Train de L’Ardeche

Great day on the steam train that runs from Gare de Tournon St Jean inland to Lamastre along the river Doux. The rain was wonderful if a little sooty and the scenery was stunning. The line was originally opened in 1891 covering 33km the locomotives transported wood, silk people and mail. There were lots of little beaches along the river and we saw lots of families and dogs enjoying the water. Along the route at Boucieu-Le Roi you could switch to a velorail and return to St Jean under your own steam, sadly this wasn’t on the website I looked at as I would have gone for it John was pleased we didn’t and as they were sat around in the sun for ages at the beginning it was probably best not to try it. Up in Lamastre we tried another ‘formula midi’ not a complete success. Google translate established it was something to do with quail and served with salad and chips but when it arrived the quail bit was a sort of sausage wrapped in what looked like loose edible net with lots of green and for me the meat taste was way to strong but the chips and salad were good as was the chestnut ice cream with chestnut sauce, a local delicacy. We hadn’t realised but different carriages were effectively from different classes of travel on the way up we had padded seats and luggage racks on the way back wooden slatted seats not the most comfortable. It was a fun day out.turn table at LamastreLæs mere