2 min read
This month, Eurostar is running three new direct services from London St Pancras to Lyon, Avignon and Marseilles with no need to change. We take a peek at what these Gaellic gems offer the holidaymaker…
Where: Lyon
Journey time: 4 hours 4 mins, from £89 return
Why go:
France's third city has a rather lovely old town. Vieux Lyon - part of a Unesco World Hertigage site, in the 5th arrodissement, is an atmospheric tapestry of passageways called traboules and some date back to the fourth century. They are by the river and silk weavers wove their way through them to transport their products. Meanwhile in the neighbourhoods of Saint-Jean, Saint-Paul and Saint-Georges you'll get a gorgeous eyeful of Renaissance architecture - the largest in Europe - courtesy of the 15th and 16th century bankers.
The new £200 million Musée des Confluences recently opened its door to its futuristic building as a science and anthropology centre. It's been dubbed the city's "own Guggenheim" but for something more arty there is also an extraordinary collection of art and sculpture at Musée des Beaux-Arts. Head to the top of Montée de la Grande Côte street to see some beautiful doorways and arches as well as a view over the rest of the city. Or catch the funicular that will whisk you from Vieux-Lyon to the top of Fourvière hill and the Basilica of Notre-Dame for a vista that stretches as far as the Rhône and the Saône. Get there between May 13-17 and get into the electronic groove with the likes of Mad Mike Banks, the Soft Moon, Marcel Fengler and the Chemical Brothers during the Nuits Sonores festival.
Where: Avignon
Journey time: 5 hours 49 mins, from £99 return
Why go:
This seat of papal power, long loved by artists and painters, has an elevated location over the Rhône river and an attractive lattice of cobbled streets, all hemmed in by an 800-year-old stone wall. It is a treasure chest of impressive architecture and none more so than the Papal Palace, probably Europe's finest medieval Gothic building and worth a peak to absorb its grandeur. Archbishops wielded power from there but used to hang out at the nearby Petit Palais, but today it's all about Renaissance art. Angladon Museum (5, rue Laboureur), is home to works by Manet, Cézanne and Sisley with the big draw being Van Gogh's Railway Carriages.
When you get to Pont St-Benezet of the nursery rhyme fame, why not have a shot at reciting the verse "Sur le pont d'Avignon/ L'on y danse, l'on y danse"? The bridge has only four of its original 22 arches remaining; it can be viewed from a ring road that passes nearby.
Jazz lovers should aim to get there between July 31 and August 5 for the Tremplin jazz festival.
www.tremplinjazzavignon.fr
Where: Marseilles
Journey time: 6 hours 27 mins, from £117 return
Why go:
The Vieux Port is the focal point for France's oldest city, founded by Greek traders 2,600 years ago. Pleasure boats bob in front of a fish market, bars and restaurants.
In 2013 the city of Marseille was elected European Capital of Culture when The Mucem museum (Museum of the Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean) was born, costing a staggering €191 million. For that money you get historical displays from the Stone Age onwards, all wrapped up in a glittering building.
Get to Marseille in July (17-24) for a toe-tapping jazz festival at the Palais Longchamp gardens. The Israeli Omer Avital quintet are signed up.
And be sure to experience an excursion to the islands of If and Frioul. www.frioul-if-express