The Train des Pignes is not just a means of transport connecting Nice and Digne les Bains. It is also used by ski enthusiasts who, from Nice or Digne, can reach the Thorame station where buses will take them to the foot of the slopes. It’s also a way to discover the medieval charm of two villages, Entrevaux and Annot, with a pleasant culinary moment.
One can also dive into the heart of the Verdon from Saint André les Alpes, where your wanderings will lead you to discover this village and its draper’s trail, but let’s not say more, it’s up to you to decipher this exciting route. Barrême, where one joins the Napoleon Road, was once an important lavender distillery, with the production being transported by train to Grasse.
In summer, travelers will rediscover steam and old wooden cars, a dive into the past at Puget Théniers and Annot. The line climbs up the Var Valley, which it leaves at the Guédan bridge. Queen Jeanne is not far; look at the riverbed. The train jolts, but that is its charm, and in every season, the journey is a poetry by itself that nature unfolds according to its whims.
From the rebirth of spring, to winter and its snowy landscapes, there is the summer with its clear skies free of clouds and the autumn painted by an impressionist painter, ablaze with fire dominating between ochre and brown.
The Train des Pignes could be illustrated by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. A spectacle in four acts, those of nature. The Chemins de fer de Provence, another name for this railway line, await you, come to their stand, you will discover all its attractions and various offers to escape the city and find a moment of rural calm where time does not matter.
Thierry Jan
