in the “cholesterol train” with writers on their way to the Brive Book Fair

It is November 8, the start of the 42nd edition of the Brive Book Fair in Corrèze. Respected tradition, many writers and publishers arrived in the lively city by train for the great annual literary meeting.

« The fair starts here, when everyone is on the train. And the atmosphere on the train says the atmosphere there will be at the fair », Confides early in the morning, François David, commissioner of the Brive Book Fair.

It is exactly eight o'clock in the morning at Austerlitz station, a hundred writers are crowding the platform. Direction Brive-la-Gaillarde.

Since 1985, it's been tradition. The authors' train transports the cream of literature to the book festival in the Corrèze capital. A train transformed into a gourmet restaurant. A challenge for the kitchen team.

“A car must be thirty meters long, so the last customer is more than 300 meters away, so we must not forget anything!”explain, with a smile, Pierre Barbarin, head of the catering service for the town of Brive. It's very original, and very atypical and very gripping too, but once it's finished, we're very happy to have made it”reassures the restaurateur.

On today's menu, foie gras, duck breast, sweetbread ravioli and porcini mushrooms… all accompanied by a little Corrèze wine.

The good humor is there, and the jokes are flying: “Consume in moderation ! Never more than two liters per day ! Never !, dsay, laughing, two writers whose names will remain silent. When one of them specifies: no more than two liters…At lunch !”

Formerly nicknamed the cholesterol train for the few abuses, the gargantuan side is no longer quite what it was twenty years ago. As a regular can testify: “We had not yet left Paris intramuros, and there was already wine, terrine, foie gras, which made our arrival in Brive a little shaky, a little shaky ! That’s what also made the thing fun. Afterwards, it's perfect, it's very good like that !”, concludes, a bit philosophical, the writer Philippe Jaenada.

With full bellies, passengers enjoy the journey. An almost ideal trip.

“The train is a place where we read a lot, and so if in addition, we eat, we drink, we are with friends, it's a way of remembering that literature is first and foremost a pleasure !’insists novelist Frédéric Beigbeder.

After a 5.5 hour journey on this rather unusual train, the authors and publishers finally arrive at Brive station ready to face three days of signing.