10 of the Best Train Journeys in France

The Cévennes are a mysterious part of France, since there’s no expressway. This is the land that Robert Louis Stevenson famously trekked through in his memoir Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, and the 2-week walk along the GR70 retraces his steps, but a less physical (and more time-efficient) way to explore the valleys and chestnut forests of the Cévennes is on board Le Cévenol , which takes 5 hours to travel from Clermont Ferrand to Nîmes.

Like a vibrant caterpillar wiggling its way through the Pyrenees, Le Petit Train Jaune (The Little Yellow Train) is the stuff of storybooks. It’s difficult to say which is more picturesque, the train itself or the craggy peaks of the mountains, with little villages wedged among the rock faces.

The 39-mile (63-kilometer) route from Villefranche-de-Conflent to Latour-de-Carol takes around 3 hours (the train’s maximum speed is just under 20 miles (30 kilometers) an hour).

Corsica’s historic railway line is largely used by students and hikers traveling to or from the GR20, a rugged hike crossing the Corsican mountains. Originally planned in 1855 by Napoleon III, the main line runs from Bastia to Ajaccio, with a smaller branch that veers off at Ponte Leccia to hug the coast until Calvi. The ride itself is vertigo-inducing. With white-knuckle drops into arid gorges, the train plunges in and out of tunnels through the Corsican mountains, and crosses bridges that don’t look able to bear its weight, but no part of the journey skimps on spectacular views.

Has any train journey captured our imagination as completely as the Orient Express? The original route, which opened in 1883, ran from Paris to the Bulgarian port of Varna, from which passengers traveled by ferry to Constantinople (Istanbul).

These days, there are Orient Expresses in the plural—art deco dreams that have you feeling like you’ve stepped into an Agatha Christie novel (but we hope, without the drama). The Paris to Vienna route is our pick, taking around 24 hours to link the two. From the moment you get on the platform in Paris to the sound of a live band to quaffing champagne in the dining car, this train journey is a cinematic thrill.

Think of southern France and you probably think of the polished boulevards of Nice, or the terracotta-topped boutiques of Saint-Tropez. You probably don’t think of salt flats, lagoons, and a healthy population of flamingos.

Starting from Nîmes, a Roman city dating from as early as 4,000 BC, the train winds through the Camargue, taking just shy of an hour to cover 25 miles (40 kilometers). If you’re lucky you might see not only flamingos, but the wild Camargue horses.

If you’re a fan of Emily in Paris, you might think you can travel anywhere in France by sleeper train, but sadly, domestic sleeper trains are now few and far between.

In Season Two, Emily takes a sleeper train that looks suspiciously like the Orient Express from Paris to Saint-Tropez. The actual sleeper service runs to Nice, with various stops along the south coast including Antibes, Cannes, and Marseille. It’s not as glamorous as Netflix makes it look, but we can’t deny the charm of falling asleep in Paris and waking up on the Mediterranean.

The landscape traversed on La Ligne des Hirondelles (The Swallows Line) is as magical as the name suggests. Traveling between Dole and Saint-Claude, the train runs through Jura, an area often described as the last real “wild” corner of France.

Jura is verdant, with forests, mountains, waterfalls, and at times distinctly British weather. Pack a cheesy-heavy picnic: comté, morbier, and cancoillotte are among the regional specialities.

If the Polar Express took inspiration from a real-life train journey, it would surely be the Mont-Blanc Express . This alpine train runs from Chamonix to Martigny in Switzerland, taking 90 minutes and going through 21 tunnels and over 28 bridges en route. The views are glorious in all seasons, taking in snow capped peaks and icicle-laden pine trees during the winter, and alpine meadows and flowers in early summer.

The Tire-Bouchon (corkscrew) seasonal train in Brittany is reason enough to crack open a bottle. Linking Aubray with the Quiberon Peninsula, the land gets steadily skinnier and skinnier until sea lies virtually all around you at the terminus.

This train runs exclusively from June to September, and attracts some 150,000 passengers each season.

If you thought a guide to France’s train journeys wouldn’t include a culinary trip, you thought wrong. Le Seudre Ocean Express , which runs between Saujon and Chaillevette in Nouvelle Aquitaine, is a fine-dining experience—but do the eyes or the belly get the bigger feast? The 6-course menu includes everything from salmon gravadlax to café gourmand, paired not only with wine but with ocean views the whole route. Unsurprisingly, it sells out well in advance.