Chemin de fer de Provence, Nice to Digne les Bains

The full journey from Nice to Digne takes almost three and a half hours each way. If you take the first and last trains, leaving Nice at 0655 and getting back at 2057, you get about seven hours in Digne. The next train isn't until 0925.

My personal suggestion is that you take the train to Entrevaux, which is a very attractive and under-visited walled village that is around ninety minutes from Nice.

I took the trip a few months ago on a day that was predicted to be a wash-out. And so it was. I wanted to see Entrevaux and Digne. Looking at the schedule (which you may be able to find online), I chose departures that gave me the maximum amount of turn-around time at Digne (which wasn't really quite enough--maybe 75 minutes?). I think I had more time in Entrevaux, but part of that time fell within the southern-France siesta period, so the village wasn't exactly johpping. The deluge didn't encourage shopkeepers to hurry to reopen.

I enjoyed the trip a lot, but I'm not sure I'd have subjected myself to that weather if I had realized the ticket would cost close to 50€. Perhaps poking around on the internet or careful checking of racks of brochures will turn up some discount options.

If you're tight on time, you can consider just doing a round-trip to Entrevaux since it's more over-the-top picturesque than Digne (though I did enjoy Digne, even in the rain). I think most tourists would want to spend more time in Entrvaux than in Digne, but you'll have to time things right to find a real meal in Entrevaux. It might also be possible to take a one-way trip to Digne (stopping in Entrevaux for a while) and make some sort of loop to return via a different route. I didn't explore schedules enough to know whether that would be possible in a single day.

Since you will probably not have enough time at one or both of the stops, I recommend printing out maps of each town/village so you don't waste any time getting oriented. Also keep you eyes open for useful local brochures lying around the train stations.

thanks for your feedback. I will continue my research and consider going only to Entreveau. I have wanted to do the trip for a few years now and should have time this fall.