Finally Offical.

So I'd say things are finally official. I have my ticket to Paris, STA finally sent it back and I got it yesterday. Today I bought my ticket from SCNF, which is actually a pretty complicated process.

The SCNF is the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français, in other words, the French national railway. Unlike in the US where you can buy things from a bunch of different places, they are the final stop in train tickets. But being an American it's a bit different process to get your ticket outside of France.

The first option is to buy it from RailEurope.com, which is obviously more expensive because they're not SCNF. Processing fees and profit factor in!

So here's your steps to buying your ticket while not actually in France.

Number One.
Get your American credit card ready. Visa or Amex, I didn't see if they did Mastercard?

Number Two.
Select your train. If you are under 26 you can get a Carte 12-25, which saves you anywhere between 25% and even up to 60% off the ticket price. Don't believe me? Just check. Also, buying it two months in advance saves money too! DO NOT BUY IT THE DAY OF. Look at the prices for today's. They're outrageous. note: online is cheaper than at the station.
For the Carte, you don't need the number to reserve your ticket because they only check it when you're actually on the train/at the desk. Put country to pick it up in as France.

Number Three.
Pay and print out all your papers of confirmation and itinerary. You never know!

Number Four.
Get to France and your train station. Watch out in Paris. There are a bunch. Make sure to get the right one by checking your train route by the train number.

Number Five.
At the correct station find the little man/woman inside the ticket box. Buy a Carte 12-25. You'll need your passport, an id size photo (possibly two?), the card you used online to buy the card, and your address in France (or fake one, whatever). Another option is to get it taken care of at a SCNF store. Not sure how that works or where they are. I tried to find one in Paris without much luck?

Number Six.
Get your ticket! Give the little box person your reservation number, handily printed out on those papers and voila! One ticket for wherever your travels take you!


Okay, so I wont swear by this as I obviously haven't tried it yet. But everyone told me this is the way to do it. Make sure you pay for the ticket online otherwise they only keep if for a week in the box. I hope it works or I'm out 30E80!

Some other hints I picked up today. Bank of America does their fees for foreign purchases by first converting it to dollars and then applying a 3% rate (I have no idea if this is for all cards and I doubt it). So for my purchase of 30E80, I paid something like 47$. You can check for your own card, at BOA or otherwise, in either those little papers they send with the card or online. If you can't find it in your online banking, check in the space where people apply for cards.

Also BOA is part of a world ATM alliance with BNP Paribus, which means you can withdraw from their ATMS for free with just the conversion rate. Supposedly. But we'll see how that works when I get there.


On to more fun things.

A family that comes in for Saturday class at the shop visits France pretty often, the father studied in Lorraine in high school I think. So I spoke with the mom today about places I should visit while in Paris. She highly recommended the Musee Picasso, which was something I wanted to see if we had time. Picasso couldn't pay his taxes in his old age and thus gave his private collection to the city to pay it off. It's basically almost all of his work stages and shows the progression of his life's work. Pretty cool huh? She also asked if I'd bring or send her back a poster of the Sacre Coeur that Picasso painted that she just can't find anywhere else. I just looked it up online and it looks pretty intense.

She also gave me an awesome suggestion to go to the Eiffel Tour just before it lights up, as it flickers for about ten minutes (quite possibly the inspiration for the new Disney World Cinderella's Castle night show). Elena promised to bring pictures next time to show me. She also mentioned an apparently awesome ice cream place on Ile St-Louis. That we will hit up after Notre-Dame!

Right now I'm talking to AJ online and looking at packing lists of other students and assistants (people who go teach English in French schools) and people are complaining about only having 20kg of packing weight. I get 50lbs (32kg) for each of my two bags. I have no idea what airlines they're flying with but still, annually I bring two bags home that are less than that from Hendrix. Given, I did ship a lot this year but most of that will not be coming. Or I'll be buying it in France. I think they have highlighters, non? ;)