There is no quota anymore (for more than a year). What is your travel date?

You can book through Rail Europe (desktop version) without fees. The website works well.

General guide : https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

So reservations are not possible for Paris-Barcelona for that long? Oh no. I want to go on the 20th of April.

RailEurope says that the pass is not valid for that journey. Does it only say that because there are no more interrail spots available or is there some kind of problem?

No quota = you can book passholder reservations as long as tickets are left.

So it looks like the morning train is sold out : not surprising on a holiday weekend → start of the school holidays in a large part of France.

Now the afternoon train is shown as non réservable (not bookable). It could be for plenty of reasons… maybe works = bookings not open yet? Who knows.

Don’t worry, there are plenty of alternatives : cheaper but slower. Do you want to leave in the morning? I’ll have a look at alternatives and update.

Paris-Narbonne is available for €30 in total. The rest is reservation-free. SNCF say the 6-minute change in Narbonne is doable. If it goes wrong, there's still a later reservation-free alternative.

You could book the 2 TGVs now on Rail Europe. If something else becomes available, you can book that and cancel this. Domestic TGV reservations are refundable before departure.

Option 1 :

• TGV Paris Gare de Lyon - Lyon Part-Dieu 11:00 - 12:56 or 11:52 - 13:56 (a bit risky) 10€
• AVE Lyon Part-Dieu - Barcelona-Sants 14:32 - 19:34 10€

Note that reservations for the latter train are unavailable online. You must get them on the day on the platform. Check regularly how many seats are left, deep in renfe.com’s booking process (right now there are 107 seats left). Staff are used to it and can issue reservations for folding seats or even the bar if needed.

Option 2 :

• rvdborgt beat me to it ;)

Feel free to book a TGV reservation in advance, they’re fully refundable (if suddenly the direct train appears...). If somebody else has more details, feel free to answer.

Thank you both so much for your help!

The trouble is that we’re not starting from Paris, but Karlsruhe and can be in Paris around 9 or 10 at the earliest. So Lyon - Barcelona seems like the better choice, but I am a bit weary of not being able to make reservations in advance.

Where did you find the number of available seats? I wasn’t able to find it on the renfe website.

Okay so indeed it changes a few things. I would avoid the station transfer in Paris if possible.

You could go to Lyon via the Rhin-Rhône LGV, for example :

• TGV Karlsruhe Hbf - Strasbourg 07:32 - 08:18 18€ for this short leg...
• TGV Strasbourg - Lyon Part-Dieu 09:04 - 12:56 20€ 2nd class (25€ 1st class incl. upgrade)

Option 2 to save a bit of money :

• ICE Karlsruhe Hbf - Basel SBB 06:58 - 08:47
• TER Basel SBB - Mulhouse 09:21 - 09:44
• TGV Mulhouse - Lyon Part-Dieu 09:58 - 12:56 20€ 2nd class (24€ 1st class incl. upgrade)

You go deep in the process : add names, passport number, email, telephone number, etc. Afterwards you can select seat selection → there’s a seat map and you can count the number of seats.

Thank you!