Peep! Peep! all aboard 🚂 We slept well despite the threat of earthquakes according to the signs in the toilet block 🫨. No time to dawdle this morning, we had a schedule to keep too; well the train did. It was sunday and it was steam train day 🤗. Oooo, we do like a stream train; the nostalgia, the engineering, the sounds and the smell!
The Cevennes Steam Train runs 13km from Anduze in the Cevennes mountains to Saint Jean du Gard along the Gardon valley. The steam train runs every other day during the week and every day at weekends from June onwards.
The train winds its way thru tunnels and over bridges crossing the rivers below, pulling old open sided carriages so you can lean out at your peril to admire the superb views below.
4 stream trains and 1 diesel are in regular use;all living at Saint Jean-du-Gard , together with all the carriages and other assorted rolling stock.
Although it was busy with both OAP tourists and families, the train wasn't full by any means and you could pretty much get to pick where ever you wanted to sit. The journey took about 40min, was well worth it and a lot of fun 😅.
We managed to grab some space in the first carriage coupled behind the train so we got the full experience of the sounds, the smells, the steam and the dust in your eyes, together with screams from the children as we entered and exited the tunnels. I kept to the back, being pretty much the tallest, so I could take pictures, keep an eye on Jill as she hung over the side and constantly make a mental note of exactly where we were in case she dropped her phone in all the excitement 🫨
Immediately after leaving Anduze, the train enters a long 833 m tunnel that opens onto a 104 m long metal bridge over the Gardon river. The railway then crosses the Gypières and Amous Valleys on a 3 arch and a 6 arch bridge, taking you past The Bamboo grove . A exotic botanical garden filled mainly with, yes, bamboo, about 100 different species apparently. The gardens have their own station if you want to get off and have a look. We didn't as we didn't want to miss any of the journey looking at plants 😆.
Further on there are other interesting civil engineering works: a 7 arch curved bridge, a deep cutting with high retaining walls, a 6 arch bridge over the road to Lasalle , followed by the last tunnel of the line which is 157 meters long.
An unexpected event, blowing off excess steam as we passed an open part of the valley, noisy and very entertaining.
After what felt like.... ages 🤗, we arrived at Saint Jean du Gard and disembarked like a couple of giddy school kids to kill 2hrs before the return journey. Time to take pictures then eat.The railway has quite a young workforce, both running it and maintaining it and traditions seem to run strong; not sure if it was 'bring your daughter to work day' or if she's a regular member of the crew but with a sooty face and her own gloves she seemed to be enjoying herself .Now it was time to eat. There are 2 restaurants just outside the station at Saint Jean du Gard and one on the station itself. We went for the one on the station. Although it was busy, as the train has a 2hr turn around and everybody wants feeding NOW of course it wasn't long before we were tucking into a HUGE beef burger covered in local blue cheese with chips and salad on the side. This was a real treat for us as chips are really a bit beyond our cooking capabilities in the van (oven chips are the devils work in case you didn't know 🤮).
Time was ticking, 2pm approached but there was still time for desert, maybe . Jill ordered 1 coffee and 1 pudding, a Tarte du Tartin. The helpful waiter brought 2 coffees and no pudding. Confusion. The 'house' waiter who had taken the order, the only one taking orders, was no where to be seen. Almost 2pm. I went and paid for what we had and what we wanted; the helpful waiter, apologetic, fumbled over the till. I paid for the burgers, 1 coffee and a pudding that never came. Such is life. We boarded our train, The 1949 Henschel, this time right at the back to get a different view of the journey home.
We trundled past some ladies who obviously were not bothered about health and safety 🤔
A wonderful day was had by all. Time to find a bed for the night. Jill had found us a free carpark camping aire behind the church in the little village of Le Bastide-Puylaurent less than 2hrs away. With a service point providing water for €2 , the little carpark by the picnic area next to the river ticked all the boxes of being somewhere to spend the night. It was also on the border between 2 national parks which gave us options as to where to go next day.
But before that, we had to pass the reservoir and drive over the top of the dam 😯
When we got over and up the twisty road to the parking place we were so interested in the scenery behind us we didn't notice was coming in front of us!
"Err, have you seen the sky over there!".
The lighting and thunder started 🫨. Its pretty hard to try and photograph lightning with just a mobile phone. I missed several opportunities and then the rain started. We didn't actually get wet as the rain clouds blew over to the otherside of the valley but it did hinder seeing any more decent lightening strikes. More twisty mountain roads then we found our little village and parked up for the night on the carpark alongside 2 other vans just as the rain finally caught up with us.
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