From village art galleries to grand museums, fine dining to fresh produce markets, Guy Wilkinson takes an epic train trip through France.
Australians are used to travelling long distances, whether it's staring out of a fly-encrusted windscreen at an infinite desert highway or boarding a flight simply for a weekend getaway. In Europe though, it's a little different. Thanks to its world-class rail network, practically any destination is accessible within a few hours, and in most countries trains are fast, comfortable and efficient.
Putting a France Rail Pass to the test, I travelled from the French Riviera in the south to the corner of Brittany in the west. My mission: to discover a cross-section of French culture, from hidden vineyards and backstreet bouchons to top-flight art museums, grandiose chateaux and all things in-between.
Though often sneered at for lacking the glamour or exclusivity of neighbouring Cannes and Monaco, Nice has world-class attractions including the baroque old town, believed to be one of Europe's oldest settlements.
A heart-pounding walk up Castle Hill provides panoramic views over the 18th-century port, buildings dating to the Middle Ages, the Southern Alps and even Elton John's gaudy mansion.
Wandering the labyrinth of cobbled alleys, you'll discover squares, cathedrals, shops and, further south, the markets where vendors peddle wares beneath striped tarpaulins. This region is also a mecca for art lovers. The celebrated painter, Henri Matisse, lived here between 1917 and his death in 1954, and the free-to-enter Matisse Museum housed in a Genoese mansion is an enjoyable contrast to the flashier nearby Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.
Details Matisse Museum, 164 Av des Arenes de Cimiez, 10am-6pm Wednesday-Monday, www.musee-matisse-nice.org; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Promenade des Arts, 10am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday, www.mamac-nice.org.
Staying there Hotel La Perouse, 11 Quai Rauba Capeu, Nice, from €290 ($355) a night. hotel-la-perouse.com.
A short hop west by train in the Provence region - you can use the inexpensive French regional TER services - the mediaeval hilltop village of Saint Paul de Vence is situated between the Mediterranean and the foothills of the Alps. The town has long been a haven for artists and its narrow streets are jammed with boutique galleries. It gets crowded, with more than 2.5 million visitors swarming the place each year, but is definitely worth the visit. Take a guided art history walking tour, or dine at Le Colombe d'Or, a restaurant-cum-inn opened in 1920 where famous artists would exchange paintings for accommodation or meals.
Details La Colombe d'Or, +33 4 9332 8002, www.la-colombe-dor.com; St Paul de Vence museum and tourist office offers guided tours from €5.
saint-pauldevence.com.
Though parts of Antibes resemble tackier sections of the Gold Coast, there are interesting pockets of culture if you know where to look. In Juan les Pins, guided tours along the waterfront follow the footsteps of master painters such as Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso, with a series of replica paintings marking where the originals were crafted. En route, check out the recently refurbished Picasso Museum, with an emphasis on the artist's late-1940s work. There's also a great selection of black-and-white portraits of Picasso at work during his time in Antibes, taken by photographer Michel Sima.
Details Painters Trail 90-minute tours, Fridays 10am, departure from Antibes Tourist Office, 11 Place de Gaulle, €7 adult, antibesjuanlespins.com; Musee Picasso, Chateau Grimaldi, 06600 Antibes, open every day except Monday, €6 entry.
Staying there Hotel Royal Antibes, 16 Boulevard Leclerc, Antibes, from €120 a night, hotelroyal-antibes.com.
frenchriviera-tourism.com.
If the Riviera is about glitz and glamour, then Lyon is about food. France's third-largest city is the gastronomic capital; there are more than 2000 restaurants here, 14 boasting Michelin stars.
Eschewing the fine-dining scene in favour of a more down-to-earth experience, I opt for a meal at a local bouchon, the term given to traditional Lyonnais restaurants specialising in no-nonsense French fare. Bouchons were originally established to service local silk trade workers and, although a handful of authentic joints still exist, there are many tourist imitations, so pick carefully. In an informal atmosphere among candles and red-and-white chequered tablecloths, I feast on braised calf's head in ravigote sauce, blood sausage with stewed apples, braised beef cheeks in a red wine sauce and soft-poached egg in a concentrated wine and bacon broth. It's worth the trip on its own.
