Thursday, 13 August 2015

Catching the Train - to Spain

The last time this blog visited the panels at Tours Station we were talking about about St Jean de Luz. The town shown on this panel is not all that far away, but in a different country (and two different languages).

Fontarabie is in Spain and is more often called Hondarribia. Its a little port on the outskirts of Irun, the place just inside the Spanish border where you have to change trains because the railway gauge changes.

We're not sure how work on the 18 painted ceramic panels decorating the walls of Tours station is going, because we usually go to Saint Pierre des Corps (more parking, more trains, less traffic). The  purpose of the panels is to beautify the station concourse and entice travellers to the destinations portrayed. At present the panels are being conserved: each panel will cost €8000 to clean, conserve and reattach the tiles to the walls. The fundraising campaign started last year to raise some of this money. In order to publicise the fundraising, last year we started posting photos of the panels.

If you're wanting to visit Fontarabie/Hondarribia from Tours, this is how it's done.

2 comments:

Emm said...

Is it still necessary to change at the border with the TGV? Somehow, I thought they'd gotten around that. Or maybe not.

I rather like the idea of changing, though, like older-time travel before everything became quite so standardized.

Aussie in France said...

We went to Hondarribia last year when we were cycling in Basque country. It's a very interesting little town - even on a rainy day! If you're interested in some photos, you will find a fewe here: http://www.aussieinfrance.com/2013/06/mondays-travel-photos-hondarribia/

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