About this journey

Nice-Ville station, opened in 1864 and completed in 1867 for the PLM railway, sets the tone for this coastal journey. Architect Louis-Jules Bouchot designed the building in Louis XIII style, and the station has always kept its character: Arles stone sculptures, a forged steel rooftop, and a richly decorated passenger hall. In an earlier era the station received distinguished services including the Côte d'Azur Pullman Express, the Blue Train, and the Mistral.

The route west from Nice-Ville is the Marseille–Ventimiglia railway, running along a corridor where high-speed infrastructure does not reach — trains between Nice and the Italian border run at reduced speed throughout. The line follows the Mediterranean coast before turning inland toward France's second city.

Marseille-Saint-Charles, the western terminus of this route, opened on 8 January 1848, also built for the PLM, on the site of the former Saint Charles Cemetery. The station's 14 terminal platforms and four through-tracks are all equipped with 1500 V DC overhead wire. Annual passengers grew from 7.1 million in 2000 to 17.9 million in 2024, reflecting the broader transformation of rail travel in southern France. Where Nice-Ville greets travellers with Belle Époque intimacy, Saint-Charles closes the journey on an emphatically metropolitan scale.