Fast Train to Nice
I’ve just returned on a TGV train to Avignon after spending 24 hours in Nice.ย
The train ride along the Cรดte d’Azur out of Nice is spectacular. Antibes. Cannes. These are places I only dreamed I would see. Now they’re passing by me as if they were crossings on a road.
Strings of ochre rocks line up offshore like stalagmites on a cave floor. The sea is solid blue except for the white tips of the gentle waves and the occasional gray spots that lead to the depths below.
Riding on a high-speed train from place to place is getting to be something I take for granted now. Avignon to Nice, 3+ hours. Nimes to Paris, 2+ hours. Nimes to Barcelona, 3+ hours. Going to and from world-known places is more accessible than driving from Beaufort, South Carolina, to Atlanta, Georgia.
Somehow I feel like I’m experiencing time travel.
How quickly the landscape changes as the speeding train rolls from the coast through Provence’s fertile fields and vineyards. The landscape is dotted with stucco Mediterranean houses with red tile roofs. However, the stucco has changed from tan to rose. Tree-covered mountains border the background on both sides of the track. Toulon. Marseille. The back side and outskirts of the large towns are not the best views.
Soon, the modern train station of Avignon will be in sight. It seems to stand in the middle of nowhere. Concrete and glass. Steel-covered parking structures and carefully marked spaces for the hundreds of cars that move in and out, delivering passengers to and from trains and their following destinations.
It’s all part of what I call “home” now. A different world. A new landscape. A new culture.
I could get used to this.
