I have been researching rail pass vs. point to point tickets for France. I am travelling from Paris to the South of France (Languedoc, Provence) and then back to Paris at the end of July/beginning of August.

Using SNCF.com, I priced out my rough itinerary (for 6 main travel days) at 248 Euros. Using RailEurope.com, the same itinerary works out to 289 Euros plus 54 Euros in reservation fees. Unfortunately, I’m 26 and therefore no longer get the discount prices.

I can get a 6 day rail pass for France for 230 Euros at my local HI office (this is the any 4 days in one month pass with 2 add-on days).

My questions are:
1) Why are the SNCF and RailEurope prices different for the same journeys?

2) Does the SNCF.com site include the cost of reservations (where required) in the fare (this is assuming you check the "Reservation – Yes" box)? Reading the help section, it seems to.

3) If the SNCF site does include reservations, and since I would have to pay for reservations anyway on top of the rail pass, then it seems that it would be cheaper for me to go the point-to-point route. Does that make sense?