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High-Speed Escapes from Paris
Ralph Martin June 30, 2008
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For many travelers, “Paris day trip” evokes a dreary bus journey, long afternoons at Giverny taking in the lily pads that inspired Monet or wandering through the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. No more: Parisians have quietly invented a new institution: the “city break.” It’s a quick in-and-out trip from Paris to a regional capital, often organized around scoring a special meal. And thanks to the recently expanded network of the high-speed TGV (Train à Grande Vitess) train, nearly every French province and city is within three hours’ travel.
“When Americans come to France multiple times, they’re curious about the French art de vivre, and they want to experience the atmosphere of different cities.” So says Thierry Baudier, director of the Maison de la France, the French national tourist agency. “You can look at the ‘city break’ concept two ways: as a short-term way to hit the countryside, the mountains, or the sea and get away from Paris’ familiar landmarks. Or you can go hardcore, using Paris as a launching pad for successive forays to the farthest reaches of the country,” he says. “Three or four days of these day trips are enough to let you feel ‘unplugged.’”
See our slideshow of High-Speed Escapes from Paris.
So where can you go? Anywhere from the almost-local (Reims, the heart of Champagne country, in 45 minutes) to the far-flung Mediterranean, in the same time it takes a New Yorker to get to the Hamptons—on a good day. Avignon is two hours and 40 minutes, while a heart-quickening bowl of bouillabaisse in Marseille can be yours in three hours.
Then there are the trains... The projectile-shaped TGV provides an eerily quiet riding experience as you shoot across the countryside at up to 198 m.p.h. Certain trains are themed for calm and comfort: the iDTGV, a hipster “youth product” treatment given to certain train cars, offers riders “Zen” compartments for meditation and work, or “Zap” areas for noisy camaraderie. Of the Zen option, Yoktan Haddad, a Frenchman educated in America, says, “I often feel better at the end of my trip than I did before I got on the TGV. It’s a smooth glide through time while the French countryside unfolds before you.” Reserve early though; Zen compartments routinely sell out faster than Zap ones.
The first TGV city break destination came in 1981, when the Paris-Lyon trip was cut to two hours 40 minutes. Lyon is still the city in France to expand your waistline as well as your horizons—it’s home to many Michelin-starred restaurants that are training grounds for a number of France’s world-class chefs. Or you can take the liquid route, gliding back through the centuries to Reims (45 minutes) and Tours (one hour, 10 minutes), ancient cities that are the cradles of French culture, as well as anchors of the Champagne and Loire wine regions. Slightly closer is Beaune, the capital of Burgundy wine country. Beaune is really just another staging area—there you can pick up a bike (or a car) and get on the road that links some of the world’s most prestigious vineyards.
See our slideshow of High-Speed Escapes from Paris.
“These trips respond to a need to break with the ordinary, to escape from the everyday,” says Baudier. “And you can get there with no more than two or three clicks online.” So why limit yourself to France and fussy, old-fashioned national boundaries? The integrated E.U. lets you cross most borders without stopping to show a passport. Brussels, for instance, is way more than moules and frites. And if you’re tired of trying to get your mouth around those sharp French vowels, head to officially trilingual Luxembourg, known for its art museums and gastronomy. The toy-sized country boasts the most Michelin-starred restaurants per capita in Europe, as well as fabulous wealth and quiet country lanes.
The how-to part is easy—book tickets at SNCF.com, TGV.com, or at France.tourisme.com, which all have friendly sites with English options (though not every screen is in English). You’ll want to reserve a specific seat in addition to buying your ticket, or risk standing for the length of your journey. Bring along a baguette or a quiche to munch on the way—the food onboard consists largely of overpriced, mushy sandwiches (a scandal for a nation that treats gastronomy like a religion).
So Zen or Zap, north or south, take in the technological marvel that is the TGV.
See our slideshow of High-Speed Escapes from Paris.
