1980-03-20-sm-Marseille-Le-Mistral
French Friday
Sorry, I could not resist the pun. You may throw any virtual vegetables you have at my computer.
Anyway, we are back in Europe in March 1980, in Nice, France to be precise. I'd arrived here on an overnight train from Rome, and was going to continue on to Paris on Le Mistral, but in the meantime, I had a bit of a layover and I hung out on the platform under the arched trainshed and watched trains. Duh, what else do you do for a couple of hours on the French Riviera...in March...when it is a bit too cool for the beach.
Le Mistral was France's train of trains at the time. A TEE made of Budd licensed stainless steel cars. It was a day train, so we can't really compare it to the Super Chief or 20th Century Limited, and as it was all first class, perhaps a comparison to the Daylight, Hiawatha or Senator is also not quite right, but it was as good of a train as you were going to find in regular service in 1980.
I was next in France in November 1981 and Le Mistral was gone. The first high speed LGV route had been opened between Paris and Lyon in the meantime and Le Mistral and other through Nice-Marseilles-Paris trains had been replaced with TGVs...several hours faster, but probably not quite the same.
The photos show a freight coming through the trainshed at Nice and then the stainless steel cars of Le Mistral at Marseilles.
1980-03-20-sm-Marseille-Le-Mistral
French Friday
Sorry, I could not resist the pun. You may throw any virtual vegetables you have at my computer.
Anyway, we are back in Europe in March 1980, in Nice, France to be precise. I'd arrived here on an overnight train from Rome, and was going to continue on to Paris on Le Mistral, but in the meantime, I had a bit of a layover and I hung out on the platform under the arched trainshed and watched trains. Duh, what else do you do for a couple of hours on the French Riviera...in March...when it is a bit too cool for the beach.
Le Mistral was France's train of trains at the time. A TEE made of Budd licensed stainless steel cars. It was a day train, so we can't really compare it to the Super Chief or 20th Century Limited, and as it was all first class, perhaps a comparison to the Daylight, Hiawatha or Senator is also not quite right, but it was as good of a train as you were going to find in regular service in 1980.
I was next in France in November 1981 and Le Mistral was gone. The first high speed LGV route had been opened between Paris and Lyon in the meantime and Le Mistral and other through Nice-Marseilles-Paris trains had been replaced with TGVs...several hours faster, but probably not quite the same.
The photos show a freight coming through the trainshed at Nice and then the stainless steel cars of Le Mistral at Marseilles.