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00:00For over a hundred years, the Orient Express, the world's most iconic train, crossed Europe.
00:13If you would be traveling on the Orient Express in its golden age, this is the kind of carriage
00:18you would be traveling on. Until it's withdrawn, the train tied Europe together.
00:25Prince Ferdinand was quoted in saying that the Orient Express is of vital interest to us.
00:31A service famed for its glamour and luxury.
00:35This space was for the creme de la creme, the best of the best.
00:39That became world famous.
00:41The Cold War made the Orient Express the hotbed of spice.
00:46And whose legacy is still felt.
00:49Let's say 150 years ago you came here with the Orient Express.
00:53You would have seen exactly the same mosque of today.
01:00In this series, we'll take a 2,000-mile journey across Europe.
01:06It's always a very exciting moment when we are doing a route for the first time.
01:11And follow a new luxury train as it retraces the fabled route.
01:16Exploring the history of a golden age of train travel along the way.
01:22During the railway golden age, passengers could buy a ticket that would take them from London
01:35all the way to Istanbul, the gateway to the east.
01:40Orient Express passengers caught a connecting boat train to the south coast of England.
01:46Before crossing the channel by ferry to northern France and onwards to Paris.
01:53There they joined the iconic train and travelled through Munich, Vienna and Budapest.
02:00Before arriving at its final destination, Istanbul.
02:11On the first part of the journey between London and Paris.
02:14The height of luxury.
02:16People who were spending quite a bit of money to be on the Orient Express.
02:21This is the experience that they want.
02:23The cutting edge of cool.
02:26People who were travelling with the Orient Express.
02:31And you just have a look at what was the most modern part of the world.
02:37And a night passengers would never forget.
02:42For the passengers of the Orient Express, the Moulin Rouge really was a must-do.
02:47It was at that time already the most famous cabaret in the world.
02:51Interwar London was a wealthy imperial capital.
03:03And by the 1920s, the largest city in the world.
03:08The wealthy and influential expected the height of sophistication.
03:13And train companies did not disappoint.
03:17The Orient Express never called at London directly.
03:20But passengers from the city boarded a boat train that connected with the Orient Express in France.
03:29Passengers boarded here at Victoria Station.
03:33It's such an impressive station.
03:35Victoria Station, the gateway to the continent.
03:38And here we have beautiful Portland stone and it's a beautiful Baroque design.
03:44Hazel Baker is a historian and tour guide who has a deep love for this station.
03:50We have four mermaid caryatids.
03:53Here they are holding up the station themselves.
03:56Also with boat trains under their arms.
03:59In the middle we have a beautiful festoon here shrouded with the cornucopia, horns of plenty.
04:08Filled with beautiful fruits and really exotic flowers.
04:12And on top of all these beautiful festoons is the crown.
04:15Reminding us, Victoria Station is named after Queen Victoria.
04:19Opened in the 1860s, the station was originally run by two companies who were arch rivals.
04:29Here in the southern railways.
04:30And then we've got the Brighton Line on the other side.
04:33Two separate stations, one next to each other, competing for that attention.
04:38A huge wall was built down the middle to make sure that passengers didn't accidentally stray onto their rivals' platforms.
04:46It wasn't until 1923 the two stations were finally united.
04:56And here the archway would have said the gateway to the continent.
05:04If I've been standing here, getting on the Orient Express, I think I would have felt real excitement.
05:10You would have smelt the steam and the coal.
05:13You would have felt the vibrations around you.
05:15You would have seen all the porters busily carrying everybody else's luggage as well.
05:19Everybody in their finest attire, eager to look their best and start their adventure towards the continent.
05:26Victoria Station had everything you might need, even a bank.
05:31Of course, you need your traveller's cheques, you need your foreign money.
05:36And here at Victoria Station, you were able to do all your banking requirements.
05:42This was the second bank ever to be built on a railway platform.
05:48So this here is the night safe.
05:51So this is where people will be able to deposit their money quite safely whilst the bank is closed.
05:57So you slide that back and then you'll be able to put your deposit in there nice and safe.
06:01Right here, there used to be the departures board.
06:05All manually changed, all the different destinations.
06:08You had Vienna, Brussels, over 400 destinations from this station alone.
06:14Really quite remarkable.
06:16And you also had a map of Europe.
06:19So you could see exactly how far across the continent we were able to get to from right here.
06:24The station was rebuilt in the 1980s and 1990s, sweeping away a lot of its original grandeur.
06:33But it's still there, if you know where to look.
