Clairac train station

How charming was the Clairac station, with its passengers waiting patiently on the platform, waiting for the little steam train, from Villeneuve-sur-Lot, to stop as if by magic at the sound of the stationmaster's whistle. It's a bit like watching “L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat”, the Lumière brothers' first film, which frightened the public at the Grand Café in Paris one day in December 1895! Here, it should be noted that passengers on the platform are more interested in the photographer - whom many of them are staring at - than in the arrival of their train!

Clairac was served by a short line, opened by the Compagnie d'Orléans in the early 1890s, linking Tonneins to Penne-d'Agenais; over the course of the 20^th century, the company abandoned the passenger service, then the goods service. But it was the presence of the railway line that led the Agricultural Cooperative to set up at this location. Surrounded by the cooperative's silos, the station was finally demolished around 2000.

Grandfather of the late Claude Martin, born in Cambes, Gabriel Martin was a resourceful man. Indeed, in addition to having been a notary clerk for Mr Dudon (future mayor), he was secretary of the town hall. At the origin of the electrification of the mill on the right bank with his cousin Bichon, he was also passionate about photography and took many pictures of Clairac, its houses and monuments, which are today essential testimonies of the village in the past. His photographs were often published as postcards which are the delight of collectors today.