Here are some additional notes, having made this trip many times. Booking 3 months ahead makes a big price difference.
We tend to book Eurostar to/from Paris separately to arrive around 11.20am and leave Paris after 6.30 pm to leave scope when booking the onward journey.
Download the Mont Blanc Express timetable from the Chamonix website so you know train times as you need to book tickets from Paris to/from St Gervais le Fayet in France (usally cheaper) or Martigny in Switzerland (eg via Lausanne). You can pay for MBEtickets on the train. Chamonix doesn't show up in timetables.
Trainline works well. Rail Europe will send you an email alert when booking opens which is very useful. (In past years we would be online at 11pm UK time waiting for tickets to come on sale.)
Seat61 is a wonderful resource.
SueRowlands
Stephen - nice to see you again in Chamonix recently.
Very helpful advice there about Chamonix not showing up in the timetables. I've always tended to wait until I can book the whole journey, rather than booking Eurostar separately as (i) I want to be sure I can make the journey happen with the Eurostar times I've selected; and (ii) if I've understood correctly, booking as one means that - if the connection in Paris goes pear-shaped - then it's no problem getting on another train. BUT this does mean the Eurostar leg gets expensive. So your way is better if I want to make it less expensive!
For the trip to Chamonix last week, we were finding that Rail Europe and SNFC were giving us two changes between Gare du Lyon and Chamonix (Gare du Bellegarde and St Gervais). A faff with skis. So we got the TGV to Geneva, hopped on the train to the airport and then got our pre-booked Mountain Drop Offs shuttle to Cham. This had the advantage of dropping us off at the door of our rather out-of-the-way accommodation. Not the cheapest option, but it made life easy with our awkward luggage.
AnneWinther
The Winther family are travelling by train from Glasgow to Chamonix in February. We have booked each journey section separately. On the way out we are taking an evening train to London, premier inn at St Pancras, then first Eurostar to Paris and the 14:45 approx. TGV to Bellegarde, changing trains at St Gervais and train up to Chamonix. Unfortunately we arrive 10 mins to late for the train to Argentiere so will have to have expensive in resort taxi transfer to accommodation. On reverse journey we are taking Caledonian Sleeper. We have reduced the cost significantly by buying a variety of SNCF rail discount cards and are travelling first class on TGV for an extra E20 for four people. It's taken hours (literally) to organise. Will post back on the experience when we return! It should be an adventure!
MartinGodfrey
Really interested to hear how the journey from Glasgow went. I’m also Glasgow-based and feel a bit daunted by the long-ish extra leg to London.
Any tips on planning and discount cards would be very welcome!
AnneWinther
Given the scope for rail strikes both sides of the Channel we were extremely lucky to have a good and fun journey. We left the car at Milngavie. Ski bags went on the above seat luggage shelves and so didn't get in the way. . The Kings Cross premier inn is luxurious . Eurostar on way out worked well. We crossed Paris by RER - watch out for pick pockets who were unsuccessful as we had our valuables out of reach.
Crossing Paris to Gare du Lyon took an hour with bags but we had three hours so we lunched at Le Train Bleu- amazing! The restaurant has a two week wait but it's possible to turn up for the bar.
We'd booked first class on TGV which was worth it. Lots of space and beautifully quiet. We had purchased Carte Advantage which gives reduced travel for two adults per card. On black Friday(roughly when SNCF booking opened) they were half price. On arrival at Lyon I realised I made a booking mistake. We had a four hour bus not train which became five hours with Friday night traffic. Chamvan did the in resort transfer.
On the way back we used radical storage in Paris for luggage and five hours of sightseeing. If we had skipped the sightseeing we would have caught an evening train back to Glasgow. Instead we used the sleeper.
It took a lot of time to organise but seat61 website helped and we'll do it again next year.
NickThorburn
I agree that Seat 61 is excellent - really impressive level of detail.