Yeah, there's not yet a high-speed line between Montpellier and Perpignan. But there's one from Valence to Montpellier, so you should have run it at high-speed. Are you sure it was between Valence and Perpignan and not between Montpellier and Perpignan that you ran at 100kph? From Perpignan, there's a Franco-Spanish high-speed line that runs through a tunnel under the base of the Pyrenees. The missing high-speed link is being built and planned but won't be finished before at least 2030. On the West side of the Pyrenees, the "Y" high-speed line from Bordeaux to Toulouse and to Dax and Hendaye / Irun is also under preliminary construction. The fastest lines are Paris Strasbourg (LGV Est, where the speed record happened), the Southern two-thirds of Paris Bordeaux (LGV SEA), or the line extension between Le Mans and Rennes, and are operated at 320kph. Paris to Bordeaux is now done in 2 hours and 4 minutes for nearly 600km, and Paris to Strasbourg in 1h45 for nearly 500km. I've heard that they need to make intermediate stops on the Barcelona Paris services for profitability due to the "toll fares" of high-speed lines in France being quite high. Anyway, the slow portion has great views to make up for lost time.

@@KyrilPG You're right! I forgot about Nice. Definitely it was from Montpellier to Perpignan that the train circulated more as a regional with speeds around 100km/h. And yes I had time to admire Les Étangs and the flamingos hehe. But when you are on the train for so many hours this section seems never to end! It's a pitty they will last still 10 more years to complete the high speed :(

Together with the UK maybe. Germany and Italy are superiorly decentralised compared to France and UK. In France and UK EVERYTHING is about Paris and London. Every single thing. In Germany there's plenty of things happening in Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, etc. In Italy there's plenty of things happening in Rome, Milano, Turin, Naples, Venice, Florence, etc.

Centralisation is a political thing. Not just to say it is centralised Thats why you see Germany with many important cities. Its not centralised, it is a federal republic just as the USA

Decentralization can be pretty costly and inefficient... Though, even if France is quite centralized, Paris isn't a public funds vacuum like London is to England, quite the opposite. There are subway networks in 5 other French cities, and about 3 dozen cities have tramway networks, etc. While in the UK, for example, almost all transit funding is centered on London. The only recent example of major funding outside London, which is HS2, was axed by the government. Let's hope that, with the new Labor government, things will improve and that HS2 will be completed and HS3 built, plus some serious funding for proper transit in other cities. Not all high-speed lines go to Paris, there's the LGV Rhin-Rhône that is a tangential. But it's also the least used, as the highest demand and traffic are on radial lines from Paris. That's where you can see trains passing up to every 3 minutes during rush hour like in Japan. There are plenty of things happening in other French cities, but Paris is 10 times the size of the country's second agglomeration and its "gravity pull" area concentrates a quarter of the population. Not everything is about Paris, there's plenty of investment and developments in other cities, and the TGV helped with that. But is it really necessary to decentralize everything? On most aspects, it costs more and is less efficient than keeping it centralized, so why do it? Just for the sake of being decentralized? Some "Grandes Écoles" (top-level specialized education schools different from universities) have been decentralized, either by moving or opening local sites, and the results were mixed. It was costly, many students would have preferred the "full package" and Paris experience, and the faculty wasn't always happy. Plus, some complained about the "value" of their diploma when studying in a local annex. So they are also developing a major inter-university and "Grandes Écoles" research campus in Paris Southern suburbs. Having several research and education centers next to one another creates synergies. Changing a country that has been quite centralized for centuries is either a costly cosmetic change or a loss of efficiency, often both. So, instead of really decentralizing, it's better to improve connectivity and mobility while developing regional poles. In other words : not robbing Peter to pay Paul, but helping Paul develop while letting Peter strive on synergies.

@@KyrilPG very true. Even if centralized, for example when it comes to public transporation, tramways etc in France even in small cities you can find tramways.

You got Eurostar for that ! Thereafter it a desertificated land with catastrophic rail connections ,failing schedules and overall discomfort. Did I mentioned pricy????

You're not part of European Union ...what's the point😅

Why is that?