Le Train Bleu

Today's the day ....................... to travel by train

Left Paris today and headed south to visit our friends Marc and Marie-Claire near Grenoble. We were travelling by train - the very fast TJV which left from the Gare de Lyons but before we left, we made sure we had enough time to have a coffee in the famous Train Bleu Restaurant there.

It was built by the Paris-Lyon railway company at the time of the Great Exhibition in 1900 and has 41 paintings on its walls and ceilings representing railway landscapes and scenes of that time. It has a wooden floor, wooden panelling on the walls - and long, leather-upholstered wall-seats. Over the years, its regular customers have included Coco Chanel, Brigitte Bardot, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali and Jean Gabin.

As you can imagine, it is a very expensive place in which to dine. A cup of coffee was all we could stretch to ...................!