There are at least 3 levels of French trains: the suburban trains, the regional trains, and the big daddy bullet train, the TGV. We rode a regional train from Paris to Migennes, and then again from Chatel Censoir back to Auxerre where we picked up a car to drive to Provence. All of the trains were clean, modern, and on time. The ticketing process is fully automatic if you wish. In the larger stations and on the trains there are ticket vending machines that take most credit cards. The only weak links in the system are a few of the personnel. There was someone that spoke English in all the larger stations. But the two stationmasters in Chatel Censoir were not good advertisement for the system. They didn’t sell tickets and the one on duty when we left for Auxerre throw us out of the waiting room into the wind and rain right at 12 noon when they locked up and went home for lunch.
The TGV is the bullet train. It took us 5 1/2 hours to drive from Chablis to Avignon in Provence, including a stop for lunch. It took us under 3 hours to go from Avignon to Paris, a distance of 100 miles greater, for a total of 415 miles. But the trains aren’t cheap. The TGV ticket cost 80€ each, or about $110, $220 for the both of us. It would cost far less to keep our car for two more days and returned it in Paris.
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