Nagelmackers was inspired by George Mortimer Pullman's famous luxury trains, already active during the 1960s and which the Belgian saw during a trip to the United States.
It was October 4, 1883 when the Orient Express began its first journey, inaugurating the Paris-Istanbul route on the most luxurious train ever built. Over time, the routes and cities visited have changed and the original service of the "Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits" no longer exists: there are now private companies that offer luxury travel on long international routes and trains still called Orient Express. A name that has made generations of travelers dream and piqued the imagination of novelists, from Agatha Christie with Murder on the Orient Express to Ian Fleming with 007, from Russia with love. But it is also a name that evokes stories of real spies, intrigue and mystery.
FROM PARIS TO INSTANBUL. The great adventure began in 1883, when, amidst clouds of steam and the whistle of the green light, the train solemnly left the Gare de l'Est in Paris headed for Istanbul (at the time Constantinople). In the elegant crowd that witnessed the departure there was no shortage of skeptics, convinced that "going from Paris to Constantinople was as senseless as thinking of going to the Moon"
the journalist Edmond About wrote in his article in Figaro. Together with other writers and personalities, he was part of the 40 guests who came aboard for the maiden voyage. Everyone was thrilled with this new experience and the recommendation to carry a revolver only added to the suspense.
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