My boyfriend and I would like to spend a week to 10 days travelling around the South of France travelling by train. We would like to see as many places as possible – is there a company that would organise this for us? Could we buy a pass that would include all train travel? Where would you recommend we should visit? Anon, by email

Times Online rail expert Alan Heywood responds: Ten days in the south of France sounds a very pleasant thing to do and, if you intend to do a lot of train travelling, your best bet is to use our old friend, the Inter Rail Pass.

This is now available in a variety of forms – one country passes for individual countries for a selection of durations – 4, 6 or 8 days - or Global Passes for the whole of Europe. Naturally, France is one of the countries featured and an 8 day France Inter Rail costs £293.

This sounds expensive but of course becomes amazingly cheap when you consider that it gives you unlimited train travel all over the country. The only thing I need to stress is that a seat reservation is essential when travelling by fast TGV service and these reservations can turn out expensive if you travel at peak times (especially Fridays when all of France seems to be off for “le weekend”.)

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Another word of caution is that you may not get full value if you confine yourself to short journeys in a limited region.

Notice also that eight days is the maximum duration for a one-country pass. If your holiday is 10 days in length, an 8 day plus a 4 day is not a good deal. You would be better off with a Global 10 day pass for £352. This gives unlimited travel all over Europe for 10 days within a 22 day period – now that’s what I call good value!

On the subject of places to visit, one could write a book and it really depends on what takes your fancy. Initially the words South of France suggest beaches on the Riviera between Marseille and the Italian border or expensive yachts in small exclusive harbours. There is of course so much more – only a very short distance inland from the southern coast is the superb scenery of the Maritime Alps of Provence.

Further east, the Pyrenees are easily accessed by train. Indeed the “Petit Train Jeune” (Little Yellow Train) is a narrow gauge train operated by the state railway (so your pass is valid!) and runs along the Pyrenees from Villefranche, near Perpignan, to La Tour de Carol. From here a standard gauge train will take you to Toulouse.

Whilst in this area, do pay a visit to Carcassonne which is a lovely walled city on a hilltop. This is on the main line between Toulouse and Narbonne / Marseille and has a very regular train service.

I could go on and on but I’m sure I’ve given you some food for thought. One final point – if you want to get from Paris to the South of France without those TGV supplements, try the secondary route via Clermont Ferrand and the Massif Centrale. It takes much longer of course but the scenery south of Clermont Ferrand is superb – and because it’s a slow route you won’t find it overcrowded.

Useful web sites to visit are www.eurostar.com and www.raileurope.co.uk

www.seat61.com is full of useful tips about European rail travel generally and written from personal experience and knowledge.

Alan Heywood is a director at rail specialists, Ffestiniog Travel

Got a question for Alan? Email us at yoursay@timesonline.co.uk

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