The LGV Sud-Est (French: Ligne à Grande Vitesse Sud-Est; English: South East high-speed line) is a French high-speed rail line which connects the Paris and Lyon areas. It was France's first high-speed rail line. The inauguration of the first section between Saint-Florentin and Sathonay-Camp by President François Mitterrand on 22 September 1981 marked the beginning of the re-invigoration of French passenger rail service. Other LGV projects have extended the reach of high-speed trains that use this line, including the LGV Rhône-Alpes and LGV Méditerranée to the south and the LGV Interconnexion Est to the north. These connecting lines shortened journey times between Paris and the southeast of France (Marseille, Montpellier and Nice), Switzerland and Italy, as well as between the southeast and the north and west of France, the United Kingdom and Belgium. The LGV Rhône-Alpes, Sud-Est and Méditerranée, taken as a whole, were also nicknamed the City To Coast (C2C) Highway ("Ville à la Mer"). Route The line crosses six departments, from north to south: Seine-et-Marne Yonne Côte-d'Or Saône-et-Loire Ain Rhône The TGV system is compatible with the regular rail network, avoiding the need for new infrastructure construction to reach existing train stations in the dense urban areas of Paris and Lyon. The distance from Paris (Gare de Lyon) to Lyon (Part-Dieu) is . The LGV route is long; by avoiding built-up areas between Paris and Lyon (particularly Dijon) this enables a route shorter than the regular line, which is long. There are no tunnels. The line includes various connectors to the regular rail network: at Pasilly-Aisy towards Dijon, and further through the Jura Mountains to Vallorbe and Lausanne or Neuchâtel and Zurich at Mâcon-Pont-de-Veyle towards Bourg-en-Bresse and the Savoie department at Saint-Florentin at Le Creusot station at Mâcon-Loché station These last three are used by service trains or in order to divert passenger trains if needed. The line runs next to the A5 autoroute for and the N79 road for . For its full length, a -wide area has been reserved for a telecommunication artery. Line specifics The line has a surface area of in comparison Charles de Gaulle Airport occupies with an average width of . Platforms are wide, with a space between track centres of . The line was designed for a nominal speed of , with a minimum radius curve of although seven curves were made to a smaller radius, but no less than .