About this journey

The journey departs from Veynes-Dévoluy station, a junction in the Hautes-Alpes whose platform found an unexpected role in cinema history when it doubled for Tulle station in the 1973 film 'The Day of the Jackal'. From here, the X72500 X-TER works its way northwest and westward, tracing a route that eventually leaves the Alpine interior behind.

The terminus is Romans Bourg-de-Péage station, serving twin towns divided by the Isère River. Bourg-de-Péage takes its name from a medieval toll levied on a bridge across the Isère, built by monks of the Abbey Saint Bernard of Vienne in 1033. When the railway arrived in 1864, it reshaped the local hat-making trade: cheaper Australian rabbit hair could now reach the workshops by rail, ending the town's reliance on locally sourced materials. The station serves the Drôme department of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, situated about 20 kilometres from Valence — itself described as the gateway to the south of France — and some 82 kilometres from Lyon. The journey therefore traces a corridor from the high Alpine hinterland down toward the broader Rhône valley, moving between two very different landscapes over the course of just under two hours and twenty minutes.