Two Rail Ways, Swift and Scenic

On a recent rail trek through France, I rode with Aesop figuratively at my elbow--though in this case his hare and tortoise were not competitive but complementary, with one taking me to the other.

The hare was the much-admired TGV, or Train a Grande Vitesse--”high-speed train,” and the world’s most prominent one at that. The tortoise was a modest railcar of the narrow-gauge Chemins de Fer de Provence, a homey little line that climbs from the southern resort city of Nice on France’s Riviera to Digne-les-Bains, in the Provencal Alps.

High in those mountains, Meailles, a remote, deserted and windblown depot, was the ultima Thule of my journey--about as far in style and spirit as you can get from the modern station at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, where our trip had begun last March.

As an American used to exiting airports on traffic-choked highways, I’m exhilarated every time I fly into a European city and find I can trundle my luggage cart from baggage claim right to the platform of a train heading my way. From Charles de Gaulle’s bright, airy station, my wife, Laurel, and I stepped aboard a sleek blue-and-silver TGV, settled into our first-class seats and sped to Marseille over the TGV Mediterranee line, which began service in June 2001.

Since its first route opened two decades ago, the TGV has epitomized high-speed railroading, a healthy contagion that has spread throughout Western Europe as Germany fielded its ICE, Belgium its Thalys, Italy and Switzerland their Cisalpino, Sweden its X2000 and Spain its AVE. But the TGV remains the fastest, reaching speeds of 186 mph over long stretches of dedicated fast track. France’s 932-mile network of high-speed lines is the world’s most extensive.

And it keeps expanding, most recently with the 156-mile “TGV Med” from Valence to Marseille. The Med’s completion has cut travel time from Paris’ Gare de Lyon to Marseille to three hours flat, trimming 1 1/4 hours off the previous best. To my mind, the TGV is the best way to travel to southern France; by car, the 550-mile trip would take about seven hours.

The train was heavily booked, so we were glad we had reserved our seats in the States through Rail Europe--though we had paid $11 each for this convenience. (Reservations, always required on TGVs, cost about $1.50 apiece when booked in France.) Seating in first class is two and one across, lending a spacious feel. And legroom is generous. But it’s best not to travel at mealtimes because the cafe car offers only rudimentary service for beverages, sandwiches and snacks.

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Launched from Charles de Gaulle, we bypassed Paris, stopping only at Marne la Vallee-Chessy (for Disneyland Paris) on the way to Lyon. We sped through rolling countryside--cultivated fields and pastures dotted with sheep and cows. When we met Paris-bound TGVs, they snapped past in an instant.

As we entered Lyon, the train switched to conventional track, dropping down from a hill that offered expansive views of the city. The platforms here were busy with TGVs and conventional trains--a reminder of a central tenet of the TGV concept: Build dedicated high-speed lines where practical, and use upgraded conventional tracks where not, particularly in and out of cities.

Racing south again, we spotted snowcapped mountains in the eastern distance. Before long we were on the new TGV Med line, crossing the graceful concrete trestles for which it’s known. The Med required nearly 500 new structures, seven of which have been noted by the French government as “Monuments d’Art.”

Three new TGV-dedicated stations--called gares de soleil, or “stations of sun,” for their use of glass--were built at Valence, Avignon and Aix-en-Provence. All this, along with the extraordinary environmental sensitivity required in the line’s construction, helps explain why it took 12 years and $3.5 billion to construct.

The Monuments d’Art blew by in a blur, I have to admit, which was reinforced by jet-lag-induced naps. Laurel and I agreed that speeding south on a TGV was the perfect way to recover from the rigors of a transatlantic flight.

We entered the once-gritty port city of Marseille through a new 3.4-mile-long tunnel, the longest in France. The 550-mile run from Charles de Gaulle had taken the scheduled three hours and 35 minutes. After a short taxi ride we were standing on our balcony at the comfortable Hotel Residence du Vieux Port, watching the afternoon sun die among the sailboat masts that bristled in the harbor.

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Marseille was a revelation. A decade ago it would have been on few tourist itineraries. Although the city retains a bracingly blue-collar feel, the steep, narrow, winding streets of “Le Panier,” or Old Town, and the many fine seafood restaurants that cluster around the old port are a tourist draw--yet it struck us that more of our fellow visitors spoke French than English.

From Marseille we headed east along the Mediterranean coast to Nice, long a Cote d’Azur tourist mecca--but this time over conventional tracks, with numerous stops, so the 140-mile run took two hours and 25 minutes. For the first half of the trip the tracks looped inland, but from St.-Raphael to Cannes and Antibes they clung to the coast. We glided by broad beaches, towering cliffs and rocky crags that fractured the surf into geysers. We saw acres of marinas.

In Nice we settled into the wonderful Hotel Windsor, comfortable, stylish, hip--yet affordable, even for the spacious room we chose, with a balcony overlooking the garden. We had cocktails in the cozy corner bar and were back there the next morning for an excellent breakfast. The Windsor is only three blocks from the broad Promenade des Anglais and the sea. It’s also within walking distance of the station for the 94-mile-long Chemins de Fer de Provence, or CP.

While Laurel chose to stay behind to visit Nice’s flower market and stroll the promenade, I walked to the CP station for a day trip.

The CP is known as the “Train des Pignes,” or “Pine Cone Train,” for reasons that are now obscure. One theory has some credibility with those who have ridden on the line: The train is so slow that passengers could get off and collect pine cones along the way without delaying it. My 60-mile trip to Meailles would take two hours and nine minutes, at an average speed of 28 mph.