Food lovers should also take in the famous Les Halles de Lyon indoor market. On weekends, locals descend on the 58 charcuteries and fresh-food outlets for the best produce.
Other Lyon highlights include the old town and Notre Dame de Fourviere Basilica, perusing the diverse museums (the Lyon City Card has discounts), exploring the silk workshops and taking a drink aboard a barge moored on the Rhone River. If you're keen to escape the city, use your rail pass for day trips to the nearby Cote du Rhone wine regions of Burgundy and Beaujolais.
Details Lyon City Card, lyon-france.com; Cafe des Federations Bouchon, 8 Rue du Major Martin, 69001 Lyon, +33 4 7828 2600, lesfedeslyon.com; Les Halles de Lyon, 8am-7pm Tuesday-Saturday, 8am-noon Sunday, halledelyon.free.fr.
Staying there Hotel Le Royal Lyon, 20 Place Bellecour, Lyon, from €220, lyonhotel-leroyal.com.
lyon-france.com
Wild, rugged and steeped in tradition, the Massif Central and Auvergne regions are among the lesser-visited parts of France. The industrial capital, Clermont Ferrand, is often used as the gateway, but it's best to get off the beaten track and explore the decidedly more picturesque surrounding areas.
Using the stylish 26-room, five-star Chateau de Caniere as my base, I enjoy an afternoon hiking in the Madrague Hills on the outskirts of Riom before dropping in on a few cellar doors, where local winemaker Benoit Montel takes me through his distinctive selection of blends.
Nearby Moulins, an attractive riverside town dating from 990, is steeped in art and history, its cobbled streets flanked by timber-framed houses. At Le Bistrot du Boucher, you can dine in the room where Coco Chanel sang between acts as an aspiring performer; just outside the town centre, the National Centre for Stage Costume, housed in a former cavalry barracks, is home to more than 10,000 theatre costumes.
For another cultural experience the Maison Mantin, a 19th-century bourgeois home, opened its doors to visitors for the first time in November 2010, nearly a century after the death of owner Louis Mantin. Filled with stuffed animal heads, antique furniture and assorted oddities (not every home office has a human skull on the desk), it's like wandering through a perfectly preserved time capsule long shrouded in mystery.
Details Le Grand Cafe, 49 Place d'Allier, Moulins, +33 4 7044 0005, bistrotduboucher.fr; Maison Martin, Place du Colonel Laussedat, Moulins, +33 4 7020 4847; National Centre for Stage Costume, Route de Montilly, Moulins-sur-Allier, +33 4 7020 7620, cncs.fr.
Staying there Chateau La Caniere, Rue de la Croix Blanche, Thuret, from €130 a night, chateau-la-caniere.com.
auvergne-tourist.com/
Overlooked by the magnificent 15th-century Chateau d'Amboise, perched on the southern banks of the Loire River, the mediaeval town of Amboise is famed mostly for the Chateau du Clos Luce, the last residence of Leonardo da Vinci. King Francois I invited the artist to the residence in 1516 as "first painter, architect and engineer" of the king, and he spent the last three years of his life happily working here.
Inside you can tour the gallery, bedroom, work studios and halls, while the basement and elaborate gardens showcase his many contraptions, including a fully armoured tank and a series of peculiar flying machines.
To see where the painter was laid to rest, tour the Chateau Royal d'Amboise where you'll find his tomb inside the chapel of Saint Hubert. Positioned on the overhang of one of the seven bridges criss-crossing the Loire River, the views are unparalleled and history buffs will be entertained; the chateau's origins date to the 9th century.
Details Chateau du Clos Luce, 2 Rue du Clos Luce, 9am-7pm, +33 2 4757 0073, vinci-closluce.com; Chateau Royal d'Amboise, Place Michel Debre, opening times vary according to seasons, +33 2 4757 0098.
