If you go from Melle town centre, down the hill past the famous church of St Hilaire and up the succeeding hill, you will come to Melle Station, shown in my header pic. The substantial station building serves the narrow-gauge railway between the SNCF line at Ruffec via Villefagnan and Chef Boutonne towards Niort. Or rather, served it. A careful look at the departure and booking hall shows no sign of train details and the two doors are labelled 3/6 and 6/11. This is not, as I first thought, the English prices of First- and Second-class tickets but the ages of the children now schooled in the building! For in fact, the trains have not puffed along this branch line for many years and the building has been re-allocated
The track also is long gone, but local government has adapted the permanent way into a cycle track, laying fine gravel over the ballast and providing signage, picnic spots and extra railings etc. The result is a shady, almost level track for some 8 kilometers to the town of Celles sur Belle. This was the route we proposed to ride on Sunday afternoon.
Once started on the track, it is plan that this is a railway line with all the bridges, cuttings and embankments remaining. However, the finely gravelled surface and the long stretches of shady trees make it a fine cycle route, especially on a hot French afternoon. And there are always sights to be seen--the first being a hedgehog, who crossed in front of us to take a cooling drink at the track-side streamlet. Leaving him in peace to enjoy his drink, we passed on, stopping at an intriguing tiny graveyard beside the track. Here, the charmingly-named Mme and M. Momplaisir occupy their final resting places separately, while their daughter and son-in-law share the plot next-door. Why did they choose this remote spot beside the railtrack? Were the trains still running when they were first buried? Were they residents of the cottage near-by on the other side of the rails? We don`t know. There must be a story.....
Continuing on, we came eventually to the end of the converted section A dwelling, probably a former railway crossing- keepers cottage, stood with its garden gate barring the track, which abruptly swings left to join a near-by lane. To get to Celles and possibly to rejoin the track some road riding is needed, for another time perhaps, We had come far enough and turned our wheels for the Melle station yard.
On the way back, we saw a deer
crossing our way a hundred yards ahead. Apart from him and the hedgehog only the very occasional cyclist shared this tranquil bye-way.
We arrived back at our start-point, loaded the bikes on the rack and drove home. An evening out at the Les Gours restaurant with Jacqui and Adrian and Ian and Sarah was planned for the evening and we did not want to miss that!
A very pleasant day, how lucky we are to have such places to go!
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