06:39This hotel opened in 1862.
06:42It was supposed to be the greatest hotel to be built at the time.
06:46And if you look at it, you can tell.
06:49We've got these fierce, majestic lions looking down at us.
06:53And also there are two familiar faces.
06:55We have Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort.
06:59I think we're in good company.
07:04Originally named the Grosvenor, this Grade II listed hotel was designed to impress.
07:18Wow, this is gorgeous.
07:24The chandelier would have been gaslit, of course, so extra sparkle there.
07:32And all of this gold is actually real gold.
07:36Exquisite.
07:39During its most recent restoration, the columns were regilded
07:43and the original white marble pillars brought back to their former glory.
07:48You know you've made it when you've been here.
08:00I love this place.
08:01This was the first-class waiting room.
08:04Look at it, the size of it.
08:05I love it.
08:06I came here and I want to feel a little bit bougie, have a nice cocktail and soak in that atmosphere.
08:13This space was for the creme de la creme, the best of the best.
08:17There's something quite special also about being able to see the concourse through these huge glass windows.
08:24And you're up above it all.
08:26Above all the normal haupoloi on the streets.
08:29You're able to see your train.
08:31You'll be able to see all the porters.
08:32You'll be able to see maybe your maid sitting on a bench waiting to get onto the third-class train as well.
08:38You're above it all and you can relax before your journey begins.
08:42A hundred years ago, sitting at this bar, it would have been filled with smoke for a start.
08:49And that's not from the train stations.
08:51That's from the pipes and the cigars that you could also buy here.
08:54You'd have seen celebrities here.
08:57You'd have seen foreign secretaries here, all waiting to get on the first-class carriage of their train.
09:05And there would have been a quiet ambiance, I think, rather than the hustle and bustle from the concourse.
09:11And when it was time to leave, you'd use your very own private exit.
09:15And you'd probably be escorted across the concourse onto your luxury train.
09:21The days of opulent transcontinental trains may have passed here at Victoria.
09:27But on special occasions, you can still relive the golden years.
09:36On this, the Sussex Bell, a steam-hauled heritage train service that goes to the south coast, like the boat trains of old.
09:45And, like today, those passengers would have been excited to have started their adventure.
10:09A hundred years ago, with London fading into the distance, passengers' 2,000-mile journey to Istanbul on a luxury train service...
10:34journey to Istanbul on a luxury train service had begun.
10:40The first section of the journey was the 77 miles from London to Folkestone
10:44on a connecting boat train.
10:48There, passengers would disembark and catch a steamship to France.
10:53Wealthy passengers connecting to the Orient Express in France
10:56would take a boat train, such as the Golden Arrow.
11:00This first-class-only service offered effortless luxury,
11:05with an on-board bar and dining car,
11:07and luggage checked through to your final destination.
11:13The trains were a popular haunt for dignitaries and film stars.
11:18But it was an altogether less flashy passenger
11:21who would make the Orient Express infamous, Agatha Christie.
11:26So, Agatha Christie is the world's best-selling author.
11:30She's only outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare.
11:34And her novel, Murder on the Orient Express,
11:37is still as popular today as it was when it was first released.
11:42Tina Hodgkinson is a guide and Agatha Christie historian
11:45who has researched the real-life inspiration behind her novels.
11:49One of the worst periods of Agatha's life was the late 1920s,
11:54when her mother died and she got divorced.
11:58So, she decides to book a holiday and she's going to go off to the Caribbean.
12:02However, two days before she's due to sail, she goes to a dinner party.
12:07And amongst her friends is a naval officer.
12:10And what he tells her stories are the wonderful treasures
12:15that are coming out from Nassau-Betonia.
12:18And Agatha is enthralled by this.
12:22So much so that the next morning she basically changes her plans.
12:26She's going to travel on the Orient Express
12:28to have a look at the artefacts that have been found.
12:32Agatha had seen the Orient Express when she was a child.
12:37It was on her wish list.
12:39That was something she really wanted to do.
12:42The archaeologist Leonard Woolley
12:44was excavating the ancient city of Ur in modern-day Iraq.
12:48A key member of his team was his assistant, Max Malawin.
12:53And when Agatha arrived,
12:56Max was tasked with a job of showing her around.
13:00Agatha, at the end of the trip,
13:03was due to go and do some travelling.
13:07However, she gets a message that her daughter Rosalind is seriously ill.
13:12And what she decides to do is go back on the Orient Express.
13:17Max decides to travel with her.
