Getting around in Côte d’Azur
Monday, March 14th, 2011 at 14:30 | categories: Information, Travel
The public transportation system here in France is really good, even if the local busses are a little bit slow. You can get pretty much anywhere using either a bus, train, plane or a combination of them. What makes all this even better is the price: local busses cost 1 euro and the trains aren’t that much more expensive either. If you’re under 25 a train to Nice is about 4 euros, a bit more if you’re old.
By bus
To go to school I take the bus 100, which is an express bus to Sophia-Antipolis. It doesn’t really feel like an express bus since the 6,4km to the school takes usually around 20-25 minutes, but it’s ridiculously cheap: a 5-year-pass (yes, 5 years) costs 5 euros. The local busses in general are notorious for being slow and unreliable, and the trip from Antibes to Cannes (around 10km) can take up to an hour. If you’re in no hurry, the most convenient way to get to/from the airport is number 200, Nice-Cannes-Nice.
The fun part in the busses is that they’re usually full and there are no seats left. Because the drivers are usually crazy people, the passengers standing up have to perform all sorts of acrobatic movements to stay alive.
Commuting
By train
There are two types of trains: local and the fast TGV trains. The local trains usually stop in every town and are fairly slow, but still way faster than the local busses. You can check the schedules at voyages-sncf.com. What’s noteworthy is that the long distance TGV trains can be booked online on two sites, the SNCF site and at iDTGV site. The latter one can sometimes be half the price and you can choose the seating and even the ambience.
Choosing the ambience. I feel zen.
You chose the right one… 😛