Journey quickly to France — via a number of stations? (7-3)

'stations?' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'journey quickly to france via a number' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'journey' could be 'hop' (as in a short hop, a short journey) and 'hop' is present in the answer.
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is found within the answer.
'number' could be 'l' (L is an example) and 'l' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?