Nice to Brussels

There may be through trains from Nice to Brussels in the summer but you will probably have to change. However, you shouldn't have to cross Paris if you look for itineraries using trains running directly from Lyon to Lille: search on www.tgv-europe.com and book tickets. Claim to be in Canada or the UK and opt to either print tickets at home or collect them at the station. You should be able to find journeys that don't involve transferring between stations in Paris. If you can't find journeys all the way from Nice to Brussels try looking for separate legs Nice-Lille and Lille-Brussels. However, going from Nice to Brussels by train will be a very long journey and expect to spend all day on the train. If you don't have serious pro-rail or anti-air feelings, I would recommend flying. Brussels Airways and Easyjet both have direct flights from Nice to Brussels, and the airports aren't too far out of either city.

Looking on Rail Europe UK for a weekday in May, they suggest itineraries from Nice at 0555, arriving at Brussels at 1423, changing at Marseille, and from Nice at 1127, arriving at Brussels at 2042, changing at Lyon.

Thats a long train ride, over 8 hours, I would seriously look at flights.. but I found our train ride from Paris to Nice to be about my train ride limit and that was 5 hrs 40 minutes. Easyjet and Vueling come to mind..

Thank you Philip - I'll get on it

We did book a flight - just too much time taking the train no matter how much we love them.