France by train | Tracking the Light

Société National de Chemin de Fer’s Trains à Grande Vitesse is 35 years old.

Last month (April 2016) I made a series of trips across France on SNCF’s TGV, a means of flying by rail.

And, yes the speed is impressive: it makes the Acela Express seem like it’s coasting.

Here are just a sampling of my Lumix LX7 images from and of SNCF’s TGV and its stations.

TGV arriving at Brussels Midi. Today, TGV operated to a variety of countries across Europe including Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain. — TGV arriving at Brussels Midi. Today, TGV operates to a variety of countries across Europe including Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain.

I wrote about the TGV in my book Bullet Trains published by MBI in 2001.

Here’s an excerpt of the text on TGV:

In conjunction with the construction of the new high speed railway called the Lignes à Grande Vitesse (LGV), SNCF developed of the Trains à Grande Vitesse (TGV), an entirely new high speed train. When discussing the French system the LGV refers to the new high speed infrastructure, including the tracks, while TGV refers to the high speed railway technology, including the trains themselves.

Lounge on a TGV Duplex set (a double-deck TGV train).

Upstairs/Downstairs at 186 mph. (And no one to yap at you about moving between cars at speed, let alone descending stairs).

TGV Lyria at the Charles de Gaulle airport station.

TGV pauses at Charles de Gaulle airport. Take the plane to the train! It works, just ask Pop.

TGV Duplex after arrival at Bordeaux in southern France.

Typical Frist class seating on the TGV Duplex.

Tracking the Light posts every day.

On 21 April 2016, I had my First Class France Rail Pass Flexi validated at Basel, Switzerland.

My goal was by the first evening to reach Valenciennes (a city in northern France near the Belgian border) using only regional trains, rather than the TGV (plenty of opportunity for high speed travel later in my trip).

I found the challenge as in making local connections since these days SNCF focuses long-distance passengers onto high-speed routes. All very well, unless you want to experience secondary lines and ride trains off-the well-beaten path.

Thanks to Stephen Hirsch and Denis McCabe who helped with my planning, I traveled on a series of TER trains.

After four train-changes reached my destination 15 hours after I boarded the first train on the French side of Basel’s main station.