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Steam trains, the secret to a happy marriage.

A ride on an old fashioned steam train that is.  My father in law loves steam trains and where ever he goes on holiday he likes to take a ride on a steam train.  My long suffering mother in law goes along hoping that the ride will have some spectacular views or a nice souvenir shop for some retail therapy to make up for yet another ride on a steam train.

Unfortunately for him the ‘train a vapour’ only runs a few times a year travelling from Limoges to various destinations,  Eymoutiers, Bujaleuf and Pompadour and although he and my mother in law often visit us here in the Limousin it is generally in the spring or autumn but the visits have never coincided with the running of the train.  Until this summer that is when Flybe started to fly Gatwick-Limoges for a few weeks and as the in laws only live 20 mins from Gatwick it would have been rude not to take advantage of the flights.

On 28^th July we drove to Eymoutiers and had a picnic in the lovely park as did many other families.   Lunch was eaten to the accompaniment of whistles and chuffs from the train as it manoeuvred around the station yard in preparation for our trip. 

Our trip started at 14.15 and we made our way to a very crowded station, it was proving to be a very popular day out and my tip is, get to the station and grab yourself a good seat early.  The carriages are obviously old and don’t have any air conditioning and only a limited number of opening windows.  Add to this the fact that it was a very hot and humid day and the French reluctance to use deodorant….well you get the picture.

I’m afraid I’m not a steam train enthusiast so I can’t tell any afficianardos anything technical about the engine other than it looked and sounded the part.  I hope the pictures accompanying this article will satisfy your curiosity.  The train is run by volunteers and the engine driver was taking anybody who showed an interest up onto the footplate for a tour.

It’s not the most scenic route and has a lot of tunnels but some of the views are great and with the curves in the line you can get some nice views of the engine as it pulls us along. At our destination, Chateauneuf Bujaleuf, there was a group of folk dancers and free refreshments. For the return trip I grabbed a few seats in the second class carriage, much better than the third class we travelled up on.

So, father in law was happy which makes mother in law happy which make my wife happy and that makes me happy.  Result happy marriages all round !

The only other trip arranged for the remainder of this year is 12^th September.  More details can be found at www.trainvapeur.com or from the very nice and helpful staff at the office de tourisme, Eymoutiers

Story by Paul Steele who runs B&B Villechenoux in Haute Vienne with his wife Juley.

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