The cars of the Chemins de Fer de Provence are humble but comfortable, with broad windows and high-backed plush seats. On my outbound journey toward Digne-les-Bains, I could see out the windshield from the front row of passenger seats, a great vantage for watching the meter-gauge tracks find their way into the mountains.

Standard-gauge rails are 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches apart; meter-gauge rails are narrower, about 3 feet, 3 1/2 inches, lending a fetching air of diminution to the whole enterprise. Narrow-gauge railways were typically built in remote locations where topography presented operating challenges. The wilder the terrain, the greater the economy--and economy was of the essence on these lightly traveled lines, since tunnels, cuts and mountainside ledges can be smaller with narrow-gauge track. Grades can be steeper and curves sharper.

Grades, curves, ledges, cuts and tunnels all awaited me when I boarded the 12:43 p.m. train from the CP station at Nice. The car coughed to life a few moments before departure, then whined into motion. After a few minutes of defying auto traffic on Nice’s busy streets, we burst into exurbia and began to roll. At St.-Sauveur we joined up with the Var, the river that would provide a path for the railway for much of its climb into the Alps of Haute Provence.

Colmars-La Manda, eight miles from downtown, is the farthest reach of the CP’s local service. A pair of plexiglass sheds serves as the station. After that, as the scenery began to improve so did the architecture of the stations: charming stucco structures, with patterned brick at the corners, that are typical of Provence.

The number “1891” cast into a tunnel portal just beyond La Tinee gave me a clue to the line’s history. This first stretch, as far as Mezel, opened in 1891; the additional miles to Puget-Theniers were added the following year. But it took two more decades for the railroad to be completed to Digne.

At La Tinee I spotted a water tank and other decaying remnants of steam railroading--which, happily, is not entirely a thing of the past on the CP. On most Sundays May through July, and occasional ones August through October, a 1907-built locomotive a vapeur operates from Puget-Theniers to Annot, hauling coaches with varnished wood interiors that date to 1892.

By the time the little car reached Puget-Theniers, a magnet for visitors, we had jogged and swayed for 36 miles from Nice, climbing from near sea level to 1,335 feet. By Meailles, 19 miles farther, we would climb another 1,772 feet.

The final climb from Le Fugeret was the piece de resistance--358 feet in less than three miles. The journey required a pair of tight loops, a tunnel and a 397-foot-long viaduct. From the upper levels I looked down on a zigzagging line that seemed to belong on a Lionel toy train layout. Here was the essence of narrow-gauge railroading--difficult and remote, with man’s frail contrivances seemingly overmatched by soaring nature.

At the deserted depot at Meailles, 90 years old and beginning to show it, I sat on a bench in the sun. The wind whistled, but all else was silent. It was lonely, bordering on spooky, so I was happy when, after less than 20 minutes, and just as the timetable had promised, the headlights of the return car appeared. I was ready to put back the layers of civilization that had peeled away on the climb.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Guidebook: French Trains

Getting there: Air France and Air Tahiti Nui (on Mondays and Wednesdays) have nonstop service to Paris from LAX. US Airways flies direct with one stop, and United, American, Delta, Continental, Northwest, Lufthansa, Swiss, British and KLM have connecting service with a change of planes. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $1,177.

Telephones: To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 33 (country code for France), 4 (the area code) and the local number.

The trains: For rail travel exclusively in France, a France Railpass is generally the thriftiest alternative. My wife and I traveled on a first-class France Saverpass (designed for two) that provided four days of unlimited train travel in one month for $196 apiece. Extra days (up to six) can be purchased for $25 each.

A regular France Railpass costs $44 more, or $240, and extra days, $30 each. Second-class passes are only marginally less expensive.

To buy passes and make reservations through Rail Europe, call (888) 4EURAIL (438-7245), www.raileurope.com. For French National Railways (SNCF) timetable and reservation service in English, see www.sncf.com/indexe.htm.

Reservations are unnecessary on the Chemins de Fer de Provence, 97-03-80-80, www.trainprovence.com. Trains leave Nice for Digne-les-Bains daily at 6:42 and 9 a.m., and 12:43 and 5 p.m. They leave Digne at 7 and 10:33 a.m., and 1:58 and 5:25 p.m. France Railpasses carry a discount on the already minimal fares, which are $17 for the round-trip Nice-to-Digne run. Steam trains leave Puget-Theniers at 10 a.m. on July 7, 14, 21 and 28, Aug. 25, Sept. 8 and Oct. 6 and 13.

Where to stay: In Marseille, Hotel La Residence du Vieux Port is a pleasant, serviceable hotel right on the old harbor. Doubles are $104. 18 Quai

du Port; 4-91-91-91-22, fax 91-56-60-88, www.hotelmarseille.com.

In Nice, the Hotel Windsor is a splendid, stylishly decorated, well-located hotel. It’s worth going out of your way for its Moderne lobby, cozy bar and restaurant, and 16 “artists’ rooms” with decorated walls. Rooms from $66-$113.

11 Rue Dalpozzo; 93-88-

59-35, fax 93-88-94-57, www.hotelwindsornice.com.

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For more information: French Government Tourist Office, 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 715, Beverly Hills, CA 90212; France-on-Call hotline (410) 286-8310 (for brochures), (310) 271-6665, fax (310) 276-2835, www.franceguide.com.