On my return to Paris from a week in Normandy, I am comforted by the late afternoon light on a station’s brickwork façade, a clock face, and the clink of cups from the café. In the rural town of Évreux, the ritual begins under a long line of white-arched windows and a dignified façade that has watched departures and arrivals for more than a century. Évreux’s station is officially called Évreux-Normandie today, although the network and even some maps still have the previous historic name Évreux-Embranchement – it’s the same station. It stands on the Mantes-la-Jolie–Cherbourg main rail line and once connected to the city of Rouen, but no longer. The station’s building dates to the 1880s and, after heavy wartime damage, was reconstructed to match the original. The façade is red brick framed with pale stone, with arched windows that flood the concourse with light in a very 1880s west-railway style. In the 20th century, the station saw steam give way to diesel, then to a fully electrified line in the 1990s. For a time, France’s famous turbotrains roared through Évreux before electrification was completed in 1996. The geometry of the Évreux rail line is three passenger platforms and multiple tracks, dating back to its former life as a busier hub when lines fanned out across the Eure. Eure is a department of Normandy, named after the river Eure with the most populous town being Évreux, where the rail line of the Romilly area (where I vacationed) feeds into. Eure is the only Normand department to border the Paris region department called the Île-de-France. Tourists will know this Saint-Lazare line due to Giverny where French artist Claude Monet lived. Évreux has direct trains to Paris–Saint-Lazare station on TER Normandie services. The typical journey time is about 1 hour 10 minutes with roughly 20–22 trains daily depending on the day and season. First departures from Paris are early; last trains back to Paris are comfortably late for dinner. Previously employing hundreds of workers and dispatching around 100 trains a day in its heyday, Évreux’s rail lines have thinned as road travel has become more popular, yet the main line remained. Today, it is ideal for a “rail return to Paris” – fast enough for a spontaneous Parisian museum afternoon or a dusk concert. Once the train rolls and that gentle shudder moves the carriages forward toward Paris, the Normandy to Île-de-France journey from one window begins with the fields of the Eure giving way to the denser towns around Mantes-la-Jolie before the approach into Saint-Lazare, Paris, one of Europe’s great 19th century terminals. The modern TER double-decker train runs smoothly, but peak-hour trains – that I experienced – can be lively with commuters, while off-peak rides are quieter. In short, this journey has a handsome 1880s station and a direct line that drops you into the heart of Paris in about an hour, and just enough railway heritage for a little time travel.
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