Visit to France reopens memories of writing our last book

We have been away to France. Our hope was to hide away and make progress on the book about Colonel Pechot and the tracks to the trenches. We were distracted by friends who lured us to the Gers. We didn't need much persuading! South-west France is the land of perpetual spring, roses that bloom in April, cherries that ripen in May and idyllic domaines/wine-growers' properties surrounded by vineyards. The locals have a wonderful wide spread of animals to chase - they love animals, especially on their plates.
We were not disappointed. After the usual catch-up between good friends - politics, scandals and so on, they took us to Sos. Sos? I'd never heard of it, though Malcolm had, as a station on the Midi which closed in the early Sixties. As we approached, the years fell away and I was back to my youth (well almost) researching our last book, the Tramways a Vapeur du Tarn (TVT).

Book on the TVT Oakwood Press 2001

 Like Sos, this is also in the area once dominated by the Midi Railway Company but further to the east. Let's tell you more about Sos.
The old station has become a gite of luxury and character. To find out more and see it, go to the website which is www.gare-de-sos.com  It is a perfect little Midi station. The halle/goods shed is tacked on to the batiment des voyageurs/station building. (No accents - sorry!) A length of platform still survives, as does the pumping house which once brought water for the steam engines. The site of the water tower is still visible, though it has gone. The amazing thing was my feeling of deja vu. I could almost have been standing outside the station at Lavaur, researching our book about the narrow gauge railway in Tarn -  well, almost. In this picture we are standing beside the station hotel and Lavaur gare is larger.

Ex Midi station at Lavaur, a small town which is still served by a railway in the department of Tarn. The picture was taken by Malcolm in 2000

My previous book was pretty thorough. A reader told me that I was obviously determined to have the last word on the subject and I suppose that I nearly did. Yet apart from a peek inside the ticket office at Lavaur, I never saw inside any of the old buildings that served the TVT. Readers were probably spared another chapter! Yet here we were, being invited by David, the owner, to have a look around a perfect little Midi station at Sos.
When David purchased the station as a restoration project 20 years ago little could he have expected to find in the old salle d'attente/waiting room, hidden behind decaying wall board a set of Midi poster panels from the 1920s with layer after layer of promotional pictures. The rows of posters were high on the walls and below this pasted to the walls were the timetables. It would have been possible to travel from Sos to Tarbes in the south and Agen in the north. Sitting in the living room of the gite, you are in an atmosphere which must be unique, with unspoiled walls dating from the 1920s. We are not going to spoil it for you with any photographs. Stay at the gite and enjoy a trip back in time. We were invited upstairs to the old station-master's lodgings - a living room looking over the station yard, a kitchen looking over the sidings and three bedrooms which once had a view of the water tower. Stairs lead up to the attic which was once a store. These have been converted, but with sensitivity and panache. Once again, look at the website to be reassured that the creature comforts of the 21st century have all been included.