Nimes-Brussels via Paris

Today I travelled from Nimes to Brussels. On the map, this looks like a long journey and distance-wise it was. Time-wise it was very fast. So far I have taken several train rides in France. The ones on the high speed trains (TGV, Eurostar and Thalys) were not necessarily the fastest trips. London to Paris was about 3 hours, Morlaix to Paris about 4 hours. Tours to Bordeaux again about 4 hours. On all of these routes the train only travels at a high speed for part of the route if at all. The Nimes-Paris route was much longer than any of these, yet it only took about 3 hours. The train ran at 300kph (186mph) for nearly the entire route and only stopped once in the middle. It was seriously fast. It was also the most scenic train ride I have been on yet. It traveled up the Rhone valley past Avignon and Lyon, through Burgundy to Paris. The south of France actually has topography unlike the North and West of France. It is not flat. It was a very enjoyable and fast train ride. I set up my reservations so I arrived in Paris around 11am and was able to spend the entire day there before heading to Brussels in the evening. I wandered around and saw a few more sights I wanted to see. In the evening I caught the Thayls train to Brussels and 1h25 of high speed travel later, I set foot in Belgium.