2023-07-21 19:31:53
Do you prefer wine or champagne? By bike to the Loire or to Disneyland with the kids? This summer, two new train connections from Frankfurt and Freiburg to Bordeaux not only take France fans directly to the wine metropolis in the south-west of the country. Up to and including August 26, a TGV runs every Saturday morning from Frankfurt to Bordeaux in around 7.5 hours – with boarding options in Mannheim and Karlsruhe. The return journey also starts shortly before 4 p.m. on Saturdays. There is also a direct connection every Saturday afternoon from Freiburg via Ringsheim, Lahr and Offenburg until mid-November. It goes back on Sunday morning. There are other connections all year round with a change in Strasbourg or Paris (www.bahn.de). The intermediate stops on the routes open up completely new ways of approaching France. A few suggestions:
1. Champagne-Ardenne TGV
While the existing connections from Strasbourg continued to Paris without stopping, the two new ones now stop at the high-speed train station in the south of the city of Reims. After only five more minutes in the regional train you are in the city, which was the beginning of the Franco-German friendship after the Second World War. Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer sealed the reconciliation in the Notre-Dame Cathedral.
Image: FAZ graphics sjs.
Reims is also the unofficial capital of the Champagne wine region. Wineries such as Taittinger, Pommery, Ruinart and others are at home here, offering tours and tastings. The champagne cellars, the so-called crayeres, date in part from Roman times and were built for miles into the limestone beneath the town.
More under www.champagne-ardenne-tourismus.de. Trains from Champagne-Ardenne TGV station to Reims run every half hour, a single ticket costs 2.90 euros, www.sncf.com
2. Marne-la-Vallee Chessy
If you like fairy tales and what an American global corporation makes of them, you’ll be happy to get off here. The train station is right at the entrance to Disneyland Paris amusement park. Mickey Mouse and the fairytale castle as well as the adjacent Walt Disney Studios, where young and old can look behind the scenes of films, are only one ticket away. However, the prices are steep. Two adults and two children pay for a day ticket from 542 euros for one of the two parks at the end of July. Two parks cost from 642 euros.
www.disneylandparis.com and www.dein-dlrp.de
3. St-Pierre-des-Corps
The small town is located on the banks of the Loire and just over two kilometers east of Tours city centre. Around 80 trains run from the TGV station to the city center every day. Numerous round trips to the famous castles of the Loire start from there. If you want to explore it by bike but want to leave the organizational part in professional hands, Dertour is a good place to go (www.dertour.de). The Routes des Vins also run from Tours to Nantes along the Loire wine-growing regions. In the Vallée du Loir you can start with a glass of fruity Jasnières or Coteaux du Loir. The route continues through the vineyards of Anjou-Saumur to the Fiefs Vendéens with their variety of rosé, red and white wines. The fresh Atlantic air is already blowing in here.
www.loiretal-atlantik.com/routes-des-vins
Jutta Lemcke Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 13 Anja Martin Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 14 Niklas Zimmermann Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 30
4. Bordeaux
Large train station for the largest contiguous wine-growing region in the world for quality wines. No fewer than 3,000 of the wineries named Château and more than 5,000 winemakers produce the world-famous wines. The Cité du Vin, which opened in 2016 in the city center of Bordeaux, provides an insight into her art and that of her colleagues from all over the world. You can easily spend hours or even a whole day in this museum to train your nose and palate for the onward journey to the sources of the fine wines. Regional trains from Bordeaux to Pointe de Grave, for example, run every two hours, kilometer after kilometer past the wine-growing regions of Margaux, St Estèphe, Pauillac and Saint-Julien. Even if the term château stands for a winery and its wine, some domains actually have a real castle. The wines are often very expensive, but access is also granted without a title of nobility.
More under www.laciteduvin.com/en, www.bordeaux.com/de and medoc-tourisme.com/de/incontournables/die-strasse-der-weinschloesser/
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