Paris

city · earth

Western terminus of the Orient Express and of most of its successors, and a useful reminder that a "terminus" in a city with several main-line stations is a commercial decision rather than a geographical one. The 1883 Express d'Orient left the Gare de l'Est, which faces east toward Strasbourg and the German network. When the 1919 Versailles settlement closed that alignment politically, the reconstituted Simplon Orient Express left instead from the Gare de Lyon, facing southeast toward Switzerland and Italy. The train did not merely change route; it changed which side of Paris it belonged to.