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In the last two days I've tried to buy a train ticket from Rocamadour (France) to Amsterdam on the scnf-voyages.com website.

It doesn't work. The website gives the following error message:

Suite à une erreur technique, nous vous invitons à réessayer ultérieurement.

Im afraid this is not temporary problem, and it is caused by this particular route, because the website works for all other connections.

I've tried on tgv-europe.com and I get the same error message:

A technical error has occurred, please try again later.

Since I don't live in France, I was wondering if there is a way to buy such ticket from abroad. (And as soon as possible, because the seats are finishing).

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Is it possible to call them on the phone? –  Mark Mayo Jun 27 '12 at 19:53
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4 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

The SNCF website is not well-made. One of its many defects is not working well with connections, and your ticket is particularly challenging (for SNCF website levels) since it involves a change of station in Paris. Get the Rocamadour–Paris ticket from SNCF (that should work) and shop around for the Paris–Amsterdam ticket (SNCF, Thalys and NS might have different quotas for cheaper advanced bookings). Alternatively, get the ticket from a human at a ticket window, either in Paris or in Amsterdam.

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The OP did ask "Since I don't live in France, I was wondering if there is a way to buy such ticket from abroad" as seats are running short. Waiting till he gets to Paris may not be a viable option. Upvoted for the explanation of the website though. –  Mark Mayo Jun 27 '12 at 20:08
@MarkMayo So half of my last sentence won't be relevant to him, but it might still be useful to a future visitor. –  Gilles Jun 27 '12 at 20:12
Yeah that's why I still voted up, just thought worth mentioning as you might have had other suggestions. –  Mark Mayo Jun 27 '12 at 20:39
It's said elsewhere (on this site) that SNCF has a monopoly on selling train tickets for France, so if that's true, it would appear there is no alternative method for buying tickets. –  MastaBaba Jun 27 '12 at 21:06
@MastaBaba I said it. I think that's slated to change soon due to EU rules, but still not done yet. This only applies to tickets inside France, not to international tickets even if they involve segments that are entirely inside France — but few vendors are willing to sell such segments. –  Gilles Jun 27 '12 at 21:10
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You can book these trains with Loco2.

Unlike most travel booking websites, Loco2 has "bookmarkable" URLs (yey!), so you can link to a search for a specific day.

For example, for the first train on the 27th of July, see http://loco2.com/journey/rocamadour-amsterdam-1shd09z for details of the trains and the current price. (You can, of course, edit the search for your own dates!)

Full disclosure: Jamie (the answerer) is one of the founders of Loco2

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As per our faq, if you're going to link to your own site, you MUST indicate your affiliation. Thanks for the link, but please do indicate that you're doing so when you're linking to your own site. –  Mark Mayo Jun 29 '12 at 16:36
Jamie's a nice guy (I used to work with him a few years back), so I'm sure he'll do this in future now he knows! –  Gagravarr Jun 29 '12 at 16:47
Thanks Nick, I am a nice guy :) –  Jamie Jul 5 '12 at 16:09
If it works with loco2 it should also work through the SNCF site –  user3470 Jul 8 at 16:17
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It seems you'd be able to book (at least most of your journey) through nshispeed.nl. Toulouse (south of Rocamadour) to Amsterdam for 115 euros. My knowledge of French geography is not good enough to quickly make sure bookings direclty from Rocamadour are possible or not, but at worst, combining this with a ticket from SNCF would solve your problem.

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For my european train trips I usualy check Nshispeed, nmbs and sncf. All three have their disadventages, where being broken often fits them all. Nshispeed is the least transparant of the three by ommitting existing connections and the tendency to focus on the more expensive connections (except in their advertisments).

Rocamadour is unknown in both NMBS an NSHISPEED. It might be that the trains from Rocamadour don't easy connect with ongoing connections. It seems that the closest village you can find in ticket systems outside france is Brive-la-Gaillarde.

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I see thanks. However it is a bit annoying me the fact that there are trains from Rocamadour which perfectly fits my needs, and I'm going to change my train path just because there is no way to buy it online. –  Patrick Jun 28 '12 at 12:19
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