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The
rivers of Aveyron by train
by Tim Leedham
Even
in August the station at Tournemire-Roquefort is
bleak at 6.30 in the morning, an echo of its former
glory as a cross-country junction. A lady passenger
arrives for Millau and a gentleman for Severac, exchanging
greetings with railway workers alighting from twin
unit 2121 that forms our 07.05 departure for Rodez
and beyond. The buzzer sounds and we commence our
descent through the Cernon valley into the Tarn Gorge
filled with morning mist such that we can hardly
distinguish the elegant pillars of the newly created
A75 viaduct. At Millau we are joined by eight companions
and bid farewell to two. We continue our mission
through the Gorge as far as Aguessac, then after
a tough climb to the Col d’Engayresque
we are rewarded with a distant view of the same pylons
from above. Soon we coast into Severac-le-Chateau
and take the left fork to Rodez away from the catenary
to Clermont Ferrand. We enter the gently rolling
landscape of the Upper Aveyron River with broad vistas
of pastoral fertility.
 The
idea of today’s itinerary is a circuit of Aveyron
by rail but geography inevitable routes us through
adjoining administrations. To establish the Aveyron
predominance we take time in Rodez to breakfast and
to visit the thirteenth century Cathedral of Notre
Dame where a concert is in rehearsal. Suitably fortified
we board the Paris through train that departs at
11.51 precisely. The delightfully chiseled features
of our lady train captain sculpt a discipline to
our ride and she annunciates masterfully the details
of our station stops but we imagine she has a heart
of gold. Alas it is not possible to examine the truth
of this perception because we alight at Capdenac,
an important railway junction on a loop of the Lot.
There is time for a nibble and modest pichet of vin
rouge before buying a ticket for the13.53
to Toulouse. We request a regional ticket to Beziers
where we will connect with the last train of the
day on the final leg of our journey but to catch
that connection we must travel from Toulouse to Beziers
by TGV on which our regional ticket is invalid. So
pragmatically we are simultaneously booked a single
to Villefranche de Rouergue and another from there
to Beziers. Thus any error in ticket status discovered
by the inspector aboard the TGV can be blamed on
Villefranche who are innocent of our crafted intrigue.
(picture
:Rodez -diesel locomotive of Paris through train)
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