From the outside, it looks like any other New England church building: a boxy, white structure with a single steeple surrounded by an old stone wall, set against rolling hills and pine forest.

"Maine’s Sistine Chapel" or the South Solon Meeting House, in Waterville, Maine, is covered with 70-year-old fresco murals painted by artists in the 1950s.

Ride the rails from Toulouse through spectacular landscapes to underrated towns packed with history and culture ...