Our trip to France for a couple of weeks this May took us to some familiar places, and, some not so familiar.

It's the first time we've been to Paris since 2018. It was nice to revisit some sites, as well as explore some parts of the city we hadn't been to before. Like any big city, there's always something more.

A large part of the city is criss crossed by the Paris Metro, meaning you're never far from a railway station! Several of the lines are driverless, meaning you can stand in the front of the train, and see where you’re going, always a fun experience.

An overview of the railways in this post, If you’d like to look at a map of the entire French rail network, I can highly recommend this one.

Further afield on this trip, we revisited Bordeaux, using the TGV service from Paris Montparnasse , a journey of two hours and ten minutes for a distance of 580km!

There's a thrill about belting across the countryside at 300 kmh that never gets old.

Bordeaux St Jean, the main railway station was under massive renovation when we visited there in 2016, in preparation for the new high speed TGV line which opened in 2017.

Bordeaux St Jean under scaffolding as part of the 2016 renovations

On that trip, we caught a TGV train from Bordeaux, using the conventional lines into Paris, criss-crossing the new line in some places as it took a more direct route.

It was interesting to see the reverse perspective on this trip, zipping past towns and cities we'd passed through last trip.

This time, we had a couple of nights in Bordeaux before heading off into new territory, the little hilltop town of Belvès in the Dordogne region east of Bordeaux.

Belvès is served by a railway, however unlike Paris or Bordeaux with their frequent fast services, the little hilltop village only sees three trains each way a day, with an extra one on Friday evenings.

The railway is only single track, with short lengths of bolted rail, and timber sleepers, with single car rail motors, or as they are known in France, Autorails, providing the rolling stock.

Belvès is about two hours from Bordeaux, taking the train from the fantastic St. Jean station towards Sarlat. The first portion to Libourne, in the Bordeaux commuter belt was under electric traction, but, before departing the station, the pantographs dropped, and diesel traction took over.

Not an unusual circumstance in Europe, where bi mode is common, but yet to be introduced in Australia.

The line from here onwards was single line with several passing loops at stations, one notable location being well known wine centre Saint-Émilion, which we visited in 2016.

The train was absolutely packed, standing room only until Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, about 80km from Bordeaux when Janelle managed to get a seat, and I had enough room to sit on my case.

Eventually we both ended up with seats, which was far more comfortable!

Bergerac was the largest town we passed through, before arriving in Le Buisson, a smaller town, but with a large station and rail yards.

Le Buisson is a junction with the railway connecting Periguex and Niversac from the north, through to the junction station of Siorac en Perigord, with Sarlat to the east, and our chosen route, south through Belves to Agen.

The section between the two junction stations is double track, a legacy of busier times on the railway when Sarlat wasn't a terminal station, but rather another point on a through railway to Périgord and destinations east.

The Niversac to Agen railway was proposed in the 1850s, as part of a bigger plan to connect Paris Gare d'Austerlitz with Madrid in Spain by the Chemin de fer Grand-Central de France railway company (there's a catchy title)!

After debate about the route, the company was given approval to build it, but collapsed in 1857 before work began.

The Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris - Orleans (PO) took up the charter, and constructed 140km of very high standard railway with shallow gradients, substantial viaducts, and tunnels, all designed for double track, although it was laid as single.

The line was opened on August 3, 1863, after which there were three trains per day linking Agen to Paris - taking nearly 15 hours for the express, and over 25 for stopping trains!

Up until the 1990s, the line still carried sleeping car trains from Paris to Agen - somewhat like some of the sleeping car trains that used to operate in, and out of Victoria there is a balance between getting somewhere fast, or, departing and arriving at reasonable times.

From what I've researched and observed, the line is a lot quieter nowadays, with only a few trains venturing between Agen and Periguex each way each day. I was lucky to be able to photograph a couple of services crossing viaducts either side of Belves on separate days, as well as the action at Siorac when we changed trains there.

Like some other rural line in France we've travelled on, the signalling is semaphore, and controlled by mechanical levers, with some electrical interfaces. All good fun to observe, and photograph!

Interestingly, the signalling equipment isn't in the station building, but under a flimsy looking verandah arrangement, totally seperate, out on the platform.

