Hi Marion,

Absolutely any necessary number of connections can be taken, and any distance can be covered on your inbound and outbound travel days. Lyon-Paris-Rotterdam would be completely valid. To the best of my knowledge, the only stipulations are that you do not board any trains within your own country after midnight, and that overall, your journey takes you either out of the country, or to an international port or airport that you intend to use.

Hope this helps, and happy planning!

...Quick budgeting tip! Paris to Rotterdam direct would be on a Thalys train; these will always cost €30 to reserve, and you’ll already be charged €10 for the TGV to Paris and have to dash across town from Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord.

What I would do is take a direct TGV from Lyon to Lille (€10), then go from there to Antwerp and change train for the final short hop to Rotterdam. Neither of the last two trains require reservation so you’ll save €30 overall. They’re very frequent too, so you can stop-off in either Lille or Antwerp (both very worthwhile destinations) for as long as you like on the way :-)

*Please note, the timetable will tell you that you need to change trains at Kortrijk to go from Lille Europe to Antwerp. But you don’t - the train just gets renumbered at Kortrijk because another train is attached to it there.

Thanks a lot for your answers and your advice, it will help! :)

No problem, my pleasure :-)

Sorry, Lille Flandres, not Lille Europe! Your TGV from Lyon will probably arrive at Lille Europe, but the train to Antwerp will leave from Lille Flandres. Both stations are right next to each other, conveniently enough.