lille

Why wouldn't you just take the direct Lille-Montpellier train that leaves Lille at 09:00 and arrives in Montpellier at 14:01?

You start by taking a 2hr Thalys instead of the regular TGV that goes from Lille to Paris in 1 hour.

For example, it takes about 18 hours to go from Lille to Montpellier by train, on opposite ends of the country.

If you take that itinerary again I recommend considering changing to/from the Eurostar at Lille instead.

If you live in Lille you may not feel like it, but if you live in Marseille you totally want to vote Southern Europe.

The point is that Metz->Dijon, two cities almost next to each other, takes as long as Lille to Montpellier, two cities on opposite ends of the country due to the centralization of the rail system.

You're right, my time for Lille to Montpellier was by bus, by train it's closer to 24 hrs, I double checked.

One of these leaves Lille every 30 minutes or so.

I find the wording and the idea behind it as stupid as the trouble in Lille due to not being part of Schengen.

A city like Lille (or Strasbourg, Nantes, etc.) offers a much better quality of life but looks like to a small village regarding tech, in comparison to Paris.

I'm not even sure how you could take intercity-only tickets and as far as I know there are no intercity trains going from Lille to the south.

> You're right, my time for Lille to Montpellier was by bus, by train it's closer to 24 hrs, I double checked.

Even some of those who knew of the Lille stop were surprised to find they had to carry their luggage throughout" Who would want to do that?

I actually live exactly in it, west of Lille, and all the area is either built up or farmed.

We are based in Lille, a close stop from London (90min), Brussels (30min) and Paris (50min).

Lille to Montpellier is about half the distance of New York to Miami.