The French photographer, Robert Doisneau, has taken lots of pictures of the French railways…some of these were official, others were more informal.
This is an image of holidaymakers in la France profonde, circa 1940 it turns out.
I was amazed to find that the station, in the middle-of-nowhere, is Carlux, in the Dordogne. I know Carlux because my family have a house there. It is a tiny village, and I can confirm that it is, indeed, in the middle-of-nowhere.
Even more amazingly, Doisneau loved the area and had holidays there over a long period.
Who knows, I might even have seen him when I was small…
I wish I’d known that then.
PS I’ve been researching into Doisneau and the Dordogne…it turns out that he visited the area over a number of years and took photos of Sarlat and Souillac..and worked for the foix gras producers, Rougie. I’ll check it all out.
I looked more closely at the photo too. Look at the track; not many trains going through.