Rail route of the month: the slow train from France to Spain

Our slow travel expert dodges the high-speed TGV and takes a regional train from Avignon bound for Portbou, just over the Spanish border

Avignon is a natural way station for travellers from Britain and northern Europe bound for the Iberian peninsula. It’s a place for choices. Fast or slow?

Travellers in a rush to reach Spain head for the Gare TGV, which opened in 2001. It is a good way south of the city centre in Courtine, a new suburb that was once a watery wasteland between the Durance and Rhône rivers. From that rather sterile out-of-town station, a high-speed train leaving at 8.40am gets to the Spanish capital by mid-afternoon.