Small Bears "en Vacances" Part 4: Steam Trains in the Ardeche

On the Sunday of our holiday on the Rhone, we arrived at a town called Tournon in the Ardeche province.  Hanley Bear was very excited, because it was his turn to have a day ashore with our human guardians and the excursion was going to involve travelling on a steam railway.

Hanley was pleased to be put in the "red team" for the coach, where they had a super guide called Valerie, who was very knowledgeable but funny too.

She pointed out the statue of Marc Seguin, a famous French engineer who designed suspension bridges and boilers for steam engines.

There was an accordion player to see the coaches off and again at the railway station.  Hanley wondered why he wasn't wearing a beret and striped shirt, so Polar explained that most French people didn't actually dress like that!

Hanley was delighted to see that the train would be pulled by a steam loco.  Grizzly pointed out that the wheel arrangement was a very unusual 0-6-6-0, and they watched the crew filling up the tender with coal.

Then it was time for the journey!  Hanley watched as they pulled out of the little station and started the journey up a very steep gorge beside a river.  Valerie was sad, because there has been a very long drought in this area, so the river was low and the land very dry and at risk from forest fires. 

From the train, Hanley saw an ancient bridge and a small hydro-electric power plant.  He wondered how well that was working with the river being so low.  "I hope they have some rain soon," he said to Polar.  "But not until our holiday is over!"

You can see from Polar's photos that it was a very dramatic journey!  Hanley was told to stay safely in the little wooden carriage with Grizzly, although Polar went out onto the little balcony at the end of the carriage to take some of her pictures.

Our group wasn't going all the way to the end of the line but getting off at a station about half way up the valley.

Here, Hanley saw something amazing - lots of little cycle-powered railcars, waiting to set off down the valley once our train had cleared the line!  He thought they looked great fun and wished Polar and Grizzly were going back that way rather than on the coach.

But the coach journey was very dramatic.  High above the canyon the train had travelled up, the buses pulled into a lay-by so everyone could take photographs, only to find that a car had parked in a silly place and they couldn't easily get out again - so the coach drivers and some of the passengers bounced the car out of the way!

Hanley thought the coach drivers were absolutely brilliant, taking the big coaches safely down the steep and winding roads back to the Rhone and our lovely cruise ship.

Hanley was delighted to find that it was time for lunch when he got back.

Soon we were on our way again, leaving Tournon and heading south along the river, through more enormous locks!

We decided to spend the afternoon watching the river out of our cabin window again, as it was very hot up on the sun deck for small bears with thick fur.

We saw more beautiful buildings and super scenery. but also private barges, busy commercial boats and dredgers.

We had a long journey into the evening, as we were heading for the furthest point south that our boat would reach - the city of Arles.  

We had to decide which of us would go ashore to look around this very historic city, but which bear would it be?  You'll find out in my next post!