Wednesday 27 December - Musee des Arts Forans and Le Train Bleu

The weather forecast was not too good today so we decided to visit the Museum of Fairground Arts at the Cour St. Emillion near Bercy.

There is always competition from the kids to ride in the front of the automatic trains on line 14

This is how the front window is set out - only children are allowed to drive the train

 It was to be expected that the musee would be busy as it is normally only open by appointment

I am sure this would have given me nightmares

This was one of the games. The waiters are advanced by rolling a ball into a series of holes to gain points

Some of the mechanical figures were very well done

This was the Velocipede a cycle type roundabout which was very popular

Probably the worst version of Bach's Prelude K565 that I have ever heard. It would have been  a little better without the human voice.

Outside - onion soup and hot wine was available

We went back to the Gare de Lyon and took a table at Le Train Bleu restaurant.  Never look at the prices here but not only is there excellent food and great service but the room is absolutely breathtaking.

A creme brule au foie gras which Mary was given on the house as she had not ordered a starter.  Quite unusual and very rich.

The leg of lamb was exceptionally temder

 I started with mushrooms in a chestnut soup and finished with the traditional baba au rhum.  We both had the lamb with potatoes au gratin and Mary finished with a cafe gourmand.  The Saumur Champigny (red Loire) wine was a good accompaniment.

This was the ceiling above us 

The main door leads onto a balcony with a view of Halle 2 of the station

This was a quiet period with only one TGV  which was loading. When we went in there were at least six.

Gare de Lyon

The lack of a Christmas Market on the parvis/forecourt allowed us to admire the beautiful tower on the station 

Seeing that we were not pressed for time we decided to take the bus back to Saint Lazare. This was very slow, particularly between the Opera and Saint-Lazaare but it allowed us to go past the viaducts to Bastille, the place de la Republique and the Grands Magazins.