Bordeaux to Nice
 

Seeking advice. I need to get to Nice from Bordeaux. Is the train ride scenic and worth the extra time to get to Nice, or am I better off just taking a plane? Cost is the same. Thoughts? Thank you!!

I am a big fan of train travel, but with that much difference in time I'd fly.

The Marseille to Nice stretch is definitely scenic, don't know about Bordeaux to Marseille.

As you are obviously not interested in the tons of gems between Bordeaux and Nice, I would rather fly.

Just book a train, city centre to city centre at www.trainline.eu and print your own ticket.

Flying never saves as much time as you think because the 'one hour flight' in fact takes the best part of 4 hours of bus/taxi/train, airport hassle, flight, airport, and another bus/taxi/train. The train is city centre to city centre.

Unlike the flight, a train ride across a foreign country (or even one's own) is always an interesting experience which things to see, and a chance to read or chill out with a glass of wine (like me yesterday going from London to Bordeaux and back by train!).

You'll leave Bordeau on the Atlantic, pass through Toulouse and by Carcassone (can't remember if you can see the walled town from the train or not), and soon find yourself running a few hundred yards from the Mediterranean. The ride along the south of France takes you through Perpignan, past lakes on a causeway with flamingoes feeding in the shallows, past Beziers cathedral, and from Marseille to Nice its a FABULOUS piece of line, all along the Cote d'Azur past rocky headlands, yacht-filled harbours, blue sea.

Yes scenic most of way as Man in Seat 61 describes - get off maybe at Carcassonne to see that gem and get back on a few hours later.

See France not just airports and clouds - check www.voyges-sncf.com for tickets and fares - book eraly for discounts - for general info also www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

One of the more scenic trains in France!

<i>The ride along the south of France takes you through Perpignan,</i>

Your enthusiasm is getting in the way of factual information. The fastest way, with a change in Marseille, does not go as far south as Perpignan, and I doubt that any routing would unless chooses to go to Perpignan.

Yup Man in Seat 61 is indeed wrong - Perpignan not on the 9-hr route.

9 hours way too long for a train ride but if you want to break it up someplace for a day or two could be nice. But 9 hours? Even I would fly!

My personal opinion is that it is not all that scenic atrip, and I don:t think it goes through Perpignan.Still, I`d probably rather take a train than a plane.

Still, I`d probably rather take a train than a plane.>

really for 9 hours?

Things can be scenic to folks who have never been to southern France that locals like you may take for granted. But to me a visitor all of southern France seems scenic - the towns the train goes thru - ubiquiotus small villages puncuated by steeples of the village church dotting the pastoral countryside.

In fact, I'd call southern France one of the most scenic venues in Europe all in all, from my subjective American perspective.


ah the eyes of the beholder.

You do not get to see much of anything of the towns the train goes through. `Typically, the train stops at a small stone building outside the perimeter of the town and all you get to see is the people waiting for the train, the people getting off, and a small car park. It is hardly scenic or representative of what the town actually looks like. And in between the tracks generally go through the least interesting landscape. I would rarely call it scenic.

I do agree i would probably break up the 9-hour ride, though.

FLY