TER and coach: Geneva to Nice via Lyon

The Passerelle du Collège looking moody in the evening, Lyon, March 2020.

Continuing with my truncated microstates itinerary, my next journey was from Geneva to Monaco. Any form of transport between the two involved changing at Lyon, so I took the Transport Express Régional (TER) from Geneva to Lyon. It runs every few hours with old but comfortable carriages, going along the Rhone valley through the Jura mountains.

As a TER service, the tickets cost the same on the day as booked in advance and so I just bought my ticket from the SNCF machine in the France-bound section of the station. 

Preparing to leave Geneva station from the customs-controlled platforms. 

As Switzerland is part of the Schengen area but not part of the EU customs union, travelling between Switzerland and the EU can involve customs checks but not immigration checks. The trains to France leave from special customs-controlled platforms accessed through a customs control corridor, where the customs officers just waved me straight through without being checked. It seems that they don't really check anyone other than those carrying large luggage.

The ticket needed to be validated with the machines on the platform just like with any other SNCF flexible ticket, but it was as straightforward as boarding any domestic train anywhere else in France. 

Comfortable seating is now becoming a thing of the past, as these old carriages eventually get retired.

The TER service uses a locomotive hauling old Corail carriages. These carriages have largely disappeared from the intercités network but are much more comfortable than in more modern trains - the UK isn't unique with its Thameslink ironing boards. In this case, there's a choice of old-style compartments, table seats, airline seats as well as these unusual bar-type sofas for groups. All were very comfortable and had lots of space (comparable to First Class in the UK), and the train wasn't anywhere close to full. 

Running along the Rhone valley, threading through the Jura mountains. 

The journey to Lyon is a scenic run along the river Rhone next to the Jura mountain range, though the weather was quite grey on the day I made the journey. It was still clear that it would have been very scenic had the weather been better, though. 

Eurostar sets at Culoz waiting to be scrapped, as urban-explored here. 

The service I took went to Lyon via Culoz, incidentally going past the SNCF scrapyard where the old Eurostar sets are now being stored before getting scrapped. The railway yard was full of old TGVs and carriages, as well as a long string of probably over 100 old Nez Cassé locomotives waiting to be scrapped. All have now been replaced with much more modern trains, but it was still sad to see Eurostars - such a shining symbol of European collaboration - neglected and destroyed. I wonder what this is a metaphor for...

Arrival at Lyon. As a French company, of course SNCF designed its locomotives with style in mind. According to the designer Paul Arzens, the Nez Cassé "broken nose" shape is inspired by the form of a "sprinter on the starting block". It's very different to what Sprinters are in Britain, anyway.

We soon arrived at a busy Lyon Part-Dieu station. It's a short walk to the city centre, but not far from the Parc de la Tête d'Or and the botanical garden. I didn't have very much time in Lyon - only a taster over an evening - but it was a very nice city and one that I intend to come back to in the near future to spend some more time in. The food scene definitely deserves its excellent reputation. 

Around 12p per km, a similar price to 16-25 off-peak tickets in the UK. 

The journey takes around 1h50 from Geneva to Lyon, a similar journey time to travelling by car but a lot more comfortable. There are also coaches that take 3 hours, though the coaches are much cheaper. 

Lyon - Nice overnight coach

I hadn't planned to visit Lyon at all and would have just transited through by train, but I noticed that the timing of the trains was such that I would have to spend a night in Nice. But there was an overnight coach from Lyon around midnight that evening which would then arrive in Nice at around 8AM the following morning, giving me as much time as if I had stayed there overnight but while travelling much more time-efficiently. It was much cheaper, as well - the cheapest train was a Ouigo budget-TGV for €10, whereas the overnight coach cost €4.99 including overnight accommodation - and so I spent the evening wandering around Lyon and having an excellent dinner at a local bouchon. 

Passerelle St Georges and the Saint George Church of Lyon at night

After an evening exploring and eating in Lyon, I made my way to Lyon Perrache coach station. The design of the coach-and-rail station was clearly very modern in the 1970s, but is now a run-down concrete shell of its former self. It was still clean, but stood most notably as a monument to what people in the 1970s thought was the future. The city is now refurbishing the station, so maybe this will change. 

On the coach to Nice, there were enough free seats that I was able to turn two reclined seats into a sort-of flat bed as the seats had leg support when fully reclined. I actually slept quite well (at least in duration, if not in quality), and woke up to the eerily beautiful sight of sunrise over a deserted Nice, with the foothills of the Alps lit orange in the morning light and with the sun rising over a glistening Mediterranean Sea. It gave a hint of what the 1920s rich and famous would have woken up to while their luxury Train Bleu arrived along the Côte d'Azur, though I was on a mere BlaBlaBus coach instead of the Calais-Mediterranée Express. It was still probably the best bus journey I'll ever take, though, just for that moment waking up to sunrise over the Mediterranean - something I did not expect at all. 

Arrival in Nice coach station at ~7am. 

The coach arrived in Nice around an hour early. Conveniently, the coach station is next to Nice Riquier rail station where I could continue to Monaco, and the early arrival meant that I had quite a bit more time to explore the principality as well. I hadn't used overnight coaches before, but was pleasantly surprised. Granted, a large part of that is probably down to my being able to fit into and sleep well on seats, but I'd now be less hesitant to use these kinds of overnight coaches to save time where sleeper trains aren't available. 

Summary: 

Date: Tuesday 10th March 2020

Main experience: Arrival in Nice, waking up to sunrise over the Mediterranean. 

Cost: Geneva-Lyon train: €22.10, Lyon-Nice coach: €4.99