A single place to visit between Lyon & Brussels

[Forg]

Ladies & gentlemen, I have a gap.

Leaving Lyon on 27th June, booked in Brussels 30th June.
We don’t have a car.

All the places I’ve semi/demi considered have involved travelling through Paris if going by train … like, wanna go to Strasbourg or Stuttgart, you go through Paris. Then from there to Brussels, through Paris again.
I’ve tentatively looked at flights, while travel times can be a little bit shorter there’s more stuffing-about at airports and it’s mostly going through a hub such as Paris or Frankfurt or Amsterdam.
One-way car rentals don’t seem to be available.

I mean those 6hr train trips aren’t the end of the world … but if we went to Paris they’d be 2hr train trips.
But I’m not convinced Paris is optimal in June. So busy, so scammy, it’s nearly as scammy as Beijing.

Any suggestions, thoughts or alternatives?

 

[Scarlett]

If you can deign to travel by bus, I’m sure Flix bus could get you most places enroute.

I’ll start with:
Geneva (easy to get around with trams. Go to CERN. Walk around the lake)

Luxembourg (only a small city and interesting to explore for a day or two)

Nürburg in Germany. (If the name doesn’t mean anything to you give it a miss. If it sounds familiar, go there and hire a dedicated car for a lap or two )

Go to Bruges before Brussels. Just go there! Then get a local train to Brussels.

If you’re interested in military history go to Lille or Ypres or for specifically Australian memorials, to Villers-Bretonneux.

 

[MELso]

Ladies & gentlemen, I have a gap.

Leaving Lyon on 27th June, booked in Brussels 30th June.
We don’t have a car.

All the places I’ve semi/demi considered have involved travelling through Paris if going by train … like, wanna go to Strasbourg or Stuttgart, you go through Paris. Then from there to Brussels, through Paris again.
I’ve tentatively looked at flights, while travel times can be a little bit shorter there’s more stuffing-about at airports and it’s mostly going through a hub such as Paris or Frankfurt or Amsterdam.
One-way car rentals don’t seem to be available.

I mean those 6hr train trips aren’t the end of the world … but if we went to Paris they’d be 2hr train trips.
But I’m not convinced Paris is optimal in June. So busy, so scammy, it’s nearly as scammy as Beijing.

Any suggestions, thoughts or alternatives?

Eh? There are direct trains between Lyon and Strasbourg through SNCF and DB, and one daily service from Strasbourg to Brussels on SNCF.

Assuming my May trip goes ahead, I'll be taking the train from Bordeaux to Strasbourg. Several hours but nonstop.

It's just that the full schedules probably haven't been loaded yet.

 

[harryhv]

Like Champagne? Try Rheims. Lots of wonderful champagne-tours and a historic cathedral where the kings of France were crowned. Not overcrowded with tourists, and not overpriced.

 

[OZDUCK]

I would be happy to stopover at either Strasbourg or Rheims.

The train trip between Strasbourg is very easy without a change of train and you can avoid Paris. The train we took passed through some lovely countryside mostly to the east of the Vosge Mountains.

Rheims is lovely and very walkable city with plenty of good food available and has a lively student vibe.