Destination Guides from main Stations in France

Discover where you can travel on to by direct express train from the major rail hubs in France and see at a glance which other destinations you can access most easily.

This is a guide intended for leisure travellers, so the non-comprehensive destination lists focus on locations and routes popular with tourists.

The day train frequency guides are based on the usual schedules between 08:00am and 17:00pm, but the availability of the trains can be impacted by temporary timetable alterations.
The frequencies are included as indicators, as in some hours during the day the most regular patterns of departures won’t apply

Note that train services in France aren’t typically arranged around regular, fixed interval train departures, so the frequencies for the national journeys included below are very much a guide.
The number of departures to each destination tends to vary from hour to hour.  

From Paris

Central Paris is ringed by seven stations that long-distance trains depart from and arrive at.

This guide explains how to access them from the city centre - and how to make transfers between them when making onward connections.

From and to the Gare de Lyon

How to make the transfer from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de Lyon is explained on this guide.

1 or more x trains per hour (in most hours): 
to Lyon

0 to 2 x trains per hour:
to Avignon-TGV, Marseille and Valence-TGV

Less frequent trains:
to Aix-les-Bains, Aix-en-Provence TGV, Annecy, Antibes, Avignon Centre, Basel, Besancon, Barcelona, Beziers, Bourg St Maurice (winter only), Cannes, Chambery, Dijon, Evian-Les-Bains, Geneva, Girona, Grenoble, Milan, Montpellier, Narbonne, Nice, Nimes, Perpignan, St Gervais (winter only), St Raphael, Toulon, Turin and Zurich

 For full details see the journey guides

From and to the Gare Du Nord

The Gare Du Nord is Europe's busiest station in terms of number of daily users, but most travellers are taking the 'commuter' routes.
So the long-distance trains comprise comparatively few of its services.

1 or more x trains per hour (in most hours): 
to Amiens, Beauvais, Bruxelles and Lille

1 x train in most hours: 
to Amsterdam, Antwerp, London and Rotterdam

Less frequent trains: 
to Aachen, Boulogne, Etaples-Le Treport and Koln / Cologne

 For full details see the journey guides

From and to Gare Montparnasse

How to make the transfer from the Gare du Nord to the Gare Montparnasse is explained on this guide.

0 to 2 x trains per hour:
to Bordeaux, Nantes and Rennes

Less frequent trains:
to Bayonne, Brest, Biarritz, Hendaye (connect for San Sebastian), La Rochelle, Lourdes, Morlaix, Quimper, Poittiers, Toulouse, Tours and Vannes

For full details see the journey guides.  

From and to the Gare de l’Est

How to make the transfer from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de l’Est is explained on this guide.

1 or more x trains per hour (in most hours): 
to Strasbourg

Less frequent trains:
to Colmar, Luxembourg, Frankfurt (Main), Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Nancy, Metz, Reims, Stuttgart and Troyes

1 x train per day:
to Berlin, Freiburg Im Breisgau and München/Munich

For full details see the journey guides

From and to Austerlitz

Metro Line 5 (direction Place d'Italie) provides a direct link from Gare Du Nord to Austerlitz.

Or if time is on your side,take bus line 91 from this stop on Rue de Saint-Quentin.

Up to 1 x train per hour (in most hours) 
to Orleans

Less frequent trains:
to Angers, Brive, Le Mans, Limoges, Nantes, Rennes and Toulouse

Night trains:
to Antibes, Bayonne, Briancon, Cannes Foix, La Tour de Carol, Lourdes, Nice, Rodez and Tarbes

For full details see the journey guides

From and to the Gare Saint Lazare

The RER Line E station at Gare Du Nord is named Magenta, there are trains  every 5-10mins to Haussmann – St-Lazare.station at the Gare Saint Lazare.

1 or more x trains per hour (in most hours):
to Rouen

1 x train every one or two hours:
to Bayeux and Caen

For full details see the journey guides

From Lille

*= from Lille Flandres station, the other trains depart from Lille-Europe station

1 x train per hour (in most hours): 
to Amiens*, Antwerpen*, Gent* and Paris*, 

Less frequent trains:
to Aeroport CDG, Aix-en-Provence TGV, Amsterdam, Angers, Avignon, Beziers, Bordeaux*, Brussels, London, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Narbonne, Nantes, Nimes, Poitiers*, Rennes, Rotterdam, Rouen* and Strasbourg

1 x train per day
to Beziers, Narbonne and Perpignan

For full details see the journey guides

From Lyon

The city of Lyon has two stations used by long-distance trains, but all express trains use Lyon-Part Dieu so the summaries below are for travel on from this station.
Some express trains which start or end their journeys in the city also use Lyon-Perrache.

1 or more x trains per hour (in most hours): 
to Dijon, Grenoble and Paris

1 x train every one or two hours:
to Avignon TGV and Marseille

Less frequent trains to:
Aeroport CDG, Aix-les-Bains, Aix-en-Provence TGV, Annecy, Antibes, Avignon Centre, Beziers, Bourg St Maurice, Brussels, Cannes, Carcassonne, Chambery, Clermont-Ferrand, Geneva, Lille, Luxembourg, Montpellier, Narbonne, Nice, Nimes, Perpignan, Rennes, St Raphael, Strasbourg, Toulon and Toulouse

1 x train per day to:
Barcelona, Frankfurt (Main), Girona, Karlsruhe, Milan, Rouen, Turin and Versailles

For full details see the journey guides

From Marseille

For some years now, the only long-distance trains which travel through Marseille are the InOui and Ouigo services which link both Paris and Lyon with Nice.

So Marseille-St Charles station is a connection hub for travel between the Cote D’Azur and all destinations in France other than those two cities.

Its comparatively frequent trains and coastal location in Provence make it a great base for exploring by train.

1 or more x trains per hour (in most hours):
 to Aix-en-Provence Centre, Antibes, Arles, Avignon TGV, Cannes, Nice and Toulon

1 x train every one or two hours:
to , Avignon Centre, Lyon and Paris

Less frequent trains to:
Aeroport CDG, Beziers, Bordeaux, Brussels, Dijon, Carcassonne, Lille, Montpellier, Narbonne, Nimes, Perpignan, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulouse

1 x train per day to:
Barcelona, Frankfurt (Main), Girona, Karlsruhe, Luxembourg, Madrid, Rouen, Versailles and Zaragoza

For full details see the journey guides

From Bordeaux

There are no international trains from Bordeaux-St Jean station

1 or more x trains per hour (in most hours): 
to Paris

Less frequent trains to:
Aeroport CDG, Bayonne, Beziers, Biarritz, Brussels, Carcassonne, Hendaye (connect for San Sebastian), Lille, Marseille, Montpellier, Narbonne, Nantes, Nimes, Poitiers, Strasbourg and Toulouse

From Strasbourg

Thanks to its location towards the eastern edge of France, the station in Strasbourg is an international rail hub.

2 x trains per hour (in most hours):
to Colmar

1 x train per hour (in most hours):
 to Basel, Paris and Offenburg; Connect in Offenburg for Berlin, Frankfurt (Main) and Koln/Cologne

Less frequent trains to:
Aeroport CDG, Aix-en-Provence TGV, Angers, Avignon, Brussels, Frankfurt (Main),  Karlsruhe, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Nimes and Stuttgart

1 x train per day:
to Berlin, Bordeaux, München / Munich, Poitiers and Rennes

All images taken by Simon Harper