barn and garage

Busman’s holiday

Deep in the heart of an industrial estate in southwest France appeared a London Transport Routemaster bus.

Painted white and mounted on blocks the interior has been taken out and converted into a cafe.

real mean machine

Our neighbours real mean logging machine.

steam locomotives

Citroen Big 15

Illustration in gouache of the car outside the Hotel de Ville, Pau

model trains

An enormous collection of model trains owned by Didier and housed in three rooms in the basement of his house. Dating from the 1920’s the world’s top manufacturers are all represented.

petite dozer

At the local farm museum, a miniature bulldozer used around the grapevines.

abandoned rural railways lines in south west France 1

All over France when traveling down rural byways you come across railway crossings sometimes with a railway crossing keeper house next to it. In both directions the rusty but often weed free track, stretches into the distance. It is many years since the last train rumbled over the crossing but the infrastructure is still in place.

A few photos taken last week of a line near Castelnau-Riverre Basse in Gascony about 60kms north of the Pyrenees.

The line links Tarbes in the south to Aire-su-l’Adour in the north, between the main road and the Adour river.