13:21And he supports her through that anxiety.
13:24Because we're talking about a trip that will take four, five, six days to get back.
13:30And all that time she's worried about the welfare of her daughter.
13:34And really, for me, that really cements the relationship.
13:37That's when she knew he was a keeper.
13:40Christy's daughter recovered.
13:43And over the next ten years, she and Malawin travelled frequently on the Orient Express.
13:49It was the inspiration behind her most famous novel, featuring the detective Hercule Poirot,
13:55who is also a passenger on the train.
13:57Poirot retires to bed in the evening, only to wake up the next morning to find that one of the neighbouring compartments,
14:08a businessman called Ratchet, has been murdered.
14:13His bedroom door is locked.
14:15The window is open.
14:17And there's been a snowstorm during the night.
14:23They can't progress any further.
14:26But there are no footprints in the snow.
14:29And it's for Poirot to investigate.
14:32The incident was based on a real-life episode.
14:35In 1929, the Orient Express was just outside Istanbul when it got caught in enormous snowdrift.
14:42It had been a terrible winter and their train was stuck in the snow for several days.
14:51Agatha had her own trapped in the Orient Express story as well.
14:56There were floods which wiped away some of the railway track.
15:01And she was stuck on the Orient Express for two days.
15:05And while she was on the train, she made observations.
15:09And what she captured was the other guests, how they behaved, how they responded, what they were like.
15:18And they would help to create the characters that would appear in the novel.
15:25Even today, over 90 years since Murder on the Orient Express was first published,
15:31it is still the most famous novel about a train ever written.
15:3470 miles from London, the boat train approached the south coast of England,
15:43and for its passengers, the final stretch of their journey on British soil.
15:48Today, trains stop at Folkestone Central Station, but passengers bound for the Orient Express would have headed straight towards the harbour.
16:00On tracks that are long abandoned and visible only from above.
16:05This steep, one-mile branch line took passengers down from the main line to Folkestone Harbour.
16:13Initially built for freight, it soon started to transport passengers heading to the continent.
16:19So if you were stood here 100 years ago, this is a really busy, bustling port.
16:28There's a lot of freight coming in, there's a lot of coal going out.
16:32We've got big ships, we've got small ships, the fishing fleet.
16:36But we've also got the passenger lines coming through direct from London.
16:39It's the first rail-sea rail link in the world that actually takes you from one country to another.
16:48And it comes down the viaduct, which we're standing on now.
16:52So this line really made Folkestone special.
16:55Helen Sharp is a journalist and broadcaster who writes about Folkestone and its past.
17:02Coming down the viaduct on two lines would be steam trains going back and forth from the harbour.
17:10And behind us is one of the steepest inclines up to Folkestone Junction.
17:14It's a 1 in 30 gradient, so that's for every 30 feet you go horizontally, you're dropping one foot at a time.
17:20And so it was a real effort to get the trains going back up to Folkestone Junction to meet the line that goes to London.
17:29People talk about watching two steam engines at the front of the train, pulling it up the hill,
17:36with another steam engine behind, pushing it up in order to get it back up that steep incline.
17:42So it takes a lot of effort.
17:43In the 1850s, the very first Rail C Rail service from London to Paris passed through Folkestone Harbour,
17:53taking around 12 and a half hours to complete.
18:00Here is the first time that you do get off the train.
18:03You're entering into Folkestone Harbour Station.
18:06The train is slowing down, and this is where you're going to get off,
18:08and you're going to go all of it undercover so that you don't have to brave the elements.
18:14And it would have been around about here that there would have been double doors which would take you through,
18:18and so that you can complete the last bits of your boarding before you get onto the ferry.
18:23So absolutely the height of luxury because you've got people who are spending quite a bit of money.
18:28This is the experience that they want.
18:32So you would have walked through from the waiting room, totally undercover,
18:38out onto what is now what we call the harbour arm.
18:42It was called the pier.
18:44And so here we've got an example of where the boats would have been tied up on these mooring kidneys.
18:52And I reckon that first step onto the boat, which is going to rock gently with the lull of the water,
19:00is that moment where you know you're leaving the UK and you're really set on your adventure right the way across the sea and onto the continent.
19:11So if you are on the most luxurious train in the world, then your ferry has really got to come up to those standards as well.
19:18What was a ferry that would have had maximum capacity of 1,700 passengers,
19:25but when you've got the Orient Express on there, then you are catering for about 400 people,
19:31and so therefore you've got space to move around.
