Six regions beyond Paris by train, and why 2026 is the year to see them
In 2026 the United States turns 250, and France has been in the story from the start. Bartholdi, who made the Statue of Liberty, grew up in Colmar. Rochambeau, who commanded the French troops at Yorktown, was born in Vendôme. Both are a direct train from Paris, and so are four more regions worth the detour. Here is where to go and how long it takes.
The six journeys at a glance
- Colmar, Alsace: about 2 hours 25 minutes direct from Paris Gare de l'Est
- Vendôme, Loire Valley: about 42 minutes direct from Paris Montparnasse
- Rouen, Normandy: about 1 hour 30 minutes direct from Paris Saint-Lazare
- Lyon: under 2 hours direct from Paris Gare de Lyon
- Avignon, Provence: about 2 hours 40 minutes direct from Paris Gare de Lyon
- Bordeaux: about 2 hours 5 minutes direct from Paris Montparnasse
Six direct trains, no changes, no airport in the middle, and every one of them arrives in the middle of town. That is the argument for doing France by train.
Colmar, where the Statue of Liberty grew up
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was born in Colmar in 1834, and the house on rue des Marchands where he grew up is now the Musée Bartholdi, holding the models and studies that led to the figure in New York Harbour. At the northern edge of town stands a 12 metre replica of her, put up in 2004, a hundred years after he died.
The rest of Colmar is the reason to stay: half-timbered houses in colours you would not dare paint your own house, the canals of Petite Venise, and winstubs serving tarte flambée and Riesling by the pitcher. The station is a ten minute walk from the old town. Strasbourg is half an hour up the line on a regional train and Sélestat about fifteen minutes. The famous wine villages, Riquewihr and Eguisheim, are a local bus or taxi from the station.
Vendôme, 42 minutes and 250 years away
The comte de Rochambeau was born in Vendôme in 1725. He went on to command the French expeditionary force that fought alongside Washington at Yorktown, which is about as close to the founding of the United States as a French market town gets. His family château still stands just outside Vendôme at Thoré-la-Rochette.
Getting there is almost comically quick: TGV INOUI runs from Paris Montparnasse to Vendôme-Villiers-sur-Loir in around 42 minutes, less time than most people spend reaching an airport. That TGV station sits a few kilometres outside town with a local shuttle in, while the older Vendôme station in the centre is on the regional line to Blois.
Blois puts you in château country, with the Loire à Vélo cycle route along the river. The trick most people miss is Chenonceaux, which has its own station on the regional line from Tours, ten minutes' walk from the château gates. Chambord needs a local shuttle from Blois.
Lyon and Provence, for the joie de manger
Lyon is under two hours from Paris Gare de Lyon and it is the best eating city in France, which in France is a serious thing to say. Book a bouchon for lunch, accept whatever the chef decided that morning, and plan nothing for the two hours afterwards. Walk through Les Halles Paul Bocuse first, climb to Fourvière for the view, and find the traboules of the Croix-Rousse, the passageways the silk workers used to move cloth through the city in the dry.
Carry on south and Avignon is about 2 hours 40 minutes from Paris, a little over an hour from Lyon. The Palais des Papes is a walk from the centre, and the two best days out are both on the railway: Arles about twenty minutes away, Nîmes about thirty, its Roman arena still standing in the middle of the city.
One honest note on the Luberon. The ochre villages, Roussillon above all, are the orange places on every poster of Provence, and they are not on the railway. From Avignon that last 45 minutes is a local bus or a hire car, so plan it as a day trip.
Normandy and the Atlantic, where the crossings began
Rouen is an hour and a half direct from Paris Saint-Lazare, with the cathedral Monet painted more than thirty times and a medieval centre that survived a great deal. Further along the coast, the cliffs at Étretat look painted rather than formed. Étretat has no station of its own, so the train takes you to Le Havre or Bréauté-Beuzeville and a local bus does the last half hour.
The other Atlantic story is further south. Bordeaux is just over two hours direct from Paris Montparnasse, with the Cité du Vin, the wine villages of the Médoc and Saint-Émilion, and oysters at Arcachon fifty minutes down the regional line. Keep going and you reach Rochefort, under two hours from Bordeaux, the naval town where the frigate Hermione sailed for Boston in 1780 carrying Lafayette and the news that French troops were coming.
For an American traveller that is the symmetry of the whole trip. The friendship being marked in 2026 physically left from these ports.
A twelve day loop, every leg on a train
- Paris, two nights, with a day out to the Loire: Paris Montparnasse to Vendôme-Villiers-sur-Loir in 42 minutes each way.
- Paris Gare de l'Est to Colmar, 2 hours 25 minutes. Two nights in Alsace, with Strasbourg half an hour up the line.
- Colmar to Lyon, about 4 hours with one change at Mulhouse or Strasbourg. Two nights, and one long lunch.
- Lyon Part-Dieu to Avignon TGV, about 1 hour 5 minutes. Three nights in Provence, with Arles twenty minutes away.
- Avignon to Bordeaux, about 4 hours direct. Two nights, with Arcachon fifty minutes down the line, then Bordeaux Saint-Jean back to Paris Montparnasse in 2 hours 5 minutes.
Normandy slots in at either end: Paris Saint-Lazare to Rouen, an hour and a half, and the same back.
What we would tell you at the ticket desk
Paris has several mainline stations and they point in different directions. Gare de l'Est for Alsace, Montparnasse for the Loire and the south west, Gare de Lyon for Lyon and Provence, Saint-Lazare for Normandy. If a trip has you changing between two of them, allow an hour, and more with luggage or children.
Seat reservations are compulsory on TGV INOUI, and your ticket is valid for one specific train. Regional TER trains work the other way: no reservation, turn up and travel, which is what makes the shorter hops to Arcachon or Blois so easy to improvise.
Fares on TGV are dynamic and sales open several months ahead, so booking three to four months out is where the good prices are. The ticket then lives on your phone, with nothing to print and nothing to validate on the platform.
There is no airline style weight limit, but you carry your own bags and rack space runs out. Two large bags and one small one per person is the SNCF guideline, and each bag needs a name label.
Before you book
August is the busiest month on French railways, and the month some regional restaurants close for their own holidays. September and early October are quieter and better value.
Children travel at reduced fares on SNCF services and very young children travel free without their own seat, so a family trip by train costs a good deal less than the same trip by air.
The joy is in the getting there
Paris will still be there. But the France people come back talking about tends to be the bit they nearly skipped: the market in Colmar, the two hour lunch in Lyon, the cliffs in the rain at Étretat.
In the year France and the United States mark 250 years of friendship, and together with Atout France, we would rather send you to all of it. Search your route and see what the journey costs. Search trains.
Powered by Froala Editor