This is a Train à Grande Vitesse or TGV (literally meaning ‘high-speed train’), presumably travelling from Marseille to Paris. 17 years younger than Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train system, the more modern TGV has travelled faster than any other commercially-operating conventional train - under test conditions it has achieved 320.2 miles per hour.

Instead of line-side signals the TGV uses TVM (Transmission Voie-Machine), where information is transmitted to the trains via electrical pulses through the rails (giving signals directly through the train dashboard), as the trains travel far too fast to be sure of seeing signs whizzing past them.

Thanks to Guillaume for this one.