19:34In 1936, a new service launched, the Night Ferry, which left from Dover.
19:41Operated by the same company that ran the Orient Express,
19:44its first-class carriages were shunted onto rail ferries, which sailed across the Channel, while its passengers slept.
19:52Some heading for the Orient Express swapped to this more luxurious and quicker service.
19:58Dover becomes far more viable.
20:01It's got a floating dock so that the trains can actually roll straight onto the ferry.
20:05You don't have to get off your train anymore.
20:06Almost 60 years later, train travel between England and mainland Europe was revolutionised even further by the Channel Tunnel.
20:15A £4.65 billion project between Folkestone and Calais that took six years to complete.
20:24The idea of a rail link beneath the Channel dates back to the 19th century, when Britain and France first began digging.
20:31Tunnelling the English Channel by the silent film pioneer Georges Méliès was first shown in 1907.
20:41It shows the ambition behind one of the most complex engineering challenges of the time,
20:48connecting Britain and France via an underwater tunnel, an idea that would take almost a century to realise.
20:55It wasn't until 1986 that construction was finally approved, long after the golden age of luxury train travel had passed.
21:08In fact, the day the Channel Tunnel opened was the day that the boat train stopped to Dover and Folkestone.
21:14Today, the historic station and harbour have been repurposed into a vibrant cultural and leisure space.
21:20Having opened it as an entertainment site, as a visitor destination, with food and drink opportunities, with a marketplace which has got creative artisans in there selling their wares.
21:33When it comes to summer, it really is a hive of activity.
21:37When Folkestone harbour is alive, it really is the beating heart of the town.
21:40Three and three-quarter hours after leaving London, passengers would step off their steamer onto northern France.
22:01In the 1920s, Waggon-Li, the company that ran the Orient Express, had a luxury train network that stretched across three continents.
22:19At the core of this network were their multiple Orient Express services.
22:24After crossing the Channel by ferry, passengers from London would have connected to an onward service in Calais or headed south, towards Paris, to experience the City of Light for an evening before continuing their journey on the Orient Express.
22:41The next 185 miles followed the Longue-Boulogne Line.
22:48Built between the 1840s and the 1860s, it was the main route for trains steaming towards the French capital.
22:56The Orient Express carried travellers from all walks of life, and despite the beautiful views, some of them carried ugly secrets.
23:13One man used the service so often that Compartment 7 was reserved for him alone.
23:19A man who became known as the Merchant of Death.
23:23Basil Zaharoff is one of the most enigmatic persons from the 20th century.
23:30There is very little that we know about him. He burned all of his papers towards the end of his life.
23:35Johan Lardier is a guide and historian who has long been fascinated by Zaharoff.
23:41He was one of the wealthiest persons in Europe, one of the most hated also,
23:46and that he boarded the Orient Express in 1885 and changed his life entirely.
23:51Born into poverty in what is now Istanbul, Zaharoff did odd jobs across Europe before he began working for an arms manufacturer.
24:01Zaharoff was tasked to sell submarines and nobody wanted them.
24:05So he started with Greece, where he sold them cheap.
24:08Then he jumped on the Orient Express and went to the Turks and said,
24:12Look, the Greeks, they have submarines.
24:15So they bought submarines, but this time for the full price.
24:18He then persuaded the Russians that the Turks knew submarines posed a threat to their interests.
24:23And the Russians that were not interested in the first place started to buy submarines.
24:29A good scheme for a man like him. And he became extremely wealthy thanks to that.
24:33And now meet the big shot himself, Sir Basil Zaharoff, mystery man of Europe, maker of kings and the greatest munitions salesman ever known.
24:40Zaharoff used the Orient Express to criss-cross Europe, selling arms to countries in the Near and Middle East.
24:49He became one of the best customers of the Orient Express, to the point that they reserved a compartment just for him, compartment number seven.
24:58During World War One, he sold machine guns, Maxime machine guns.
25:03And he sold them to both sides, to French, to the Germans.
25:07And it's been said that for every dead person, he received one pound of gold.
25:11There were 10 million people dead during World War One.
25:15That made him the wealthiest person in Europe, but definitely the most hated.
25:19Of Zaharoff, it has been said that the tombstones of millions killed by the munitions he sold will form his monument and their dying groans shall be his epitaph.
25:28Zaharoff owned properties across Europe and beyond, but none is more mysterious than this.
25:35The Chateau de Balincourt, 40 miles from Paris.
25:40Built around 1780, its original owners were guillotined during the French Revolution.
