This marvelous, quirky little train only travels 10-15 miles-an-hour over most of it’s entire route, which is not quite 40 miles long beginning to end. The rail line dates back some 110 years and is still a marvel of engineering. Operated by SNCF, the French national railroad, it’s a narrow gauge, electric powered train that…
The better part of the day yesterday was spent traveling from Carcassonne to Vernet-les-Bains by way of Narbonne and Perpignan. It was another bi-level TGV that brought me to Perpignan and that magnificent train sat there in the railway station, engine idling, waiting to load passengers for Barcelona. The damn thing was mocking me. Once…
As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, there is a strike by railway workers underway here in France and, as with most things French, it’s being conducted in a uniquely French way. The union members–that’s pretty much everybody–don’t want to paralyze the country, so they only walk out a few days each week. And some trains…