PARIS to MILAN by train- Spectacular TGV through the Alps.

Hello and welcome to another Trip Report. I am at Paris Gare de Lyon and I'm going to be taking a very special train. I'm heading down to Milan on a TGV in first class. It's going to be an amazing journey with some great food and some wonderful views along the way. Please join me and we're going to head to Milan. Enjoy the video. Gare de Lyon is one of Paris's six principal railway stations. It's determinous for a number of TGV routes to the south of France, Switzerland, Italy and even to Spain. Today I am booked on the 10.41 departure to Milan Porto Garibaldi, seen here on the screens. Now this train does take seven hours to go between Paris and Milan, so I won't be advocating it as the fastest way to get between the two cities. The train is however perfectly timed if you're a travel enthusiast. After breakfast in Paris, you can take this train for the bulk of the day, having lunch on board and it'll drop you at just before 6pm in Milan, just in time for dinner. If you have some time to kill here at Gare de Lyon, go and visit Hall 1. It's not where the train departs from, but it is the original train shed to Gare de Lyon, before the station was subsequently extended in the 20th century. Season travellers will know that one of the benefits of visiting Hall 1 is the opportunity to see one of the world's most glamorous station buffets. Le Trambleur restaurant occupies much of the first floor here. It's got a fantastic reputation and offers an exquisite dining experience, although at these prices I don't think I'll be making a visit today. One thing you need to be aware of when travelling in first class on French trains, it's not like it is back in the UK or some other countries, there's no complimentary food or drink provided. I recommend that you make a stop in Relais, which you can find at most major railway stations across Europe, and particularly in France. Pick up something to eat and drink unless you want to pay extra on the train. Gare de Lyon is steeped in history. It isn't just Britain that has war memorials within its stations. Here at Gare de Lyon, this memorial commemorates the sacrifice of employees of the PLM and SNCF railway companies. Adding to the sense of nostalgia around this station is the presence of the Orient Express. A revival of the original Orient Express train, this super luxury sleeper is now operated by luxury brand Belmond. The vintage carriages are catching everyone's eye here. This queue of people are not even passengers on the train, but have bought tickets simply to look inside. A ticket for the overnight journey between Paris and Venice costs around 100 times what I paid for my ticket to Milan. £3,500. It's my lifetime ambition to travel on the Orient Express and I was really looking forward to today's journey down to Milan in TGV on first class, but there's nothing quite like seeing a lifetime's ambition dangled in front of your face to put things in perspective. That is one seriously expensive train. I managed to pick up my ticket for around 43 euros, that's £37 sterling. This is around half the normal price you would expect to pay because I picked mine up during a sale. Ticket prices vary with demand. You can buy them either directly from SNCF or from a retailer like Trainline Europe or Loco2. While I'm here, it's a good time to tell you about my other social media which you may like to follow me on. I have an Instagram and Twitter profile and I update them regularly. You can also follow my trips in real time on the Instagram stories function. Our train actually consists of two trains. On the back is a budget TGV in WeService and this will be with us as far as Chambury. On the front, a dedicated Paris to Milan TGV set. This is a single-decker train and I'll be traveling in it all the way down to Milan. As is common across Europe, first class on TGVs is in a 2 plus 1 formation. One of the really interesting things about these modern TGVs is the fact that when you select a forward-facing seat, they have a dynamic seat numbering system so that whichever way around the train is facing, the direction you booked is a direction you get. You can certainly fly between Paris and Milan but no airline flying between those two cities offers you anything like the comfort offered by these large TGV armchairs. There's no need to check your luggage. Large pieces go in the racks at the end of the carriage and smaller pieces in the overhead racks like this. We leave Gare de Lyon bang on time. One of the things I really find interesting about this journey is that it's really two journeys in one. Over half of the distance down to Milan is between Paris and Lyon but it will take us just two hours to get to Lyon and another five hours to traverse the rest of the journey. This is because the first part of the journey is on the LGV Sud Est, a high-speed line in a straight line straight across France. The second portion of the journey winds its way through the Alps between France and Italy. First class on this train has a dedicated host who hands out menus to all passengers at their seats. As I mentioned earlier, there are no complimentary food or drink options in TGV first class and that is common across France. However, bearing in mind that the