Where to go in Winter?

My friend and I will be travelling by train around France from about 8-18 December, starting in the South West region. Does anyone have any ideas about the best places to visit in the South? We will not be able to hire a car. I would like to experience a few nights where it is snowing. Is there a nice place to visit by train in the Pyrenees? What are the beach cities like Biarritz and Nice like at that time of year? Alternatively, we could go right over to the East and into the French Alps, but how do we get from Bordeaux to Lyon (which I would love to see) and on to the Alps? I believe this area is not serviced by train. Any opinions and suggestions would be fantastic!

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I don%26#39;t know the South-west too well but for train scheduling you need to check out www.sncf.fr which is the French Railways website. I%26#39;m not sure that there are too many east-west rail routes, however, since most rail routes run via Paris, so you may find the journey long and likely to involve lots of changes. Biarritz is likely to be pretty quiet (and cold) at that time of year; in Nice you will find more to do (museums, galleries etc) and it is close to Monaco and Grasse, but it won%26#39;t be beach weather. The French Alps are very well-served for trains (Chamonix, Bourg St.Maurice etc) but you may need to go via paris to get there. Another option might be to access the Southern French Alps via Nice, but I don%26#39;t know that area well enough to advise whether any train stations are anywhere near the resorts. If you are going into the mountains in December, wrap up warm!

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Thanks for replying. I realise it will be cold, I just wanted to know if the resort towns will be dead quiet too. We need people around us! Do you know much about the Pyrenees? I%26#39;d like to go to a ski town there, but don%26#39;t know much about it...

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Its not quiet in Nice in winter - in fact Nice used to be a winter resort as the climate is very mild. Nice never gets quiet though its not a huge city.

Nice is often very sunny during the day in winter and you can get very hot sitting in the sun [though not actual sunbathing weather] but its chilly in the shade , and at night .

there will be lots of events and festivities on along the coast- xmas markets, concerts , open air ice rinks etc

Its easy to take a train or bus into the mountains to maritime alps from Nice and visit one of the ski resorts or mountain villages

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%26quot;Do you know much about the Pyrenees? I%26#39;d like to go to a ski town there, but don%26#39;t know much about it...%26quot;

Here is a list of resorts in the Pyrenees (with map).

There might be little snow in early December.

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Thanks for the info! May well pop down to Nice now, and will definitely look into the Pyrenees.