The first images of
Marginal
(1983), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, reveal an orange TGV, launched at full speed towards Marseille.
Two great careers united in the same film.
While Belmondo has just died, the TGV is celebrating its 40th anniversary with great fanfare.
Launched by Georges Pompidou and built under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the TGV was inaugurated on September 22, 1981 by François Mitterrand.
At the time, it was orange, traveling only 260 km / h, and the new line between Paris and Lyon was still unfinished.
How the TGV has changed France in 40 years in this European year of rail, SNCF has chosen to combine its celebration with heritage days, on the theme of “Heritage for all”.
Read the file Heritage Days, the Figaro selection
Gare Saint-Lazare
, the first major Parisian station and the third most important in the capital, opens its backstage doors again this weekend for a privileged visit.
For a single date, Saturday September 18, the
Technicentre Atlantique de Châtillon offers
a range of professions as diverse as they are essential, starting with the supply of trainsets departing from Paris Montparnasse, but also the maintenance of TGV trains. Atlantiques, Duplex, TGV l'Océane and OUIGO circulating on many rail axes.
The TGV Atlantique 325 train, holder of the 1990 world speed record, will be on display and ready to reveal its greatest secrets.
The Gare Saint-Lazare sees 110 million travelers pass each year.
Francois Bouchon / The Figaro
A double exhibition is to be discovered at
Paris Gare de Lyon
and at
Ground Countrol
, a former postal sorting hall located a stone's throw away.
Expected at the Gare de Lyon, Emmanuel Macron will unveil a full-scale model of the motor of the "TGV M", long called "TGV of the future", that the SNCF intends to put on the rails in 2024. This new TGV ordered from Alstom will not be no faster than the last trains running on the French network, but the public company wants it more comfortable, more capacity, more flexible, more ecological, more economical.
Read also Heritage Days 2021: the
Figaro
selection
in Paris and Ile-de-France
Thanks to a TGV shuttle from Paris-Gare de Lyon, it is possible to get to the
Technicentre of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (94)
. The opportunity to explore behind the scenes of the High Speed lines and learn about the railways and maintenance trades. A demonstration of old equipment, a visit to a TGV driver's cab, a rail baptism are added to the program.
Installed in the basement of Rosny-sous-Bois station, the
Rosny-Rail museum, Rosny (93)
offers tours on various themes: the history of the railway, the railway track but also signaling, equipment rolling. A real diesel driving cab is accessible to the public, as is the possibility of driving a train on a miniature network thanks to another reconstituted cab.
The
Lille Flandres station (59)
will host the legendary train Orient Express every weekend. Passed down to posterity from the pen of Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemingway, the luxury train that once linked Paris to Istanbul will be worth a visit. Launched in 1883, it experienced several periods of prosperity and decline, marked by the various wars which set in its path. The opportunity to immerse yourself in this train with a unique history, a common thread in the great history of the 20th century.
Immediate boarding on the
train of wonders
.
He ventures
from Nice to Tende (06)
, to discover the villages perched or nestled in the hollow of the valleys of Paillon, Bévéra and Roya.
An idyllic setting possible thanks to one of the most beautiful train routes in Europe, in the heart of Piedmontese Baroque art.
Free entertainment will punctuate the trip.
Read alsoThe TGV is reinventing itself to keep one step ahead
Under the Eiffel-type metal frame, the
Chambéry railway rotunda (73)
offers guided tours, while passing in front of historic electric locomotives.
Still in operation, the largest rotunda in France is one of the favorite monuments of the French.
At Gare de Lyon-Perrache (69)
, you will have to climb up the tower to access a guided tour of the old signaling post, commissioned in 1930, a place at the cutting edge of technology until the 1950s. .
The
Technicentre de Nouvelle Aquitaine (33)
offers a discovery tour of the railway equipment maintenance workshops.
A trainer introduces visitors to the profession of train driver before letting them take control.
Chartres station (28)
zooms in on the various rail professions thanks to a visit to a driver's cab by an active train driver. Spaces arranged in a train at the platform allow you to meet agents. The youngest will also be invited to participate in the
Civi Gare
game
to learn about safety standards. A general tour of Chartres station by volunteers will be offered.
The
Nevers railway festival (58)
, a town with a railway tradition, takes place aboard a Picasso railcar from Dijon to Nevers. He will take his passengers to visit the Technicentre Industriel SNCF Nevers Languedoc, the depot as well as its historic rotunda without forgetting the essential: the station of Nevers, in order to better understand the operations and trades necessary for the movement of a train.