25:45It was later owned by King Leopold II of Belgium.
25:52He grew rich on the back of colonial exploitation of the Congo.
25:58He was also a proud sponsor of the Orient Express from its inception.
26:03King Leopold II had bought that castle for his mistress and she was the owner of this place and all his illegitimate children were living here also.
26:12Zaharoff bought the house from him for one million francs, then cut himself off from the world.
26:21And when you're the most hated person in Europe, of course you're going to think about security.
26:29And actually, if you're this way, you can see how high the wall goes.
26:32So the whole estate is completely walled up and we can't see anything from the outside.
26:41When everybody wants you dead in Europe, when you've been responsible for so many dead people during World War I and all the other walls in Europe at the time.
26:49There's nothing around us except this chunky wall here that's at least three meters high.
26:55Oh, here you can see better actually.
26:59You can see how high it goes.
27:01It's actually quite thick as well.
27:03There's been there quite a while so you have all this grove on it and you can see here the columns on each side how they build it.
27:10Put those stones in the middle and then you get the columns to support it.
27:13So really, it's a very strong wall so it was very well protected.
27:17There's an archway right there.
27:19Yeah, here you can clearly see the difference between the colouring.
27:21Like the stone here at the very bottom, that's the original archway.
27:28That must have been built during the 18th century when the castle inside was built.
27:33The arch was decorated with fleur-de-lis, a powerful and enduring symbol of the French monarchy.
27:40As if it was not enough, you had to add even more luxury and that's why we have those statues on top that this royal arch was not enough.
27:47So you can see at the bottom that looks like it's been there since 1780 at the construction of the castle.
27:53And then the statues up there have a different colouring really proving that they've been added by Zaharoff afterwards.
28:00There is a story that Zaharoff, who remember came from nothing, actually bought the bed of the most famous king in France, Louis XIV, the Saint King, le Roi Soleil.
28:10And allegedly that bed is here in this castle. Is it still there? We don't know.
28:15Today, the chateau is still owned by his descendants.
28:18This is what we have, just a glimpse. Because that's the closest we're ever going to get, nobody's allowed inside, so a lot of mystery around this person.
28:28It was on this estate in 1924 that Zaharoff married the love of his life, the Duchess de Villafranca.
28:35They met unexpectedly on the Orient Express when she was married to her first husband.
28:43At 2.32am, someone bangs on the door and there's this woman, semi-naked, covered in blood, trying to escape her husband, who out of a fit of madness tried to kill her.
28:53This moment would be the start of a love story that would carry on for 38 years.
29:00This woman was very pious, so she would not divorce her husband. And when he died, she finally married Zaharoff.
29:06After they got married, they moved here to Balancourt and they lived here only for a very short period of time, 18 months, because she died of an infection.
29:14That left Zaharoff completely heartbroken. And two days after her funeral, he took the Orient Express for the very last time.
29:24He asked a bodyguard that after his death, he was to bring a photo of him and his wife, a photo that Zaharoff always carried, to Compartment 7 of the Orient Express.
29:36And at 2.32am, on the dot, the bodyguard would have to shred and throw through the window as a last romantic gesture, showing that his whole life started and ended in the Orient Express.
29:56Around seven hours after leaving London, Orient Express passengers finally arrived in Paris.
30:03Here, at Gare du Nord, Europe's busiest station, this neoclassical monument to the railway, built in the 1860s, was designed to impress.
30:23Its 23 statues represented major cities served by the railway.
30:27And its soaring iron columns were cast in Scotland, the only country with forges big enough.
30:42Then, as now, the station offered an unforgettable welcome to the French capital.
30:47Orient Express passengers with just a night in Paris would have been keen to enjoy the city at its most vibrant, before connecting to the legendary train.
30:59Here, we are probably in the most exciting district, in the most exciting city in the world.
31:05Elsa Noel Gaynor is a tour guide and historian, an expert on early 20th century Paris.
31:15To fully appreciate Paris in the 1920s, you need to consider the trauma of the First World War,
31:22and how artists were searching for new forms of expression, and a deliberate break from the past.
31:27Paris was at the centre of it all.
31:31People wanted hope to create a new society, so everywhere in the city there were artists who were enjoying the fact that we were in peace, finally, after years of war.
31:45And here, we are in Montparnasse, probably the most exciting district of the 1920s.
31:55Montparnasse was a magnet for artists, writers and models who were drawn to the area's vitality, and its cheap rents.
32:04Here we are in front of one of the most iconic workshops of Montparnasse.
