Florence to Aix en provence
 

We plan to fly into Rome and go to Florence. Somewhat of a bittersweet swan song. Final destination is London. I have a bucket list to visit Aix...never been. We don't drive in Europe anymore and probably look into senior rail which we have done before. We enjoy the European trains. Should we fly from Florence to Marseille. Stay in Aix for a night or two then train north from Avignon? Train from Florence to Genoa to Nice to Marseille? Any suggestions would be most welcomed! JCG

not a bad idea, but you could probably fly from florence to marsailles on ryan air or similar??

it's a long long train ride with at least two changes of train. Go to www.bahn.de - the German Railways pan-European train schedule site that I have found the easiest to use for any train anywhere in Europe - it will show all the rail links for any given day - agood way tx access the English schedule page of the Wunderbar bahn.de site is to go to the home page of www.budgeteuropetravel.com and click on thelink saying something like "Best Onlne European Railway Schedules - and up pops the English schedule page where you put in To...... and From.... and voila all the trains. I reference this home page link because they give you several valuable tips to fully use the various info bahn.de has nbut which may not be apparent at first glance to novice users.

Biut offhand I'd say it is 6-8 hours. And yes from Aix-en-Provence TGV station it is a short hop to the Avignon-TGV station (both TGV stations a few miles outside the town centers but linked to them by coordinated buses.

From Avignon-TGV it is just a few hours to Paris Gare d Lyon. For that journey be sure to scour www.voyages-sncf.com for online discounts in either class that may save you lots of money - but those ducates are non-changeable from the specific train you book and cannogt be refunded and to get as they are limited in number you must often book weeks if not months in advance. See www.seat61`.com for good info on online discounted tickets.

There is a France-Italy Railpass if you are also taking trains in Italy and wish flexibility to chose what trains you want to take once there - compared with such full fare tickets the pass can be a real bargain. Not sold in France as can only be used for non-French residents. You still have to pay a small sum for mandatory seat reservations on the fastest trains, from 3-10 euros so factor that in too.

ttt

Thanks and will look into Ryan Air!