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Hello everyone, I hope you’re all doing well!

Sooo, in a few days I will do a little surfing trip to Biarritz ( France ) from Germany ( Berlin ).
I’ve just noticed that I only have 10 minutes to change the train at Bordeaux on the way back home.
Since I have never used the train to travel I have some questions for this:

1. Are the trains in France reliable to arrive on time?
2. Can the staff on trains/train-stations speak English?
3. What happens if I miss the train? I know that I am supposed to take the next one but it is mandatory to reserve seats on french trains. Can I just take the next train without reserving a seat? Do I need reserve/pay for a seat on the next train? What if the next train is fully booked?
4. Same question as 3, but referred to the following train since I will miss that one too (Paris to Germany).

The trains from Paris to Germany ( Frankfurt/Köln/Mannheim ) seem to be fully booked for that day. I am just worried that I won’t be able to get on the next train if i miss mine.

Any answer are appreciated :)
Thank you~

@1. generally yes. MUch, much better as here in DE, but not to Swiss level.

@2, depends. as such FR is not really well-known for its prowess in languages-but nor is DE in fact. Often there will be other staff or a helpful traveller able to assist when it gets complicated

@3. the FahrGastRechte-that oso populair topic and anxiety causing and the hope to get a free HTL etc among the Germans. You go to a counter, explain and in most cases for TGV etc with mandatory RES they will give you a special voucher that you can use to enter and use the ´strapontins´=klappsitze´ in the halss. When train has left you can then find a spare seat-most TGV run hours without stops.

@4: again-do we now really have to tell each thing that Passholders could think of themselves: take a train to Strasbourg and change to the SWEG Nahverkehr-thich would also have saved you a few rote scheine

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