A project of one mans mind produced a pre-cursor of modern high speed train travel, the man was jean bertin. An aeronautical engineer. On this stretch of old rail line he built a test track and ran the first prototypes. (Which still exits) hitting 422km/hr. Later larger prototypes where run near orleans, project was abandoned in 1974 when TGV was selected, and he died in 1975.

Mr TIM TRAVELER has done two wonderful videos on this on you tube. I recomended all his work highly. If you like quirky stuff (conquering the highest hill in flevoland in nethelands..spoiler it’s not that high!)