGV trains between the Eastern part of France (Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Perpignan, but not Paris) and Brussels.
• conventional speed Ouigo trains between Paris, Creil, Saint Quentin, Aulnoye-Aymeries, Mons, and Brussels.

Eurostar operates train routes from Paris to three cities:

• Rotterdam Centraal (2.6 hours, from €35)
• Amsterdam Centraal (3.5 hours, from €35)
• Schipol Airport (3.2 hours, from €35)

Free Wi-Fi and power sockets at the seat are available in all trains.

SNCF Voyageurs operates TGV service between Paris, Metz, and Luxembourg. Regional trains also run between Nancy, Metz, and Luxembourg.

Deutsche Bahn, European Sleeper, Saarbahn, SNCF Voyageurs, and SWEG, operate trains to Germany.

Deutsche Bahn and SNCF Voyageurs operate a joint-venture service between:

• Paris, Forbach, Saarbrücken, Kaiserslautern, Mannheim, Frankfurt am Main, Erfurt, Halle, and Berlin
• Paris, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg, and Munich
• Marseille, Lyon, Karlsruhe, Mannheim and Frankfurt am Main (with intermediate stops between Marseille and Frankfurt).

Some services are operated by SNCF Voyageurs trainsets (the train is therefore designated as TGV), while some other are operated by DB trainsets (designated as ICE). Both feature 2 classes of service, a trilingual crew (French, German, English), and power sockets at every seat.

While SNCF Voyageurs and DB jointly operate these trains, each operator has its own fares and fare system: compare the price between both operators before booking, or use Trainline as they automatically compare both prices and offer the cheapest one.

European Sleeper runs a night-train service, 3 nights per week between Paris, Hamburg (from 13 July 2026), and Berlin. Seat, couchette, and sleeper accomodations are offered.

Eurostar operates high-speed trains between Paris and multiple cities in Germany:

• Aachen Hauptbahnhof (2.6 hours, from €35)
• Cologne Hauptbahnhof (3.3 hours, from €35)
• Dortmund (4.8 hours, from €35)
• Duisburg (4 hours, from €35)
• Düsseldorf (3.8 hours, from €35)
• Düsseldorf airport (3.9 hours, from €35)
• Essen (4.3 hours, from €35)

Free Wi-Fi and power sockets at the seat are available in all trains.

• SNCF operates a TER line between Strasbourg, Sarreguemines and Saarbrücken with connections with trains arriving from Metz.

• Deutsche Bahn (DB) operates two lines of regional trains between France and Germany:
  • between Wissembourg and Neustadt an der Weinstraße (once every hour), with some trains continuing to Mainz and Koblenz on Sundays
  • between Lauterbourg and Wörth am Rhein (once every hour)
  • between Forbach and Saarbrücken (once every hour)

• Saarbahn operates a light-rail service between Sarreguemines and Saarbrücken, with a departure every 30 minutes most of the day.

• SWEG operates a regional service between Offenburg and Strasbourg^{[dead link]} with a train every 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Lyria operates high-speed trains between Paris, Mulhouse, and Switzerland (Zürich, Geneva, Lausanne). Regional trains also run between Mulhouse and Basel, and between Lyon and Geneva.

Both SNCF Voyageurs and Trenitalia France operate high-speed trains between France and Italy on the route Paris–Turin–Milan, most of them via Lyon.

Monaco-Monte-Carlo train station is part of the SNCF railway network and is served by TER trains running between Grasse, Nice and Ventimiglia.

CP, EuskoTren, RENFE, and SNCF Voyageurs, operate trains between France and Spain.

It is possible to book the same journey through a number of different travel agencies websites (in different languages and currencies). The fares for journeys inside France are the same with every travel agency.

• SNCF-Connect: Travel agency from SNCF Group, will only offer SNCF Voyageurs train tickets (as well as coach tickets on other operators).

• ouigo.com: French-language booking website where only OUIGO tickets can be booked. It can sometimes get confusing, and is known to hardly work when you try to buy a ticket from abroad or with a non-French credit card.

