DAY 3 THE RED TRAIN FROM RIVESALTES TO AXAT
Our bus driver dropped us at what was little more than a siding in Espira de l’Agley – Rivesaltes station was closed for renovations.
Our cheery little red train arrived and following a meet-up with members of the restoration committee we were off. Our guide informed us that we were particularly lucky to be travelling on this model called the Picasso. It is known to locals as the Train du Pays Cathare et des Fenouilledes.
The scenery was amazing as we travelled up the Agly valley between the Coberes mountains. The Aude part of the line took us through the Cathar Country forests with frequent stops to allow for lots of photo opportunities.
There were tunnels and viaducts, views of the Quéribus Castle hanging on a rock and the UNESCO fortress of Puilaurens. We even experienced how the little train had to reverse back the valley to get a ‘run’ at the climb up into Axat. We all got a copy of “LA GAZETTE TRAIN ROUGE” – I’ll have to brush up my French to read through it at some stage.
Axat itself was a sleepy town where we sat in a bar beside the river to prep for the return journey to Roses.
DAY 4 FIGUERES
Margaret, our guide was a scream – every morning she greeted us with an enthusiastic “Today is not a day to be missed” and the focus on the Dali Theatre-Museum today was certainly “an opportunity of a lifetime”.
My very limited knowledge of Dali amounted to knowing that his pictures often were of deconstructed bodies, he had painted a melting clock and an elephant on spider legs.
But I’m always open to new experiences and Margaret presented quite an interesting history of Dali as we drove to Figueres. The heart of the museum is the town’s theatre that Dalí knew as a child (hence the name Theatre/Museum).
It was where one of the first public exhibitions of young Dalí’s art was shown. The old theatre was burned during the Spanish Civil War and remained in a state of ruin until in 1960, when Dalí and the mayor of Figueres decided to rebuild it as a museum dedicated to the town’s most famous son. The museum now includes buildings and courtyards adjacent to the old theatre.
The museum displays the largest and most diverse collection of works by Salvador Dalí, many of which were from his own personal collection. In addition to Dalí paintings from all decades of his career, there are Dalí sculptures, three-dimensional collages, mechanical devices, and other curiosities from Dalí’s imagination.
A highlight was a three-dimensional installation of the face of Mae West (when viewed from a certain spot). I also liked the “take on the Sistine Chapel ceiling art, the Abraham Lincoln face, the “rainy” Cadillac, the Dali “Oscar statues”, the corridor of pencil drawings on Alice in Wonderland and the Jewellery.
