Hoping not to bore those who don't like Trains or don't have the Anorak. But an essential part of a holiday for me is a trip up the mountains or along a coast by train to another town or City. An essential trip from Nice is up the Mountains on the narrow gauge railway to Digne. Most Sundays the local Steam Enthusiasts run special excursions along part of the route in an old steam train. Arriving at the train station you board the regular train. Unusually there were as many women and children and not just 'trainspotter men' . Arriving at Puget-Théniers our Steam Train awaited along with more people waiting to get on the train and volunteers pushing wagons and assorted people taking photographs, selling souvenirs, having picnics. The French are as enthusiastic as their British counterparts when it comes to steam travel. There were several men covered head to toe in oil and soot and I half expected to see a french version of 'Fred Dibnah' asking 'Did you like that' in french of course.
The trip itself went slowly up to Entreveux which was a beautiful town to stop for a couple of hours and we ate in a little cafe, had another stroll around the town and then another coffee/wine break at a little roadside cafe. All very french, very authentic and again very reasonable compared to rip of Ireland. If you couldn't afford the special steam train trip the regular train is much cheaper and you get off the train and get back on again and thus visit several interesting towns and walks along the route to Digne. You can even get a coach from Nice for one euro which goes up most of the way to Digne.
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