Lyon & Provence - Tournon

 

Day 5 - Saturday 19 August – Tournon

09:00 was the included excursion for a ride on the Tournon Steam Train. This is a heritage railway with a one metre gauge. 

I’d been tempted by the optional Vineyard Hike, but decided it was too strenuous for my current health after viewing Viking’s “Beyond the Brochure,” video featuring Jean Newman Glock.

It’s a short coach ride to the railway station and we are there with ample time to spare before the train is due to depart. There is a gift ship and a separate (free) museum and the steam engine itself attracts attention as the crew get the steam up.

Train carriages are open, more like goods wagons with roofs and have wooden benches. There are many groups on the trip. Some have their name on chalkboards, but the carriages that Viking uses have a metal holster that takes Viking’s paddle. Each of the four groups from our boat has their own carriage. Guests from Viking Heimdal that departed Lyon to go to Avignon on the same day we departed Avignon to cruise to Lyon are on the train. Capacity of the train is 500 passengers.

We are given a map of the route and can see where the track crosses the gorge. The best views are from the right side, but our guide asks us to swap sides coming down, so everyone gets view from both sides.

It’s been a dry summer and when the train sets off it is closely followed by a diesel locomotive pulling a water bowser to extinguish any trackside fires that sparks from the steam engine might cause. We are told that in flood the River Doux sometime reaches the height of the track, but on our August trip the river consists of pools separated by dry stony river bed a long way below.

After 35 minutes the train stopped and we can get out. Many rushed to the turntable where the de-coupled engine reverses onto and is turned so it is ready to pull the train back down. We swapped sides in the carriage as the train headed back down reaching the terminus in 26 minutes.

Delling departed Tournon shortly after we left so the coaches took us up-river to Andance where Delling is waiting for us to embark for lunch before setting off again. During the afternoon the wheelhouse is open for visits and there are French pastries available in the lounge and a demonstration of how to make Chocolate Fondant.

We enjoy a relaxing afternoon cruising and pass vineyards of Cote Rotie.

The boat is scheduled to moor at Vienne 16:45 for an included walking tour of this historic town, but it is delayed and arrived after dinner so the Vienne excursion is cancelled.