2023-07-23 07:14:48
Most of the guides on the market offer more or less realistic itineraries, preceded by more or less practical advice.
On the stalls of booksellers, tourist guides offering itineraries by train are multiplying, echoing the growing number of travelers wishing to avoid the plane or the car to go on vacation. “There is a real resurgence of attraction for the train”, testifies Vincent Barbare, CEO of Edi8, the subsidiary of Editis which publishes the Lonely Planet guides in France.
“When I was 20, the question was not whether to fly or not, it was whether I had the money to leave. Today, I see it with my children’s generation, how to get around is becoming an important criterion for determining the destination”, he notes: “I want to travel but I don’t want to take the plane, so it’s the train. So, I can’t go everywhere!”
With a few exceptions, rail tourism guides are therefore limited to Europe and suggest combining the train with cycling excursions or a bit of walking.
“It’s more than a fashion, it’s a rediscovery of a means of transport, due to the fact that many people are more and more sensitive to their carbon footprint”, confirms Cécile Pétiau, editorial director of Hachette Tourisme.
“I saw the change in my activity after the Covid crisis”, with “a real boom from 2021”, she says. And to promise new publications, after two first volumes on Italy and Northern Europe by train.
More or less realistic
Same speech at Michelin, where “we are thinking about other titles” after two books on France and Occitania in TER. “We are also gradually strengthening the place of the train in the Green Guides”, underlines Philippe Orain, the director of the travel guides bearing the image of “Bibendum”.
Most of the guides on the market offer more or less realistic itineraries, preceded by more or less practical advice. Barcelona-Stockholm or Amsterdam-Split at Lonely Planet. A loop in Scotland at Hachette. Limoges-Vierzon at Michelin. Or even a daring bet at Gallimard which offers, despite the war in Ukraine, a route from Kiev to Odessa and Lviv, in a guide published in 2023. Even a Sofia-Athens route… where there is in fact no more train.
Many books seem to care little about timetables or the absence of lockers in many stations, which can be a problem if you want to stop on the way.
Praise of slowness
The authors gladly call for “rediscovering the pleasures of slowness”, as the Tao guide.
“The goal is not just the goal, but the path that leads to it,” writes Juliette Labaronne, author of Slow Train, quoting Lao-Tse. His book, published in 2019 by Arthaud, launched the trend.
At the border between travel guides and beautiful books, these books are looking for their place, recognizes Stéphan Szeremeta, editorial director of Petit Futé. “Thematic guides are always more difficult because customers do not know where to find them at the bookstore”, he points out. According to him, they are “rather in the inspirational”, especially useful for building itineraries.
Railway heritage
Incidentally, these guides are interested in railway heritage. Le Petit Futé invites you to stop at the Latvian Train History Museum in Riga. The editions of La Vie du rail even offer a very extensive guide to rail tourism and leisure in France.
Michelin, for its part, has partnered with the SNCF for its “Holidays by train” which invite you to travel across France by TER, with testimonies from railway workers in support. But if she bought guides, the SNCF paid nothing. The company takes “no steps” to promote rail travel, notes a spokesperson. She helps as needed and is delighted with this editorial enthusiasm:
“There is no better sign of the place than the train is taking.”
In this palette of recent guides, the Backpacker is conspicuous by its absence. “We cannot really make a generalist guide on trains”, judges his boss Philippe Gloaguen. “It’s a very special science, each country has its own policy!”. But “we always talk about it in all our guides, always”, he insists.
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