How I Took an Affordable First-Class Train Trip Across France

26.02.2024 - 20:09 / matadornetwork.com

If you ask French people what they think of the SNCF, the French national railway company, many will complain about how often the employees are on strike (not that often, really). However, you won’t hear many grieve about the frequency of the trains, the extent of the network, or the price it costs to ride the rails. That’s because the rail service in France is exceptionally good. I’ve been riding trains all over the world for over 20 years and, in my opinion, few places can match the rail service you get in France other than maybe the extensive rail network in Japan.

Recently, I crossed France by train. I traveled from the town of Saint-Nazaire in the west of the country to Dunkirk, which is as far north as you can get in continental France, and back. It was an effortless, comfortable, and affordable trip. If you, too, want to cross France by train, here’s how you can do it easily and for cheap.

The French railway network is a well-oiled machine that has been getting bigger and better for nearly 200 years — and shows no sign of stopping. The first passenger train started running the 37 miles between the cities of Saint-Etienne and Lyon in 1831, and today, according to a 2023 report, there are 18,000 miles of railways, including 1678 miles of high-speed railways, that cover just about every corner of France (see the network map). The SNCF network carries a staggering 5 million passengers every single day in 15,000 trains. If you want to visit France, and even travel across the entire country like I did, riding the train is the way to go.

I traveled from the town of Saint-Nazaire to the town of Dunkirk on January 2, 2024. When I booked my trip via SNCF Connect, I booked a round-trip ticket with a return trip that followed the same itinerary, but in reverse.

Photo: Google Maps

This train trip in both directions involved one connection in Paris, which is very common when traveling cross-country since the French capital is also the country’s train hub. Navigating between the train stations in Paris is straightforward if you do a little prior research. My connection in Paris meant that I had to switch train stations. I arrived in the Gare Montparnasse, which deals with all train traffic to and from the west, and made my way to Gare du Nord, which deals with all train traffic to and from the north. The two stations are only a 15-minute metro ride away via line four (shown in purple on the Paris’ metro map). The metro ticket cost $2.34 (2.15 €) and took less than 10 minutes to purchase via a ticket machine. Note that you need at least 75 minutes to change train stations in Paris without feeling too much of a time pressure.

The trip from Saint-Nazaire to Dunkirk took 7.5 hours, including a 2.75-hour connection