Train des Merveilles

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Below: | Schedule | Alternate Route | Road Trip |

This Nice-Breil-Tende-Cuneo railway line [map] follows the Roya valley to cross the Alps into Italy. There are many viaducts and even more tunnels, with wild mountain-and-valley scenery. There are a lot of lovely mountain villages along the line, along with great places for hiking. During the winter, this train is a great solution to trips to the mountains, for skiing or just visiting, without the problems of driving on icy roads.

The rail line follows the Peillon river valley north out of Nice, goes up the Roya Valley, and passes under the mountains at the Col de Tende into Italy. Much of the line is separate from the surface of the earth, either passing over it on numerous viaducts or passing through it in many, many tunnels, one of them about 6 km long between l'Escarène and Sospel.

In the upper Roya Valley near Tende, the train actually makes a couple of full 360-degree loops while in tunnels. Even with the many tunnels, enough spectacular sights remain to make the trip a memorable event. The valleys, villages, mountains, streams and wild nature are far beyond what most city dwellers have even dreamed of.

The Nice-Cuneo train is now called the Train des Merveilles, with a more touristique image for attracting visitors to the Roya valley and the region of Tende, with hikes and guided trips into the Mercantour Park and the famous Vallée des Merveilles with the prehistoric rock engravings.

The town of Tende also has the Musée des Merveilles. The outsides of the railway carriages are decortively painted with bright colors and branded with images of the rock carvings and the village names.

Trip Time. The full trip between Nice and Cuneo takes about three hours; between Nice and Tende is less than two hours. You can take a morning trip up and a night trip back, but Cuneo has several hotels and is interesting enough to spend the night, visit, and rest up for the return trip. We also like Tende for an overnight stop, especially if you're doing some hiking. There are toilets on the train.

Nice Depart is from the main railway station (gare SNCF), or you can catch the train at the gare Nice St. Roche, on the eastern side of town.

Stops Along the Way, from Nice to Tende:
 • Nice main railway station
 • Nice St. Roche
 • La Trinité
 • Drap - Cantaron
 • Peillon Ste Thecle
 • Peille
 • L'Escarène
    (long tunnel)
 • Sospel
    (long tunnels)
 • Breil-sur-Roya
 • Fontan - Saorge
    (loops inside mountain, the track passes alongside itself)
 • St Dalmas-de-Tende
 • La Brigue
 • Tende

Schedule

The schedules are approximate only! We don't keep this up-to-date, but it doesn't change all that much.

You can get current schedules for specific times from the SNCF web (http://www.ter-sncf.com/paca/), or contact SNCF information, Tel: (33) 836 35 35 35, to verify the latest schedules and reservations. On this TER-SNCF/PACA website, enter you departure town at "Mon point de départ" (such as Nice), enter your destination town at "Mon point d'arrivée" (such as Tende), specify a departure date, then click "Lancer la recherche". The web will probably return an error message asking you to refine your departure and destination towns if there several stations (such as 3 stations in Nice and 2 stations in Tende). Select the stations from the pull-down menus and again click "Lancer la recherche".

The schedules below show only a few of the stations, and only the trains that go via Peille, l'Escarene, Sospel, Breil. Most of these change trains in Breil-sur-Roya to join the Ventimiglia-Tende-Cuneo train. We have not included the Nice-Ventimiglia train (see Alternate below).
• A connecting train between Cuneo and Torino (1h30) is available, but not listed here.

Nice-Cuneo, via Peille, L'Escarène, Sospel, Breil, Tende

Nice-Ville Breil (arr) Breil (dep) Tende Cuneo

7   7h21 8h27 *8h34 9h08 10h12

7   9h00 10h03 10h06 10h46

7   12h35 13h41 13h47 14h27 15h26

7   17h52 19h01 19h26 20h06 21h01

7   19h20 20h26 *20h31 21h05 21h56

Cuneo-Nice, via Tende, Breil, Sospel, L'Escarène, Peille

Cuneo Tende Breil (arr) Breil (dep) Nice-Ville

w   6h14 6h46 6h48 7h53

7   7h04 8h02 8h31 *9h15 10h19

7   8h29 9h27 9h55 10h08 11h05

7   12h14 12h46 12h51 13h55

sun  15h05 16h12 16h40 *17h17 18h24

7   16h04 17h20 17h52 18h10 19h12

sun  18h35 19h07 19h39 20h40

Key: 7 everyday; w weekdays; sun Sunday.

Alternate Route

There is also a 25-minute train between Breil and Ventimiglia, on the Italian coast and part of the normal east-west train line between France and Italy. This makes it possible, for example, to go up from Nice-Breil- Cuneo, and return Cuneo-Breil-Ventimiglia, for continuing on east

Road Trip

Since the tracks pretty much follow the road, you can take this same trip by car.

The D2202 north from Nice is clearly marked for Sospel (40 km), passing l'Escarène, and the Col de Braus (1002 m). The D2202 joins the N204 near Breil-sur-Roya 21 km after Sospel, passing the Col de Brouis (879 m).

An alternate route with better roads is to take the autoroute from Nice to Ventimiglia in Italy (about 30 km east along the coast). From Ventimiglia, follow the S20 north until it crosses into France, becoming the N204, and arrives at Breil-sur-Roya.

From Breil, the N204/S20 follows Roya river, passing through Saorge, Tende, the Col de Tende, Limone-Piemonte (Italy) and finally arrives in Cuneo.