• Trainline is a multilingual international booking website. It aims to be as easy to use as possible. You don't need your credit card to retrieve the tickets, only the reservation number and the last name entered for reservation. You can pay with Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Paypal. Tickets can be printed or downloaded on your mobile phone or Apple watch or Android watch. This website sells tickets for 19 European countries, including SNCF Voyageurs tickets for trips in France and abroad, Lyria tickets for trips to Switzerland, Eurostar tickets for trips to the UK, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, and Renfe tickets for trips to Spain. For SNCF-DB joint-operation journeys between France and Germany, Trainline automatically compares SNCF Voyageurs and DB fares, and shows you the cheapest of both (although it's for the same train, SNCF Voyageurs and DB have their own fares).

• RailEurope: Another travel agency from SNCF Group. Multilingual international booking website. Fares will often be more expensive on this site.

SNCF Voyageurs and Trenitalia tickets can also be booked from vending machines in railway stations. There are separate machines for long-distance and regional trains. Ticket booths and kiosks have disappeared from most small stations.

To find your train, locate your train number and the departure time on the departures board. There will be a track ("Voie") number next to the train and departure time. Follow signs to that track to board the train. You will have a reserved seat on TGV trains. On other long-distance trains, you can make reservations (at least one day in advance); if you do not have one you may use any unused seat not marked as reserved. To find your reserved seat, first look for the train coach number ("Voit. No"). Pay attention to the possible confusion between track number ("voie") and coach ("voiture", abbreviated "voit") number. As you go down the track, the coach number will be displayed on an LCD screen on the car, or maybe just written in the window or right next to the doors. Within Paris, on the RER and Transilien networks, four-letter codes (such as COHI, FACA, QYAN, VICK) are generally used in place of train numbers.

The reserved-seat rules are lax; you are allowed to switch seats or use another seat (of the same class, of course) if it is empty because the TGV is not fully booked or the other person agrees to switch with you. The only requirement is not to continue using a reserved seat if the person holding the reservation claims it.

On the main lines, TGVs often run in two. There are two possibilities: either the two TGVs are considered as one train with one train number (in this case each coach has a different number); or the two TGVs are considered as separate trains which run together during a part of their journey, with two different train numbers (in this case, the two trains may have two close numbers such as 1527 and 1537), and each train will have its own coach numbering. So be sure you are in the right train (the train number is shown on the LCD screen, with the coach number).

If you are early, there is often a map somewhere on the platform (displayed either on LCD screens, or on older LED panels marked "Composition des trains") that will show how the train and car numbers will line up on the platform according to letters that appear either on the ground or on signs above. That way, you can stand by the letter corresponding with your coach number and wait in order to board the train closest to your coach. You can easily go from one coach to another, so if you are very late, jump in any coach of the same class before the train starts, wait until most people are seated, then walk to your coach and seat number.

Beware: To avoid any form of fraud, paper tickets must be punched (composté) by an automatic machine (composteur) to be valid. Older machines are bright orange, newer machines are yellow and gray. The machines are situated at the entrance of all platforms, but there is no barrier preventing you from entering the platform or boarding the train without stamping your ticket; the onus is on you, the passenger, to remember to do so. There is a knack to using the composteur, and it can take several attempts if you don't know what you're doing: insert the ticket face up, left end (with the SNCF logo on it) first, into the slit of the machine, as far to the left of the slit as you can. If the validation is successful, you will hear a buzz that's a bit like the sound of paper being torn, and see a small light on the machine flash green. The ticket won't look any different after validation.

Failure to punch the ticket may entitle you to a fine even if you are a foreigner with a limited French vocabulary, depending on how the conductor feels, unless you approach the conductor as quickly as possible and request that your ticket be validated. Likewise if you step aboard a train without a ticket, you must find the conductor ("contrôleur") and tell him about your situation before he finds you. However, printouts of e-Billet electronic tickets do not have to be punched: in doubt, punch it anyway, you won't be fined for punching an e-Billet.

French information booths, especially in larger train stations, can be quite unhelpful, especially if you do not understand much French. If something does not seem to make sense, just say "excusez-moi" and they should repeat it.