ticket was only around about a 15 euro upgrade from standard class, I think this is more than acceptable. The onboard menu also contains a multitude of options and that is definitely not the case when you're getting a complimentary offer as you do on some UK train operating companies. If, like me, you're getting lunch on board you'll probably want to look at the meal deal option which is shown here. We'll look at the food very shortly but first let's take a look at what the seat offers here in first class. The seats here have literature pockets similar to what you'd find on an aircraft where you can store magazines and menus. There's also one charging socket per seat and there's also a fold-down footrest. You'll probably only find this comfortable if you're on the shorter side. Air conditioning is provided through these window vents and there's also a reading light stylishly built into the wing of the seat. There are two things here that I'd really like to see more of in Britain. First, a dedicated cup holder and secondly, a very large and very sturdy fold-down tray table. This is probably the largest fold-down tray table I've seen on any train in Europe. There's also a roll-down window shade. The scenery down to Lyon is mostly flat farmland, however you should be aware that on the LGV Sud-Est, as there are on many high-speed lines, your view will often be blocked by sound barriers like this. Nonetheless, these engineering features are part of the payoff for building a long straight line across the country. This was actually France's first dedicated high-speed rail line. For an extra two euros on top of your meal deal, you can upgrade from a soft drink to a bottle of wine. You place your order with the host and he'll bring the food to you from the cafe bar. At 16 euro, this meal deal is not particularly cheap, however, despite appearances, the food was actually rather good. Having lunch on the train isn't just an efficient use of time. I always find that having something to eat breaks up the journey somewhat. This mousse, by the way, comes with the meal deal and is absolutely delicious. Less than two hours after leaving Paris, we're at Lyon's Saint-Exupery station. This is the interchange station for the airport of the same name. The train does stop here for a few minutes, so I recommend, if you have the chance, to get out and stretch your legs. After Lyon, we leave the high-speed line and turn east towards the Alps. Our average speed halves and the scenery more than doubles. This second portion of the journey is the real reason you should take the TGV between Paris and Milan. Our next stop is Chambury. Just arrived at Chambury in the French Alps. It's a beautiful afternoon. I'm not sure if you can even make out the mountains behind me, but it's a beautiful afternoon for a train ride. That other train on the back behind us is going to be detached here at Chambury. That continues on to Grenoble and Annecy, so I'm just going to see what the uncoupling operation is like. Upon departure from Chambury, we wind our way through the Alpine foothills. The TGV is a relaxed and civilized way to travel. There's an onboard cafe bar, which you can see here, and if you get bored, of course, you can circumvent the host and come here instead to order some drinks. The onboard facilities still compare very well to other European trains. The toilets were very clean throughout the journey. Travellers from the UK will want to note the foot pump flush on the right-hand side. This should save you a bit of embarrassment when you're looking round for the handle. This is what a standard class carriage looks like, and it's arranged in a 2 plus 2 configuration. My favourite station on this trip is Modane. This lies on the French and Italian border. Again, this train stops here for several minutes, so you can get out and take a few photos. The Alpine breeze here is clean and fresh, and there is wonderful scenery. What a wonderful setting for a train station this is. A few minutes after leaving Modane, we pass through the Frejus rail tunnel. This is over eight miles long. It's a shame that tunnels are so boring to record, because I didn't include any footage of it in the video. Upon exiting, we enter Urs, which is in the Piedmont region of Italy. Having climbed down the Alps to Turin, our train rejoins a high-speed line between Turin and Milan. It takes us just one hour to make the journey between Turin and Milan, and very shortly, we're on Milan's outskirts heading into Porta Garibaldi station. And so here we are in Milan at Porta Garibaldi station. This is not actually the main station here in Milan. That's Milano Centrale, which is about a 20-minute walk just over that way for me. In a couple of hours time, I'm connecting through to the Milan Palermo sleeper, which includes a train ferry, something which is almost unheard of in Europe these days. They've all died out. Anyway, I hope you really enjoyed coming with me on the TGV between Paris and Milan. It's definitely not the quickest way to get between the two cities, but I hope you'll agree it's the most fun. So if you do get the opportunity in future, definitely take this train. I thoroughly recommend it. It'll be a good use of your day. 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