TGV Lyria: Paris to Zurich

This is the flight replacement that actually works. Four hours and four minutes city centre to city centre puts Zürich closer to Paris than most European capitals manage, and unlike a plane the journey itself is worth watching: out through the Burgundy vineyards to Dijon, across the Franche-Comté to Mulhouse, then the crossing at Basel where French catenary gives way to Swiss and the train runs the last 90 kilometres on the Swiss network into Zürich's great trainshed. The stock is the double-deck Euroduplex, eight cars with three first-class coaches and a buffet; upstairs seats on the right-hand side get the best of the Jura foothills. Première Signature adds a Grand Voyageur lounge before departure and a meal served at the seat. Six departures a day means you can treat it as a normal connection rather than an event, and Lyria sells the same seats through sncf-connect.com and sbb.ch as through its own site.