Petit train d'Artouste, Mountain railway in Laruns, France
Petit train d'Artouste is a narrow-gauge railway in the French Pyrenees accessible by cable car from the valley below. The line winds through high mountain terrain with views of peaks, rocky slopes, and alpine meadows.
The railway was built in the early 1920s to serve mountain extraction projects and later tourists. It represents transport technology that once connected this isolated alpine region to the rest of the valley.
The train ride connects visitors to the mountain landscape and shows how people traditionally moved through the Pyrenees. The journey reveals how transport like this shaped life in remote valley communities.
Visitors reach the railway via a cable car starting from a valley station. The train journey itself takes about 1 hour and moves slowly, so plan to spend time there and bring warmer clothes since temperatures drop at higher elevations.
The train passes through a 315-meter tunnel carved into the mountain rock during construction. This underground section is a highlight of the journey and demonstrates the engineering required to build the line through such challenging terrain.
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