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| The bottom station of the téléphérique, circa 1960. |
This is one of those situations where you ponder "what's exactly in the definition?"
Firstly, the difference in French between a téléphérique and a télécabine. In English, this aerial cableway has climbed most of the way from the Lac de Fabrèges (at 1,238 metres altitude) to the Pic du midi de Sagette in the Pyrénées Atlantiques since the 1930s. The poster by E. Paul Champspix states that it won Medaille d'Or at the International Concours for Tourist Propaganda Posters in Krakow in 1935, although the poster itself is dated 1937. It shows the 2,884 metre Pic du midi O'ossau (a little 'artistic license' was involved with the scene and the altitude change).
At the summit of the aerial cableway (at 1,934 metres altitude) is one terminus of the Petit Train d'Artouste which winds its way for 10 km around the mountains maintaining a generally similar attitude, despite ascents and descents, to a station at 1,911 metres, a bit below the 1,997 metre high Lac d'Artouste.
This raises the second question: at what point does a narrow gauge railway become a miniature railway? At 500 mm gauge width this (diesel-worked) line with its small profile vehicles is getting close to the popular definition change, even if its length is a fair distance. More pics here
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