A marvellous train journey

Didn’t have much time to recover from my busy week on the British Isles – we were once more awaiting guests for the weekend – this time Ollie (an Azurian hailing from Greolieres, which Ollie insists is “the most beautiful village in France”) and Rafaele, his lovely lady friend. To not waste any time, they most kindly picked me up at the airport, and off we headed straight away to Nice. After a meal of some local specialities, including socca (perhaps the most local of the lot – kind of crepes made of chickpea pasty), we headed for a few pints in Cours Saleya. We were also joined by Sami and a friend of Ollie’s. Since we had a marvellous train to catch the next morning, we headed home rather early, racing with Ollie’s friend along the promenade all the way to Cagnes-sur-Mer.

So next morning, we got up at an ungodly bright ‘n early hour, and jumped on the train to Nice. There, after a quick breakfast at the coffee shop next to the station, we changed for the Train des Merveilles. This tourist train (which is even accompanied by a rather well-informed guide) goes from Nice, through some very scenic scenery along the Roya valley all the way to Tende, the last town on the French side before heading into Piedmont in Italy. The journey was most fascinating, and not only because of the gorgeous views. The nature of the terrain (mountain valleys) must’ve posed an enormous engineering challenge at the time the train line was built (more than 100 years ago) – it probably still would do so. In some places they even had to build spiral tunnels – a straight line would’ve been too steep for the steam trains of olden days.

On the way to Tende, we crossed plenty of pretty Provencal villages – such as Peille, Peillon, Sospel and Saorge (which we would visit on the way back to Nice), and St-Dalmas-de-Tende (which is famous for its imposing train station built by Benito Mussolini – it used to be the last town in Italy, so the ol' Duke wanted an imposing train station to welcome the French) – until we finally arrived in Tende, the end of the line, so to speak (for the train des Merveilles that is - there are other trains all the way to Turin on the same line).

Tende is a place with a rather interesting history – as towns on borders tend to have, I suppose. It was actually Italian until 1947 – and you can still sense the Italian influence in the architecture, and the feel of the place. It’s also kind of the gateway to the Vallée des Merveilles – a famous archeological site in stunning surroundings, famed for its rock paintings. Tende is in a pretty stunning location in its own right, at the bottom of the Roya valley, so we decided to do a short walk from the town, heading up to the nearby hills. After this frisk bit of physical activity, we explored the typically picturesque old town – until our rumbling stomachs forced us to seek out a restaurant. They weren’t particularly inclined to serve us in the first one, so we ended up in quite a classy restaurant, with some nice rabbit stew on our plates. Having silenced our rumbling stomachs, we headed for the impressive and interesting Musée des Merveilles – which unsurprisingly is about the nearby Vallée des Merveilles. Unfortunately, we had a train to catch, so were forced to make the visit a quick one.

We got on the train back towards Nice, and got off at Saorge, a village I’ve wanted to visit ever since I read it called “a piece of Tibet on the Cote d’Azur” in the infallible Guide Vert. Our little Train des Merveilles leaflet promised a 20 minute walk on the road, or 1 hour on the hiking track, from the train station to the village. Since we still had a bit of energy left, we decided to go for the hiking track. Hard work, it was, as we had to climb all the way up this big bloody mountain, only to walk all the way down the other side to reach the village! And as for the 1 hour – I think whoever wrote that leaflet must’ve been on a bike or something… (we took nearly two hours). But anyway, it was a nice enough walk, and the views were pretty stunning. And of course it gave us the perfect excuse to have some gingerbread and beer at the local bar/epicerie, whilst chatting to the local regulars (well, Ollie did the talking actually, nearly being a local after all). As for the village – it certainly is one of the prettiest once I’ve seen – and it’s rather impressive, the way they manage to build it on that mountainside. But calling it a piece of Tibet on is maybe a bit exaggerated….

And that was it for this time. A great day, all in all. I reckon this is one train we’ll take again (maybe next time we'll have time to check out those rock carvings in the Valle des Merveilles)!

More photos here.