Welcome To A Station Vacation
So, if you’ve searched for a holiday in an old railway station, you’ve found “la gare de Sos”, in sleepy South West France.
This is rural France, really rural France and our station, called Sos, is an old, quirky, historic building that was a stop on the line from Nérac to Mont-de-Marsan, an operational railway line until 1969. If you like boutique-chic-modern hotels, general mayhem and wild party nightlife and demand 24 hour-bend-over-backward customer service then, we are sure, that “la gare de Sos” is not your holiday destination. If you seek a place to relax, enjoy nature and soak up the tranquility then our big, roomy station, terrace around the pool with shaded barbeque area and old railway line might be your secluded holiday paradise.
We are former British Rail workers, who have always loved railways and trains and stations and goods-sheds and signals and tunnels and bridges and diesels and steam trains – you get the picture….a little eccentric – an engineer and a train announcer, retired. Or so we thought. We took the station on in 2020 from the chap who saved it years earlier in 1993, David Heath. Many folk have enjoyed holidays here, relaxing here and retreating here, like we did for 17 years before being lucky enough to buy this special place. David saved this wonderful station and we hope to preserve it for many more years and share it with those who appreciate “la tranquillité”. This is also a place enjoyed by railway workers, railway enthusiasts and anyone who likes a bit of railway heritage. We have built an engine shed and have long term plans for a small, private garden railway.
In days gone by, la gare de Sos served our little village, which is perched up on the hill, about 10 minute’s walk from us, depending on your fitness levels as it’s a steep path. We are at the foot of the village, a green, leafy river valley, approached by an avenue of plane trees, 100 foot high, towering majestically either side of the road. Rails lifted long ago, the old track-bed is now a footpath & unsurfaced cycle route sharing the valley with the river Gélise.
We just pootle along the track to Mézin for a coffee and croissant (and usually bring back a lemon meringue tart) but you can leave our door and follow EuroVelo route 3, La Scandibérique, the longest cycle route in France. It starts in Norway and goes to Santiago de Compostela in Spain! Note to any cyclists from Norway who make this epic journey on 2 wheels – don’t just pass la gare de Sos – please stop by for a drink – chapeau indeed!
Here in Gascony we have lots of sunny days, endless blue skies, inspirational landscapes and pretty villages that date from the middle ages; we really feel like we’ve walked onto a film set some days when out & about. Gascony spans roughly from Bordeaux to Toulouse and if you trace a slightly squiggly diagonal line between these two amazing cities on a map, we’re pretty much bang in the middle of them. Today called Nouvelle Aquitaine, our new regional name, and our departmental name is Lot et Garonne, or number 47, in South West France.
The Details
- A home for your Summer holiday in a former railway station sleeping from two to six people, in the heart of Gascony, secluded for privacy yet not remote
- Three first floor bedrooms consisting of 2 doubles and a twin, sharing two large bathrooms – all voluminous rooms with space and natural light and lots of railway things to enjoy
- An enormous top floor play space with a Brio trainset!
- All bed linens and towels provided
- A jolly nice kitchen, where the old ticket office once resided, well equipped for the chefs in your party with everything you would expect and more – abundant crockery, cutlery, glasses & cups as well as a host of cooking & baking utensils, dishwasher, washing machine and microwave
- The waiting room is now an open plan living and dining room with the remnants of the original 1920’s railway advertising posters on the walls advertising the trips that were available across the French Railway Network. Plenty of railway reading literature is offered and old fashioned CDs & DVDs, jigsaw puzzles with a steam theme as well as wi-fi internet and blue tooth speakers
- A large log burner for chillier evenings when required, with a basket of logs supplied
- A 12m x 5m swimming pool and equipped pool house and BBQ area – here down at the pool, you’ll find a toilet, shower, pool towels, fridge-freezer, gas BBQ and covered dining area seating 10-12 people, table tennis, plenty of sun loungers around the pool plus 7 acres of open space around the grounds
- From the 2022 season – the addition of a sliding glass pool cover to hopefully enable a swim from May to end of September and to swim under glass on the occasional rainy days
- Secure storage for your motorbikes and pushbikes and ample, safe parking for cars
- Step through the old arched waiting room door onto the old passenger platform – now a great socialising patio, with green views all around – watch for deer & green woodpeckers, imagine waiting for that steam train. At night, a great spot for star-gazing and observing shooting stars
- Options by train from the UK are varied – Eurostar to Paris or Eurostar to Lille then find onward connections to Bordeaux or Agen. There are hire car options at both or there is a limited Nouvelle-Aquitaine bus to Sos – 2 euros thirty each trip! The high speed line from Paris to Bordeaux is fabulous – under two hours. (We often travelled on a Friday & spent a night in beautiful Bordeaux before starting our relaxing holiday here).
- ((As Saturday is our busy changeover day, we are unable to offer any pick ups / drop offs to our guests))
- Options by plane – our 3 local-ish airports are all approximately 1 hour 50 minutes drive to la gare de Sos. Bergerac airport is a great little airport if you can find a flight here and has car hire desks as soon as you walk out of arrivals. Bordeaux and Toulouse are the other two airports. You might find flights to Biarritz, Tarbes-Lourdes and Brive – it changes yearly.
- The peace and quiet and rural, natural surroundings are distinct features of a holiday at la gare de Sos. Mobile phone reception is patchy in the valley – much stronger reception can be found up in the village or at various spots along the old railway line. The nearby village of Sos has a well stocked village shop (French opening times), a restaurant and a small Wednesday morning market with fresh fruit & veg, a fish monger and a cheese & meat van, as well as a pharmacy, post office and church. Up the road at Sainte Maure de Peyriac is another mini supermarket and an excellent boulangerie with bread baked the traditional way in a wood fired oven by the most charming baker…
- All this, in the homeland of Armagnac…
