Places for the tests: reserved.
Hotel nights: reserved.
All that's missing is the train tickets.
While many foreign tourists have already organized their visit to France for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, most are waiting to finalize their preparations by reserving their domestic train journeys, in particular to connect the capital to other host cities ( Marseille, Nantes, Châteauroux...).
On major national routes, tickets generally go on sale four months in advance.
For now, the TGV inOui and Intercités are available until May 22.
You will have to wait for the next sales opening to be able to purchase your train tickets covering the Olympic period, from July 26 to August 11.
To get a head start, it's best to travel as a tribe.
“
National trains will be available for sale [...] in February 2024 for travelers in groups of 10 people or more
,” indicates the official Paris 2024 website. These group reservations, which give entitlement to reductions, are do on a dedicated page.
Individual travelers, for their part, will have to wait until March 7 to have access to trains running until September 11, as specified in the schedule for the opening of SNCF Connect sales.
The organizers of the Olympic Games add that “
specific communications will be sent by Paris 2024 to notify spectators with tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic Games of the opening of sales
”.
Another solution: use the “Reservation alert” function of SNCF Connect to be notified when the tickets that interest you go on sale.
Also read: TGV to Berlin, “Lent Ouigo” in Bordeaux and Rennes... Here are the new train lines expected in 2024
No additional TGVs for the Olympics
Unlike national lines, some international connections are already open for reservation, allowing some of our European neighbors to prepare for their visit to France.
Britons can already book their Eurostar tickets, with Paris-London trains open for booking until the end of the year.
Other Eurostar journeys (from and to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany) can be booked four months before departure, therefore from the end of March for a departure at the end of July.
The Franco-Spanish Renfe connections (Lyon-Barcelona and Marseille-Madrid) are open until the beginning of December.
Beyond the sale of tickets, there is also the question of the level of rail supply.
The Olympics fall in the middle of summer, a time when the trains are already running at full speed.
“
We will not be able to add additional trains because all our trains will already be used as they are every summer
,” explains to Le
Figaro
Alain Krakovitch, director of TGV and Intercités at SNCF Voyageurs.
The offer will nevertheless be strengthened in Île-de-France with 4,500 additional trains which will serve 20 Olympic sites.
The company will not be able to count on its new TGV M to add frequencies.
First planned to run in 2023, then from the summer of 2024, the trains will not finally be put into service until 2025.
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