For a century and two dozen years, voyeuristic Parisian foodies have flocked to taste luxury railcar dining in what feels like a museum. Couched in opulent comfort and surrounded by fresco paintings, they feasted in the gilded French restaurant known as Le Train Bleu.
Paris was at the height of an era—the Belle Époque, or Beautiful Era—when art, culture, science, and great optimism reigned. A restaurant was unveiled in the bustling railway station Gare de Lyon during the Universal Exhibition in 1900. It presented the novel Art Nouveau style of architecture, but decked upon the restaurant walls and ceilings were decorations and artwork still very much traditional.