Our train from Bordeaux was travelling to Sarlat, so we alighted, and had plenty of time to watch the signaller reset for the next arrival from Agen.

The afternoon Agen to Periguex service arrives at Siorac en Perigord.

Siorac is a typical French rural station, the different companies all put their own spin on the styling, but there's a lot of consistencies.

Once that train was through, the route was set from the double track section for our train to Belvès, and onto Agen.

It's literally a six minute train ride around the corner to Belvès, with a short walk up the hill to the village.

Google maps says it's a 20 minute, 1.1km walk, I can tell you it took us a lot longer, somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes.

The distance was nothing, it was the steep climb dragging our bags that took it's toll!

So, what made us pick Belvès as a holiday destination?

Belvès from across the valley, the road from the station is centre left.

Janelle has been writing about France and French travel on, Distant Francophile (DF) since 2014, which has meant she's met up with some other really interesting Francophiles along the way.

Over the years, we've stayed in people's rental properties, been invited for dinners and lunches, and even been driven around to wineries and villages we would never otherwise visited. It's been a great way to meet people!

This one was a while in the making though.

We were staying at Planches et Plonk, an award winning chess and wine bar, with two guest rooms in the middle of the medieval village.

A beautifully curated selection of cheeses, meat and wine at Planches et Plonk.

We'd met the owners Graham and Damon for lunch in Lille in 2019 (Janelle had interviewed Graham on DF previously), before they'd started work on renovating. It was a great lunch, and we were keen to visit once the opened, but of course, Covid happened, and we just hadn't got there until this trip.

Since then, they've been on UK TV show 'A New Life in the sun' - twice, and won several tourism awards, so we were really looking forward to catching up and visiting.

It ended up being a fantastic three night stay which probably goes without saying when you're staying above an award winning cheese and wine bar owned by great hosts in one of the prettiest villages in France, there's nothing to complain about!

Belvès is an interesting village, perched high up on the hilltop, and although there's not much in the way of fortifications to be found these days, it once had all the trappings.

The entry to the 11th century Castrum - old town.

While it’s no longer a medieval powerhouse, the weekend market, troglodyte caves under the square, laneways and restaurants all offer something for visitors.

There's plenty of places to relax and enjoy life in Belvès.

The Sunday afternoon train from Agen crossing a beautiful stone viaduct on the edge of town.

We had an easier start to our trip back to Bordeaux, and onward to Paris as Graham happened to be heading out around the same time we needed to get to the station, so no walk down the hill required.

I had time to take some photos of the station and surrounds before our train arrived, and instead of changing at Siorac en Perigord, we continued onto Le Buisson.

The disused goods shed at Belvès station

While we had a bit of time, lugging our bags around town with us would have been a pain, (we couldn't leave them at the station), so we stayed fairly close by.

Once again, there were more mechanical signals to be seen at both ends of the yard, and watched a few trains pass through, and talked to some other travellers from Australia.

A bi mode service arriving into Le Buisson through a sea of grass, poppies and semaphores.

As luck would have it, I was invited up into the cab of one of the trains waiting to depart, just as the headlight of ours came into view - I did manage a quick look!

Leaving Le Buisson, we crossed the Dordogne river, before swinging left towards Bordeaux, leaving the line to Periguex to continue north.

We crossed the river a further four times on a variety of stone arched and iron bridges, passing through small towns, and a couple of larger ones.

Crossing the Dordogne at Mauzac. The river is dammed here to feed the Lalinde canal, which bypassed a shallow 15 km section of the river.

Back at Libourne, the pantographs were raised, and diesel engines shut down for the run into Bordeaux.

Our arrival at Bordeaux St Jean was on time at 13:18, comfortably in time for the 13:46 TGV to Paris Montparnasse.

We had forward facing seats on the top level of the train for the ride back, a couple of cars walk to the buffet which wasn't too bad.

French trains are licenced, so looking out at the countryside with a beer for me, and a glass of wine for Nell and a bag of chips was a great way to finish the trip back into the city of light.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about our trip to somewhere off the beaten track, and our railway travels.

Regards,

Scott

Paris to Belvès - off the beaten (railway) track

Night Moves