ABSTRACT
The association between the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits and the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company lasted unbroken for sixty years. It began in 1879 and came to an end through the disruptions of the Second World War, after which the jet air-liner made the difference of the time between the train and the steamship seem ridiculous by comparison. Just before the Abbazia enterprise, the restaurant and pavilion at Meudon were taken over. It was originally the home of Madame de Pompadour, and although it was the nearest Wagons-Lits ‘paradise’ to Paris. The Lloyd Riviera Express was re-started in 1933, replacing the pre-war Lloyd Express and Riviera Express. The word Lloyd was eventually dropped after the Second World War, as the present express is no longer a boat train. The Second World War brought the Overland Express to an end.
