Le Train Bleu

How does a restaurant inside a railway station become one of the most elegant places to eat in France?

The answer is Le Train Bleu, where people come not simply to eat but to step into a journey through time, in a room where French art, history and cooking meet under a blaze of gold.

Long before high-speed trains carried people to distant places, Le Train Bleu was already carrying its guests into a dream of France, through flavour and through architecture.

It is the one restaurant in Paris where you can travel without leaving the table.

1901, and the trains going south

Inside the Gare de Lyon, one of the handsomest stations in Paris, Le Train Bleu opened in 1901 for the World's Fair, to receive travellers heading for the Côte d'Azur on the Paris–Lyon–Méditerranée line.

It was first called the Buffet de la Gare de Lyon, and later renamed after the legendary trains that carried Parisian aristocracy and artists down to the south of France.

Through the door

What makes the place famous is not its position in a station but the almost unbelievable beauty inside. Cross the threshold and you have the sense of having left the twenty-first century for the Belle Époque.

The ceiling stands more than ten metres up and is covered in painting; crystal chandeliers, gilded columns, classical furniture and large murals show the beauty of France.

Those paintings are not decoration. They tell the story of the country the trains crossed: Provence full of sun, the elegant Côte d'Azur, Burgundy and its vineyards, the mass of the Alps. Each meal here is a small journey through France.

The room has received a great many well-known figures, from politicians to artists and film stars, and has appeared in a number of films — most famously Luc Besson's Nikita.

What to order

The kitchen keeps faith with cuisine française traditionnelle: classical French cooking, finely presented.

One of its signatures is gigot d'agneau de sept heures, leg of lamb cooked slowly for hours until it falls apart, which goes very well with a Bordeaux Saint-Émilion or a Côtes-du-Rhône Villages.

Another favourite is the filet de bœuf, French beef in the grand brasserie manner, excellent with a Bordeaux red such as a Pauillac or a Margaux. For those who prefer the sea, the seasonal fish and shellfish suit a white Sancerre or a Chablis.

Do not skip the classical first courses: foie gras, usually taken with a sweet Sauternes, or escargots de Bourgogne with their strong garlic butter. To finish, crème brûlée, Paris-Brest or a soufflé au Grand Marnier.

No need to hurry

What is particular about Le Train Bleu is that you need not eat quickly. This is a room for long lunches, unhurried conversation, and the pleasure of the French art of living. A glass of champagne before the meal, under that ceiling, is enough to make you forget you are standing in a station.

Afterwards

The quarter around the Gare de Lyon repays a walk. Go to the Coulée verte René-Dumont, an elevated garden built on a disused railway line, a beautiful green cut through the city and very good to photograph. You can also head towards Bastille, into small streets, independent design shops and cafés of a distinctly contemporary Paris.

For the best pictures, shoot the great hall of the Gare de Lyon with its famous clock tower, then come into the restaurant in early afternoon, when light through the tall windows lifts the paintings overhead. Evening is another thing altogether: amber lamps make the room as romantic as a scene from a classic film.

The memory of an age

Le Train Bleu is not only a restaurant. It is the memory of a Paris in which travel was still romantic, in which every train was an adventure and every meal a ceremony.

Because some places you go to for the food. And some, like this one, you go to in order to remember that life still holds moments as beautiful as a train moving slowly towards a dream.