A twist of silver paper, a two pence coin, an empty toilet roll and a grubby hairband – the sort of stuff found at the back of the kitchen drawer – sit around the edge. A wooden frame covered with stretched muslin is strewn with dried flowers. Next door, in the British pavilion, Turner prize nominee Cathy Wilkes’ offering looks superficially similar. Dancers and acrobats do their stuff and a slithering squid climbs the steps to the pavilion. A postmodern Odyssey in which migrants look longingly out to sea and sing. This turns out to be the prelude to a perplexing but vibrant video that starts in the banlieues of Paris and ends in Venice. Entering through an underground dug-out of piled earth, we’re invited to climb the metal staircase onto a sea-green resin floor littered with detritus and interspersed with sea-creatures made from local Murano glass. The long queues for Laure Provost’s installation in the French pavilion show that there’s an appetite for doom-laden imagery. If there’s nothing left to believe in we can always grasp at straws. As the world collapses we can bop along in the Swiss Pavilion with five performers whose backwards motions generate ‘new, alternative forms of resistance and action’ or we can read the runes with a Korean female medium. And if it all that gets too much there’s always dance or a touch of shamanism to take your mind off things. Ice caps melt, oceans are polluted, bombs are thrown and the emotions expressed frequently turn out to be those from ersatz non-humans. Curated by Ralph Rugoff of London’s Hayward Gallery, May You Live in Interesting Times sees degradation and dissonance played out around every corner. It’s an appropriate metaphor for this year’s event, in which narratives seem to dissolve in a white mist of nebulous noise. A fitting image of our propensity for self-destruction in these dystopian times.Īrriving in the Giardini I found clouds of vapour enveloping the main pavilion, courtesy of the Italian artist Lara Favaretto. As thousands flock to the event the gorgeous palazzi sink ever further into the lagoon, damaged by the huge commercial cruise ships that daily disgorge yet more tourists into the fragile infrastructure.

Train touristique du Musée de la Mine de Noyant-d'Allier 1.Venice, that city of dreams and the inspiration for artists and writers from Turner to Italo Calvino, sees its 58th art biennale.

Petit train du Port-aux-Cerises 3 km, operating.

Le p'tit train de Saint-Trojan 6 km, operating.

Le petit train de l'Yonne 2.5 km, operating.Froissy Dompierre Light Railway operating.Conservatoire provençal de patrimoine de véhicules anciens.Compagnie du chemin de fer de Semur en Vallon.Chemins de fer du Calvados (1891-1944).Chemin de fer du Val de Passey at Choloy-Ménillot.Chemin de fer touristique du fort de Villey-le-Sec 1.3 km, operating.Chemin de fer du Haut-Rhône 4 km, operating.Chemin de fer des Chanteraines 5.5 km, operating.

Chemin de Fer de Saint-Eutrope 2.5 km, defunct.Chemin de Fer de la Vallée de l'Ouche.In France, a 600 mm ( 1 ft 11 + 5⁄ 8 in) gauge towing tramway ran along the Marne-Rhine Canal between Arzviller and Niderviller. Chemin de fer d'Abreschviller 6.1 km, operating.CF Economiques Forestiers des Landes (1907-34).Tramways Électrique du Finistère (1903-32).Tramway à vapeur d'Ardres à Pont d'Ardres (1902-55).Chemins de Fer d'Aire à Fruges et de Rimeux-Gournay à Berck (1891-1955).Chemin de fer des Côtes-du-Nord (1905-56).Chemin de fer de Boulogne à Bonningues (1900-48).Chemin de fer d'Anvin à Calais (1881-1955).Belleville funicular tramway (1891-1924).The petit train d'Artouste, a tourist line in the Pyrenees, uses 500 mm ( 19 + 3⁄ 4 in) gauge. Corsica has a narrow-gauge network of two lines following the coast line, that are connected by one line crossing the island through highly mountainous terrain. Decauville was a famous French manufacturer of industrial narrow-gauge railway equipment and equipped one of the most extensive regional 600 mm ( 1 ft 11 + 5⁄ 8 in) narrow-gauge railway, the Chemins de fer du Calvados. Extensive 600 mm ( 1 ft 11 + 5⁄ 8 in) gauge lines were also built for the sugar-beet industry in the north often using ex-military equipment after the First World War. The original French scheme was that every sous-prefecture should be rail connected. The French National Railways used to run a considerable number of 1,000 mm ( 3 ft 3 + 3⁄ 8 in) metre gauge lines, a few of which still operate mostly in tourist areas, such as the St Gervais-Vallorcine (Alps) and the 'Petit Train Jaune' (little yellow train) in the Pyrenees.

Abandoned castle nearabric cap du blanc