Staying there Le Clos d'Amboise, 27 Rue Rabelais, Amboise, from €95, www.leclosamboise.com; Le Pavillon des Lys, 9 Rue d'Orange, Amboise, from €98, pavillondeslys.com.
Once an industrial powerhouse, Nantes was the centre of the shipbuilding industry until the late 20th century but now it has evolved into a city known for art, innovation and a lively student culture. Nothing personifies this shift more than Les Machines de L'ile.
This is a fantastically bizarre artistic project located in the previously vacant metalwork shops of the Chantiers de la Loire shipyards.
Described as a blend of the imagined worlds of science fiction writer Jules Verne, the mechanical inventions of Leonardo da Vinci and the industrial history of Nantes, it's essentially a surrealist cultural project with a family-friendly bent.
Highlights include a 12-metre-high, 48-tonne mechanical elephant prone to spraying water from its trunk; The Gallery of Machines, featuring a robotic heron; and the newly opened Marines Worlds Carousel, a 360-degree theatre carousel dedicated to creatures of the sea.
For a more traditional Nantes experience, you'd be hard pushed to beat dinner at La Cigale. Opened in 1895, the interior decor is the stuff of legend - an audacious art nouveau blend of stained glass, ceramics and tapestries - while the menu has a heavy emphasis on seafood.
North-west of Nantes, the pre-Roman town of Vannes marks my final stop. Now accessible by a three-hour direct fast train from Paris, this fortified 2000-year-old city is a wonderful blend of old-meets-new. Behind a stone wall circumnavigating the entire mediaeval old town, I stroll a labyrinth of alleys cluttered with vividly painted 16th-century timber houses. Vannes was one of the few cities to escape Allied bombing during WWII and its perfectly preserved architecture and 13th-century Gothic Cathedral Saint-Pierre are a sight to behold.
Outside the old town, bars surround the marina, where crowds gather to drink beer in the sun. There's a lively, artistic feel to Vannes, and it's no surprise it's fast becoming one of Brittany's top drawcards, along with nearby Quimper.
Just across the Gulf of Morbihan, the tiny Aux Moines Island is an ideal day trip and has a winter population fewer than 600.
Dotted with white stone cottages, manicured hedgerows and colourful beach huts, it feels more like a randomly transplanted slice of England's west country than France but as this rail trip has proven, this is a country that often feels worlds apart from one station to the next.
Details Les Machines de L'ile, Shipyards Park, Boulevard Leon Bureau, Nantes, +33 0810 121 225, www.lesmachines-nantes.fr; La Cigale, 4 Place Graslin, Nantes, lacigale.com; Le Select Brasserie, 14 Rue du Chateau, Old City.
Staying there Hotel Pommeraye, 2 Rue Boileau, Nantes, from €59 a night, hotel-pommeraye.com.
brittanytourism.com
The writer was a guest of Rail Europe, French regional tourism boards and Etihad Airlines.
1 The France Rail Pass provides unlimited travel on French national rail network (SNCF) in first or second class.
2 If travelling more than three sectors by rail, a rail pass is generally better value than buying several point-to-point tickets.
3 Most intercity and high-speed trains require a seat reservation if you're travelling on a pass, so make sure you book in advance.
4 For intercity and cross-country legs, make use of the high-speed TGV; it's slick, modern and travels up to 300km/h.
Getting there
Etihad Airways flies daily from Sydney and Melbourne to Paris via Abu Dhabi. Costs from $2537. etihad.com.
Getting around
Rail Europe offers a range of tickets and passes across 22 countries and 25,000 destinations on more than 11,000 train routes. Passes include the best of Europe's trains from TGV and Eurostar to Lyria, Trenitalia and many more. Routes include high-speed trains, night trains and scenic routes. Choose between point-to-point tickets and multiple journeys. Validity dates range from a few days to a few months. France Rail Passes start from $198 for an adult and $99 for children. raileurope.com.au.
