A week in a French country station

[Trains4U]

I have recently returned from a lovely holiday with my family in France,  One week of which was spent in a renovated railway station, rented via Gites de France.

 

The fact that I booked a railway station was entirely coincidental and secondary to the choice of location!

 

Deep in the Department of Loire (42) about halfway between Lyon and Cleremont-Ferrand is the village of La Tuiliere.  sitting in a high valley at about 720 meters,  It was once served by the Chemin de Fer du Centre's (CFC) Allier railway, which was a metre-gauge secondary railway and ran between Roanne and Vichy.

 

According to the owners, the station closed in 1938, just before world war 2, though the railway continued to run for some time afterwards.

 

The building has been beautifully restored externally

 

 

 

The garden runs along the old alignment for 200m

 

 

I'm not sure if this is a picture of the station itself, but it appears to be, in terms of the positioning of the trees and roadway in front, but gives a good idea of what the renovation has achieved.

 

 

Inside has been completely gutted and modeled in a clean and modern style, the old goods shed is now the kitchen, and the booking hall/waiting room is the lounge and dining area.  upstairs has been converted into three bedrooms and a large bathroom.

 

It is available to rent via gites du france 

http://www.gites-de-france-loire.com/gite-rural-ossedat-jean-paul-a-la-tuiliere-dans-LE-ROANNAIS-3192.html

 

The area is beautiful, quiet, with a good local bakery and a supermarket 5 minutes away - I would highly recommend it for a quiet family getaway.

 

Within easy reach were the Volcans du auvergne.  So we took a trip up to the Puy du Dome, just outside Clermont Ferrand on the rack railway:

 

 

An interesting 20 minute trip up the mountain

 

and later in the week, to the Puy du Sancy and Le Mont Dore, with a trip up the Capuchin Funicular, which dates from 1886 and still uses the original cars.

 

 

My youngest, James, is beginning to become obsessed with trains (And I'm honestly not forcing it on him) - we did try to watch some TGVs at Cluny (We were there a few days before staying at the above gite) but typically, the SNCF were on strike! 

 

We all had a great time and the gite is very highly recommended, it added a nice bit of history to the holiday and It is by far the best Gite I've stayed in in france.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Trains4U

[JAMO]

This gite looks comfortable and a nice little station.

 

Thanks to share.

[eastwestdivide]

Lucky git(e)!