getting around france: trains
French trains:
TGV train: France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by the SNCF, the state-owned national rail operator.
OuiGo https://en.oui.sncf/en/destinations/france
Traveling by train in France is a comfortable and environmentally sustainable way to see the country. Since many train stations have car-hire agencies, it's easy to combine rail travel with rural exploration by car. The jewel in the crown of France's public-transport system – alongside the Paris métro – is its extensive rail network, almost all of it run by SNCF. Although it employs the most advanced rail technology, the network's layout reflects the country's centuries-old Paris-centric nature: most of the principal rail lines radiate out from Paris like the spokes of a wheel, the result being that services between provincial towns situated on different spokes can be infrequent and slow.
Up-to-the-minute information on perturbations (service disruptions), for example because of strikes, can be found on www.infolignes.com.
Since its inauguration in the 1980s, the pride and joy of SNCF is the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse; www.tgv.com), pronounced 'teh zheh veh', which zips passengers along at speeds of up to 320km/ h.
The main TGV lines (or LGVs, short for lignes à grande vitesse, ie high-speed rail lines) head north, east, southeast and southwest from Paris (trains use slower local tracks to get to destinations off the main line): TGV Nord, Thalys and Eurostar Link Paris Gare du Nord with Arras, Lille, Calais, Brussels (Bruxelles-Midi), Amsterdam, Cologne and, via the Channel Tunnel, Ashford, Ebbsfleet and London St Pancras.
LGV Est Européene (www.lgv-est.com) Connects Paris Gare de l'Est with Reims, Nancy, Metz, Strasbourg, Zurich and Germany, including Frankfurt and Stuttgart. The super-high-speed track stretches as far east as Strasbourg.
TGV Sud-Est and TGV Midi-Méditerranée Link Paris Gare de Lyon with the southeast, including Dijon, Lyon, Geneva, the Alps, Avignon, Marseille, Nice and Montpellier.
TGV Atlantique Sud-Ouest and TGV Atlantique Ouest Link Paris Gare Montparnasse with western and southwestern France, including Brittany (Rennes, Brest, Quimper), Tours, Nantes, Poitiers, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Biarritz and Toulouse.
LGV Rhin-Rhône High-speed rail route bypasses Paris altogether in its bid to better link the provinces. Six services a day speed between Strasbourg and Lyon, with most continuing south to Marseille or Montpellier on the Mediterranean.
TGV tracks are interconnected, making it possible to go directly from, for example, Lyon to Nantes or Bordeaux to Lille without having to switch trains in Paris or transfer from one of Paris' six main train stations to another. Stops on the link-up, which runs east and south of Paris, include Charles de Gaulle airport and Disneyland Resort Paris.
⚠️Long-distance trains sometimes split at a station – that is, each half of the train heads off for a different destination. Check the destination panel on your car as you board or you could wine up very far from where you intended to go.
Other types:
Teoz (corailteoz.com) Especially comfortable trains that run southward from Paris Gare d”Austerlitz to Clermont-Ferrand, Limoges, Cahors, Toulouse, Montpellier, Perpignan, Marseille, Nice.
TER (Train Express Regional; ter-sncf.com) A train that is not a TGV is often referred to as a corail, a classique or, for intraregional services a TER.
Transilien (transilien.com) SNCF services in the Ile de France area in & around Paris.
Tickets & Reservations
Lg stations often have separate ticket windows for international, grandes lignes (long-haul) and banlieue (suburban) lines, and for people whose train is about to leave (depart immediat or depart dans l’heure). Nearly ever SNCF station has at least one borne libre-service (self-service terminal)