Gare de Lyon - again.

The Paris railway terminals are all undergoing a modernization.  I recently reported on what has been done at  the Gare de Saint Lazare.

Soon four years ago I made a post on Gare de Lyon (and its famous restaurant Le Train Bleu). Since two years, part of the station (Hall 2) has been completely reshaped, including a new enormous glass roof. I feel that this renovation which includes a lot of new facilities, shops, escalators… has been very well carried out. It’s all modern, but fits well into the style of the 1900 building. (… not mentioning that solar equipment now takes care of the station’s energy need).

This is a station for the ever increasing number of TGV (fast) trains, linking Paris to the south, south east, Switzerland… New lines and city onnections are soon expected to increase the number of passengers from some 90 to some 100 million per year, so the request for service is there.

The link - large corridor - to the other part of the station (Hall 1) has also been renovated and offers a number of new shops.

The only sad thing I noted was that a kid obviously had lost a newly acquired Disneyland balloon. 

Gare de Lyon

I have already posted about Gare Saint Lazare and Gare de l’Est. Gare de Lyon is another of the six remaining major Paris railway stations. This is where you leave for Lyon, Marseille, Nice... and also some Italian and Swiss destinations. (I showed this map in a previous presentation, indicating Genève as an example for Switzerland, but got a remark about Lausanne from Delphinium, so I have of course corrected it.) It’s also largely used for local traffic. Totally, some 83 million people pass here every year.

The present station was built for the World Exhibition of 1900 (as e.g. the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Alexandre III bridge). It then replaced a previous building from 1849 (destroyed in 1871 by fire, but rebuilt identically). It was the first Paris station to be reached by the just inaugurated metro line no. 1, also in 1900.

According to the fashion of those days, the station is largely decorated outside, including some tens of blazons of the destination cities. Especially remarkable is the Big Ben like 67 m (220 ft) high clock tower. The four dials have a diameter of 6,4 m (21 ft) and the roman numbers have the size of 1 m (40 inches).
Inside, you can find the usual imposing steel and glass ceilings. There are also some large fresco paintings, again illustrating the major destinations. You can also find the famous restaurant, Le Train Bleu, a nice place for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner... before your departure – see also top picture. This is also what Mr. Bean did on his way to Cannes (Mr. Bean’s Holiday). It’s today rather under the station that you wait for the departure, especially of the TGV (high-speed) trains (320 km = 200 miles/hour), offering some 24 departures per day to Lyon, 16 to Marseille... This was the first station to offer this service, in 1981. On this level you also find a commercial centre.

Further down, you will find the metro lines, including the garden-decorated station for the newest (driverless) line no. 14.

It's again time to wish you a nice weekend!

I got another reward, from Rhi / “Peanut Butter Bound” – a young lady from Tennessee who recently started a blog where she shows photos from other bloggers. An interesting idea. The award contains the word “scrap”, but I take it anyhow as an honour . ! :-)