After my supposedly "great" experience last year, I adamantly swore to myself never to use Interrail again. Yet here I am, stuck with a ticket for free courtesy of the Elysee-Contract. If only I had known that it would be another damn Interrail ticket, I wouldn't have even considered accepting it, even though it is for free!
And what do you know, I'm facing the exact same issue as before: the absolute impossibility of booking reservations to France. I've exhausted every possible avenue—Interrail.eu, Eurail, sketchy websites, the DB service Point, and even reached out to a supposedly competent DB service point I stumbled upon in a forum. I've wasted more than 10 infuriating hours scouring for reservations, and what do I have to show for it? Absolutely nothing! Even the so-called "competent" service point admitted to encountering errors while attempting to book the reservations.
The whole point of the Elysee-Contract is to strengthen the bond between Germany and France. Well, congratulations, because all this effort has achieved the exact opposite for me. Why the hell does France offer a measly 10 tickets per train for Interrail users, while you can hop on any damn train in Germany for free? The reservation alone costs a whopping €40, whereas a regular ticket is a mere €120. Why on earth should I even bother wasting my time and money on an Interrail pass?!
Apparently, you can still book reservations in France at some obscure service point. But for heaven's sake, why the hell did they remove this feature from their website? It's as if they don't want foreigners to utilize their trains. I find this level of selfishness utterly disgusting. Screw it, we're taking the car.
