Le Train Bleu morphs into the Montreux Jazz Cafe

When people fly into Geneva, we tell them to meet us at the Montreux Jazz Cafe on the arrivals floor, where the acts from different festivals are constantly playing on the screens.

When I used to leave Paris early in the morning from the Gare du Lyon I'd always eat petit déjeuner at the brasserie for Le Train Bleu with its wall paintings from La Belle Epoque and its long-aproned waiters.

Thus when Rick and I were to meet up Wednesday at the Gare du Lyon he was arriving earlier. I suggested he wait at Le Train Bleu and if we didn't meet on the quai, I'd go there. 

He was at the quai and told me that Le Train Bleu had morphed into the Montreux jazz cafe.

I was horrified. I love the Jazz cafe which is owned by a watch company Parmigiani Fleurier in the Vals de Travers where I lived 1990-1993 but Le Train Bleu was something special.

However the brasserie was only part. Up a staircase was the main restaurant which has been in existence since 1901. It has appeared in a number of movies.

• 1972: Travels with My Aunt, directed by George Cukor
• 1973 The Mother and the Whore, directed by Jean Eustache
• 1990: Nikita, directed by Luc Besson
• 1998: Place Vendôme, directed by Nicole Garcia
• 2003: Filles uniques, directed by Pierre Jolivet
• 2007: Mr. Bean's Holiday, directed by Steve Bendelack
• 2009: Micmacs, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Thus when leaving Paris to go back to Geneva, we ate at the Jazz Cafe and listened to the musicals on the screen from the 2013 festival where once had been wonderful murals.

I stayed with the luggage and sent Rick upstairs to admire the main restaurant.