A train adventure in France
Alexis the no.1 Tiny Adventurer
For our summer holiday this year we chose to complete a French train adventure. We started with the Eurostar from St Pancras to Lille, before heading to Rennes (with a day trip in St Malo) and finally heading to Paris before catching the Eurostar back to London.
Day trip in St Malo and A’s first experience of the sea!
We decided in 2022 that we really wanted to try and cut back on our flying, taking either the train or boat for any trips that are possible. There were many reasons why we wanted to try and do this, but foremost was the environmental impact of flying. Since then we’ve done a few train adventures. Heading to Belgium twice by train and Germany once.
I will say we are very lucky that this is feasible for us. As an academic my annual leave is pretty generous meaning I can ‘lose’ I suppose the time spent travelling because I have the AL to do it. From a financial perspective we are also lucky, my partner works for Avanti West Coast and therefore has generous discounts on trains in the UK and Europe, making train holidays a really affordable option for us.
The most incredible shop front in Lille. Until 2016 this was a seafood restaurant and the building is a historic monument. The restoration was completed by Louis Vuitton in 2016. I think they’ve done such a beautiful job of it. Wonky picture, apologies!
We had a brilliant time in France, but I will say the trip was not without issues (I’m writing here primarily about transport!)
If anyone is interested in doing a similar trip (or exploring Brittany by train more generally) I would advise doing this the opposite way around to us. Owing to train times it makes much more sense to do Paris- Rennes (or St Malo!)-Lille than the other way around. Our trip involved a somewhat calamitous schlep across Paris for example because we didn’t realise how infrequent the trains were before we booked our accommodation. For anyone interested in planning your own train adventure I would really recommend checking out the Man in Seat Sixty-One https://www.seat61.com/.
I am also partially to blame for some of the problems of the trip. We only have carry-on size suitcases so decided to take the suitcase left in our loft by our flat’s previous owners. The suitcase cracked all around the bottom at some point between leaving the flat and arriving in Lille. I ended up gaffa taping it back together for each leg of the journey and it (somehow?!) got us back. My miserly ways strike again…
This was how the suitcase looked after Leg 1- trust me it got a lot worse. The wheel was barely hanging on by leg 3 of the trip!
Having a one year old with us did make the multi-leg trip more challenging. The worst thing was navigating the Paris Metro with a buggy and a big suitcase when neither of you speak French! The metro is just not accessible at all. We took our running buggy because it’s easy to take the front wheel off and still manoeuvre it, but for future trips I think we are just looking at getting a very lightweight cheap secondhand stroller type buggy instead. Despite the difficulties it was pretty impressive that at almost every set of stairs we encountered someone offered to help us.
A enjoying the view on the way to Paris
The mainline trains we took were much better in terms of accessibility (all TGV- also much easier to get a buggy on and off than the trains in Belgium, which we had some issues with back in April). We found the seats easily sat the three of us comfortably. The train guard on the way from Rennes to Paris was particularly lovely and Alexis was totally enamoured with him.
Overall the trip was brilliant. We had such a nice time in France (Alexis got addicted to French nectarines) even if the weather was a bit rubbish for some of it. There was plenty to do, without feeling overwhelmed and we managed to get in a few runs each whilst we were in Rennes. As a vegetarian family we ate well throughout, which even now isn’t always a given on holiday. A special mention here for Pepin Bistro where we had dinner one night in Rennes, some of the nicest food I’ve eaten in ages.
Family run in Rennes
Some of the best carrots I have ever eaten. Pepin Bistro, Rennes.
We definitely came home and immediately started to think about where next we could go on the train. There’s more areas of France close to where we went this time I’d really like to visit. For example, I was looking at some really interesting museums etc in Roubaix which is super close to Lille. The majority of our trip was spent in Rennes though and for us Brittany felt ideal as a holiday destination. I think next time we go to France we might try and explore Nantes too.
No.1 thing I was sad to miss out on. We stayed up the road from Piscine St Georges when in Rennes. It is meant to be one of the most beautiful swimming pools in France, but it was closed when we were there!
I also feel I can’t finish this post without a special note. For any French supermarket fans: Carrefour in Lille is one of the best city supermarkets I’ve been to (and right by the two main stations). The cheese selection. Fantastic.