Rail
The little trains of the Pyrenees
On both sides of the eastern Pyrenees, small trains climb into the mountains: a yellow electric railway on the French side that runs with open carriages, a red train through the Fenouillèdes gorges, and a rack railway on the Spanish side that climbs to a sanctuary no road reaches.
By Walter Pellow2 November 20264 min read
The Pyrenees run from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, the long mountain wall between France and Spain, and at their eastern end, where they come down to the sea, they divide Catalonia in two: the Spanish Catalonia of Barcelona and Girona to the south, and French Catalonia, the Roussillon, around Perpignan to the north. On both sides, the mountain valleys are threaded by small railways, built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to open up remote villages, carry iron ore or bring pilgrims and tourists into the hills. Several of them survive, and they make a delightful way to see the mountains.
The Yellow Train and the Red Train
The best known is the Train Jaune, the Yellow Train, on the French side. It runs from Villefranche-de-Conflent, a walled town at the foot of the mountains, up the valley of the Têt to Latour-de-Carol on the Spanish border, climbing through gorges and over viaducts to the high plateau of the Cerdagne. It was opened in stages in the early twentieth century, and it is a narrow-gauge electric railway, its power supplied by a hydroelectric dam built for the purpose. Its carriages are painted yellow and red, the colours of Catalonia, and in summer some of them are open-sided, so that passengers ride in the open air with nothing between them and the view.
The line crosses two remarkable bridges: the Séjourné viaduct, a two-tiered stone viaduct high above the river, and the Gisclard bridge, a suspension bridge, rare on a railway. Its highest station, Bolquère-Eyne, at over 1,500 metres, is one of the highest in France.
North of the Têt, the Train Rouge, the Red Train, runs on a stretch of old railway between Rivesaltes, near Perpignan, and Axat, in the Aude valley. It climbs through the Fenouillèdes, a region of vineyards, garrigue and limestone gorges, past Cathar castles on their crags, including Quéribus and Peyrepertuse, where the last of the Cathar heretics held out in the thirteenth century. The line runs through wine country, and the region's sweet wines, Muscat de Rivesaltes among them, are often tasted on the way.
Small trains climb into the mountains on both sides of the eastern Pyrenees.
The rack railway to Núria
On the Spanish side, the Cremallera de Núria is a rack railway that climbs from Ribes de Freser up a steep, narrow gorge to the Vall de Núria, a high valley at about two thousand metres that can only be reached by train or on foot. At its head stands the Sanctuary of Núria, a pilgrimage church dedicated to the Virgin of Núria, the patron of shepherds, and around it lie meadows, a small lake and paths into the mountains. The railway, opened in 1931, climbs over a thousand metres in a little over twelve kilometres, using a toothed rail to grip the steepest sections.
The Catalan towns
The trips also take in some of Catalonia's most attractive towns. Cadaqués, on the Costa Brava, is a white fishing village on a rocky bay, and in nearby Port Lligat stands the house of Salvador Dalí, a cluster of whitewashed fishermen's huts he joined together into a strange and wonderful home. In Figueres, Dalí's birthplace, the Dalí Theatre-Museum, topped with giant eggs, is his own monument to himself. Besalú has a fortified medieval bridge and an old Jewish quarter, and Castellfollit de la Roca stands on the very edge of a basalt cliff above a river. In France, Villefranche-de-Conflent is a walled town fortified by Vauban.
The holidays
Travelsphere's Little Trains of the Pyrenees, seven nights, starts in Barcelona and visits Cadaqués and Port Lligat, Thuir, Villefranche-de-Conflent, Roses, Rivesaltes and Axat, the Núria valley, Figueres and Peralada Castle.
Just You's Traditional Trains of the Pyrenees, seven nights for solo travellers, covers Barcelona, the Sanctuary of Núria and Ribes de Freser, Camprodon, Puigcerdà, Ripoll, Castellfollit de la Roca, Besalú, Mas Llunes, Roses, Rivesaltes and Axat.
The mountain trains run mainly from spring to autumn, and the open carriages of the Yellow Train run in summer. Late spring and early autumn are the best times for the journey, when the mountains are green or turning, the weather is mild, and the trains are not too crowded.
By Walter Pellow, the name Atlas & Passage’s editorial team writes under. Prices and dates in the trips below come from the operators and can change.
