Lyon to Marseille
From the Rhone Valley to the Mediterranean

Most southbound trains leave from Lyon Part-Dieu, the busy hub in the modern business district on the left bank of the Rhone - metro line B and several tram lines run beneath and beside it, so it is quick to reach from anywhere in the city. It is a working station rather than a beautiful one, and often under some form of rebuilding, so give yourself a couple of extra minutes to find your platform among the crowds.

Boarding is simple and there is no airport-style check-in: arrive fifteen to twenty minutes ahead, watch the boards for your platform (shown shortly before departure), and find your coach. One thing to confirm on your ticket - a few services, OUIGO especially, use Lyon Saint-Exupery, the airport TGV station east of the city, rather than Part-Dieu. Check which Lyon station is printed on your ticket before travel day.

Out of Lyon the train picks up the Rhone and runs south with it - the river that has been the road to the Mediterranean since the Greeks and Romans, and still the natural corridor through the hills. For the first stretch the high-speed line shares the valley with vineyards and the wide, braided river, passing Valence, the point locals only half-jokingly call the start of the south: the roofs turn to Roman tile, the plane trees appear, and the accent shifts.

This is fast, easy travelling rather than a dramatic mountain ride - the LGV was built for speed - but the sense of moving somewhere is strong. You are descending the spine of France toward the sea, and the landscape loosens and brightens with every few minutes: drier hills, silver olive and cypress, the first lavender country away to the east.

The Rhone has carried travellers south for two thousand years; the TGV simply does the same trip before lunch.

By the time the line reaches Avignon TGV, out on the edge of the city, you are unmistakably in Provence. Avignon is the classic gateway to the region - the walled Papal city, the broken bridge, and behind it the Luberon hills and their perched villages - and a fair number of Lyon-Marseille trains stop here, making it an easy hop off the route for a first taste of the south.

Even if your train runs straight through, the change is written on the landscape from the window: the light hardens and whitens, the vegetation goes to scrub and stone pine, and the horizon fills with the pale limestone ridges that Provence is built from. From here the line curves away from the Rhone and heads for the coast.

The last inland stop is Aix-en-Provence TGV, marooned in the garrigue north of the city it serves - this is Cezanne country, with Mont Sainte-Victoire's white ridge often visible to the east, the mountain he painted more than sixty times. Aix itself, elegant and fountain-filled, is a short hop away and one of the best onward connections from the route.

Beyond Aix the train makes its final run toward the coast, threading tunnels through the last hills, and the anticipation builds: Marseille sits in a great limestone amphitheatre facing the sea, and the descent into it is the moment the whole journey has been pointing at. Then the platforms of Saint-Charles slide alongside, and you have arrived at the Mediterranean.

Marseille Saint-Charles is a terminus with a sense of theatre. It sits on a rise above the city, and the way down is the famous escalier monumental - the monumental staircase built in 1925, its balustrades lined with statues, sweeping from the station forecourt down into the streets below. Walk out of the trainshed, cross the forecourt, and the whole city and its light open up in front of you at the top of the steps.

It is also ruthlessly practical. Metro lines 1 and 2 run directly beneath the station, putting the Vieux-Port - the old harbour that is the heart of Marseille, about 2 km away - a few minutes down the line, or a twenty-minute downhill walk. Trams and city buses stop outside, coaches run to Marseille Provence airport, and the station is staffed and step-free, with SNCF's Assist'enGare service bookable ahead for platform assistance. For a first-time arrival, take the staircase at least once; for everything after, the metro beneath it does the work.

Two kinds of TGV run this route. TGV INOUI is SNCF's full-service train: first and second class, a bar car, generous luggage, flexible fares and departures from Lyon Part-Dieu. OUIGO is the low-cost brand - same high-speed line, much lower fares, but a single class, strict luggage rules (one cabin bag plus a small personal item, with extras paid for), no bar car, less flexibility, and often a departure from Lyon Saint-Exupery rather than Part-Dieu. Neither is better in the abstract: OUIGO wins on price for light-packing, plan-ahead travellers, while INOUI wins on comfort, flexibility, luggage and city-centre convenience.

On TGV INOUI the class question is easy for a trip this short. Second class is perfectly comfortable for under two hours, with power at every seat; first class buys a 1+2 layout with wider seats, more space and a quieter carriage, often for only a modest premium when booked early - worth it if you are working or want to arrive fresh, optional otherwise. OUIGO is single-class, so there the choice is simply whether its fares and rules suit your trip.

Arriving in Marseille, it is tempting to think of it as the end of the line. It is really the opposite - the transport heart of the French Mediterranean, from which the whole of the south is within easy reach. Saint-Charles is one of the busiest interchanges in France, and a great deal of what makes Provence and the Cote d'Azur reachable passes through it. The route from Lyon is, in effect, the first leg of a dozen onward journeys.

The connections split into three kinds. Frequent regional TER trains handle the near south - Aix, Cassis and the calanques, Toulon - with no reservation needed. High-speed and coastal trains run east along the Riviera to Cannes and Nice, and on toward the Italian border. And from the port, a short metro ride from the station, ferries sail to Corsica. Some connections are direct and some need a change, so it is worth checking each, but the principle holds: reach Marseille and the Midi is open.

Marseille is not where the journey stops - it is where the south of France begins.

The reservation rule is absolute: TGV is all-reserved, so every ticket is for a specific train with an assigned seat and there is no boarding an earlier or later one on the same ticket. For pass holders, Interrail and Eurail are accepted on TGV INOUI with a compulsory paid reservation from a limited quota - book it as early as you can, because the quota sells out well before the train does, and OUIGO does not accept passes at all. The regional TER trains around Provence are the easy exception: reservation-free and fully pass-covered. For the wider picture, see the rail passes and seat reservations guides linked below.

Everything else is low-stress. Luggage on TGV INOUI is unregulated in practice - bring what you can carry and use the racks, with no weigh-ins - while OUIGO applies its size-limited allowance. Bikes need planning: folding bikes travel free in a bag on both, but a full bike needs a dedicated bike space that only some TGVs offer and that must be reserved, so check the operator's current policy before turning up with one. For step-free travel and platform help, SNCF's Assist'enGare service can be booked ahead at both Lyon Part-Dieu and Marseille Saint-Charles, both of which are staffed; assistance is best arranged in advance where you can.