There is a direct train leaving Paris Gare du Nord at 6:25 and arriving at BRU airport at 8:12, which would be about right for check-in for an 11:00 flight. Other options are the Thalys train at 6:01 arriving at 7:51, but that involves a connection to a local train at Brussels Midi station (Midi = south, not to be confused with Centrale). The next later option, leaving at 7:25 also involves a connection and doesn’t arrive until 9:24 — too late, I think for comfortable check-in for an international flight. Check train schedules for anywhere in Europe at the German national rail website: http://reiseauskunft…

Thanks for your quick reply!

I’ve been looking around on the Thalys website and I found the train I needed. The cost I found was 29 euro per person, so I don’t know if that is the full ticket cost or just a reservation fee. I will be traveling with a Eurail pass and I’m not sure how to make reservations without buying a ticket.

Any advice on that?

The Thalys site sells ticket with reservation. Congrats on finding such a good deal. I would buy the ticket NOW while this great rate is still available as early morning trains on Mondays are likely to be fairly crowded and the seats available at this special fare will probably sell out. Use the extra day of your rail pass for the most expensive day trip you take.

You probably can’t buy this Thalys reservation on-line for less than 29 euros since you would probably have to buy through a travel agency, which will inflate the price and involve shipping and handling fees. If you want to use your rail pass, buy the reservation at any Brussels train station when you first arrive in Europe. There are a few special “pass holder fare” Thalys reservations for every train available for 10 €, but they sometimes sell out or are otherwise difficult to buy, so you may have to pay full price of about 15.

I’ll try to spend some time today looking for ways to buy “reservation only” for this train on-line without going through a travel agency.

Have you thought about maybe instead of spliting your time in Brussels why not do the whole chunk at the end? Arrive in Brussels and head straight to Brugge at the start of the trip.

Thanks so much! I booked the ticket already, and I’ll use that extra day on the pass like you suggested.

Vanogtrop, I decided to just stay in Brussels for one day and then head to Bruges for a day. I haven’t heard many good reviews of Brussels, so I’m limiting my time there.