France Trains

Planning a trip beforehand is always a wise choice. A great advantage of making a reservation on Rail Ninja is that you can choose from various types of trains and buy your tickets as far as two years in advance before the chosen date of travel. We also recommend buying your France train tickets early as you can get them cheaper thanks to more appealing rates.

Before 1938 the French railway network was mostly operated by private companies. When the private operators started facing financial difficulties, the government decided to fully nationalize the main train system and created the Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais (SNCF), which is the national rail operator of France today.

Train stations in France can be quite confusing to navigate, so we recommend to arrive at the station at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Another peculiarity of traveling by train in France is that you need to validate your ticket before boarding the train. On the stations, you will find yellow machines where you need to insert your ticket into the special slot and then retrieve it. One more thing: though train traveling by train in France is convenient and safe, make sure not to leave your luggage unattended to avoid unpleasant situations.