Notre Aventure Française, 2013: 22nd September

We think you could do, see or experience something different every day here in the Rhône-Alpes and wonder if we shouldn't stay longer - perhaps another 3 years or so.
We are living in the Isère Département of the Région of Rhône-Alpes.
Today we crossed the "border" into the Ardèche Département of the Région of Rhône-Alpes, about 50 kms to the south of us to see and experience a completely different sort of countryside. We headed towards Tournon-sur-Rhône from where we were looking for the Train L'Ardèche , a restored narrow gauge train operation built by 1000 men between 1886 and 1891 to ply between the Gare de Tournon-Saint-Jean and Lamastre, another town at the end of Les Gorges du Doux, the gorge connecting the towns, and carry building materials (stone and timber) down to the riverside towns.
We found the train at 10.30am and paid for two tickets - it wasn't leaving on its 1.5 hours' return trip until 3.15 so we had some time to kill, so back to Tournon-sur-Rhône for an explore. Tournon sur Rhône's main attraction is a feudal castle that is built into a rock overlooking the town and the river, and whose foundations date back to the 10th Century. The castle fascinated us as it seems to grow out of this rocky outcrop.

Castle on rocky outcrop

Other side of castle

After lunch, including escargots for Bob, we headed back to the train and arrived at about 2.30. Just as well we bought our tickets earlier as there were heaps of people lined up buying tickets and a bus load turned up as well. The carriages were open sided ( a bit like the "Puffing Billy" in the Dandenongs) and the old steam engine spewed soot over us all, but it was worth it. The train clung to the narrow gauge lines laid on a cutting on the edge of the Gorge above the river Ardèche. Opposite us on the other side of the river ran a viaduct through which we could see water running. The views and scenery were stunning. We passed through a 265m long tunnel, hewn out of the rock and past small sidings with one house precariously perched above the gorge and which obviously housed railway track workers back in the days when it was a commercial railway. People still live in it and waved to us as we passed. At the end of this tourist run at Columbier le Vieux St-Barthelemy le Plain (love these French names - wish I could pronounce them) the steam engine was uncoupled, rotated on a manual turntable by two men, and recoupled on the other end of the train for the return trip.
We became aware only on disembarking that the restoration, at a cost of 8.6 million euro, was only completed this year and the first tourist train ran on 13th July, 2013. We were lucky to have had the experience.