TGV Sequel

Today, on our day of rest and recouperation and laundry, I tried to make reservations for our rail trip from St Etienne to Brussels. Our trip to St Etienne from Lyon is something of a milk run and doesn't require reservations for us pass holders, but getting to Brussels on the TGV requires a reservation. Marcia showed you the benefits of TGV. I'll speak to the drawbacks.

We have rail passes and paid over $3000 for my three month and Marcia's 15 rides in two months pass. So, we can get trains in France, but getting on the TGV trains requires a reservation and extra money. We paid about $30 (and I do mean $'s) to get from Nantes to Lyon, and we had to take the earlier train on Sunday in the middle of a holiday weekend-so not much competition. Apparently the later trains were booked.

My reservation for St Etienne to Brussels will not be on a holiday. I book through Rail Europe, an American website for those of us who have rail passes. Europeans cannot get these rail passes. Rail Europe assumes I will book my reservations before I leave the US or Canada. Since we had no trouble on trains in the UK-well, we didn't have reserved seats all the time, but we rode and we rode comfortably most of the time- I didn't bother to reserve for TGV. Wrong!

My reservation for St Etienne-Brussels was not accepted, and the US office emailed me that they could book me on another TGV train for $89, and I should call their toll free 800 number to confirm with Alex that I wanted to do this. I'm hoping Alex gets my email that I do. Plan C might just be the slow train to Brussels. As it is, the TGV reservation that I first requested leaves St Etienne at 6:48am. Alex is offering me at 9am departure. Might be worth it. Seems like TGV subsidy to me. You wanta ride fast you gotta pay more. I don't think the Solar Impulse is taking passengers quite yet.

As it is, I plan to book the rest of our travels tonight and send emails to my other traveling companions about the need to book early. Don't know how the trains work in Germany and the Netherlands.

KG