Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [174]
In the ticket hall, banners announce a new link with the city of Bourges. Travelers can buy packages that include guided visits to the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne and other sights; in the early 1990s, Jacques Chirac launched the Seine-Rive-Gauche project, a pleasant riverside strip that runs southeast from the station.
Many Parisians dismiss the Gare d’Austerlitz as architecturally dull. However, the sight of the Métro trains entering on an overpass (the huge archway on the upper level of the station) is compelling, like watching a train disappear into a mountain.
GARE DE LYON
Just across the Seine (technically the Right Bank), the station’s fanciful clock tower dominates the rue de Bercy area, which has been revitalized, particularly with the opening of the new Bibliothèque Nationale de France in the late nineties. But when the Gare de Lyon was being built, in 1902, the area was poor and the site awkward.
The Paris Exposition of 1900 had created a climate for change. Railway companies felt “a strong obligation to enhance the cityscape,” notes Sutcliffe. Both the Gare de Lyon and the Gare d’Orsay (now the Musée d’Orsay) were “variants of the classical style, though the Gare de Lyon, standing at the gateway to the east end, was more daring, using symbolism, the picturesque, expressionism and height.… [It] epitomizes public architecture in Paris at the height of the Belle Époque.”
Architect Marius Toudoire created, says Sutcliffe, “languorous sculpture springing directly from the walls, and the colorful decoration recalled the architecture of luxury hotels and casinos on the Côte d’Azur.” For present-day visitors, the legendary Train Bleu restaurant is “the world’s most palatial station restaurant in a lush neo-rococo.” Lunch or dinner is a feast for the senses, and though reviews of the cuisine vary, I found the food to be delicious, and the service elegant (pommes gaufrettes served in a silver bowl, for example.) My rack of lamb arrived on a Christofle slicing trolley, which had a hood of embossed silver.
Le Train Bleu’s fabulous murals of high society enjoying themselves in Lyon and the Riviera, its richly carved moldings, crystal chandeliers, and velvet drapes make even a cup of coffee memorable in the adjoining bar, Le Club Américain. The restaurant is listed as a historic site. In an elegant glass case are mementos, from the signature china to the Train Bleu watch.
GARE MONTPARNASSE
This startlingly modern station on boulevard Montparnasse was rebuilt to serve the TGV to the Atlantic coast, including Nantes and Quimper as of 1990. It forms a glass and concrete complex with the 1973 Tour Montparnasse, which soars to fifty-nine stories over the once-Bohemian district. Sutcliffe calls the Gare Montparnasse nothing more than a “modest practicality,” but it appeals with its broad arched views of the surrounding area, its restaurants judiciously placed on the perimeter of the upper level.
Whether or not the charms and unexpected comforts of the train stations persuade you to “préférer le train,” you can savor the pleasures of the journey—past and present—simply by visiting the stations themselves.
Streets of Desire
VIVIAN THOMAS
AS VIVIAN THOMAS notes below, “Anyone who’s been to Paris knows that it’s possible to fall in love with a street.” By extension, I am absolutely in love with this piece. And as you might guess, few other pleasures are as wonderful to me as accidentally discovering an old book (especially one in a series) with as much detail in it as the one Thomas describes. I have complete book envy! In an online search, I have found a variety of paperback and hardcover editions of Évocation du vieux Paris, and it is just a matter of choosing which one I prefer before a copy comes into my possession.
VIVIAN THOMAS is assistant editor of France Today. She also contributed numerous articles to the former Paris Notes, where this piece originally appeared.
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