32:09And here, you can see three remaining workshops. The one just behind me was used by Chaim Soutine, the famous painter who arrived there in 1910.
32:21These studios were basic, with no running water or electricity, but they were all the artists could afford.
32:29Most of these workshops were also made of two parts. The main room was made to work, to live, and you had a sort of little mezzanine.
32:39If you were not able to afford a house, you could live in this little mezzanine, having your bed and all your stuff.
32:48These were not only places to work, but also places to live, so it means that creation was at any time in these artists' lives.
32:58These studios have a connection to Paris' most famous monument.
33:01These workshops were all made of upcycled materials. I mean, what you can see here is a part of the ancient pavilions that were built for the Universal Fair of 1889.
33:15You know, the one when we built the Eiffel Tower.
33:18As Montparnasse thrived, its cafes became the centre of cultural life, where art and ideas collided, and a magnet for travellers in search of the new.
33:31People who were travelling with the Orient Express had to do a stop, just have a look at what was the most modern part of the world.
33:43Montparnasse was considered as the centre of the artistic world, so obviously you had to see what was happening.
33:50You can really feel this very cosy feeling of the 1920s, and it's also very marked by what's called Art Deco.
34:01You can see that inside it's very geometrical, and you have a lot of decorations, so it's typical of the French cafe of this time.
34:11So, at night, the artists had their habits together in the cafe in order to have something to eat, something to drink, and most of all, to get warm.
34:18You were meeting people who became your friends.
34:22So, it was more than just going to a place to have dinner, to have a coffee.
34:26It was a way to show that you belong to a clique, and also, maybe, to an art movement.
34:33Pablo Picasso was a frequent visitor, as was Mexican artist Diego Rivera and Spanish Cubist artist Juan Gris.
34:41So, now these artists are, like, famous, are considered as the most important for the 20th century.
34:49But at this time, I think that they were more considered like weirdos, you see.
34:54People were not really understanding what they were doing.
34:57Its owner, Victor Libion, was a very generous man, and he understood that what was happening in his district would change the world.
35:07And he said, OK, I'm just letting them stay the whole day in my cafe, just buying only one poor little coffee.
35:16But I know that one day they will become famous, and they will bring me more and more people.
35:23And I think that he was absolutely right, because even today, this place is one of the most famous in Paris.
35:29The cafe's frequent visitors, some Americans who had travelled on the Orient Express, were so captivated by the city that they decided to stay.
35:44Paris was considered as the main place to live your life in a sort of freedom, in sort of, like, effervescence.
35:52Ernest Hemingway is one of the most famous.
35:54It was a part of what we call the lost generation.
35:57So, the people who consider that their generation was totally wasted by the war, and the future was uncertain.
36:05So, they were just trying to forget about this by enjoying Paris.
36:10At the time, one of the most influential Americans was the writer and art collector Gertrude Stein, who lived here, at 27 Rue de Fleurus.
36:19Every Saturday at 9pm, here, all the most famous artists of the district at The Habit, to do a giant meet-up at Gertrude Stein's apartment in this building, just next to me.
36:33Ernest Hemingway, F. Fitzgerald, James Joyce, but also Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani.
36:39So, you see, all the most famous writers, sculptors and painters of the era.
36:45Stein was a pioneering writer in her own right, and her weekly salon was a magnet for young, avant-garde artists.
36:52She lived openly here with her lover, Alice B. Toklas.
37:05I mean that in Montparnasse, at this time, it was not only about doing art, but it was also about enjoying freedom.
37:11By enjoying all the life's pleasures, and also by living some, like, love stories without getting married, living love stories with men or women, with your friends, one day and not the other, etc.
37:24So, it was a very, very free way to live.
37:27If Paris is still a highly important capital for culture and art in the world, it's because of this golden age, and all the people were converging to Montparnasse in the 1920s.
37:39Paris might have been exciting during the day, but it was when the sun set that the city really came to life.
37:57With just one night in Paris before catching their onward train, Orient Express passengers would have wanted to make the most of it.
38:07Luckily for them, the City of Light delivered.
38:11Paris in the 1920s exploded with nightclubs and jazz bars.
38:17And African Americans fleeing racial prejudice in the US flocked to the city.
38:22At the heart of this cultural explosion was Josephine Baker, who would become the wealthiest black woman in the world.
38:33Baker became a symbol of Paris itself, an icon who drew audiences from across the globe.
38:41Arguably, Paris's most famous cabaret was, and remains, the Moulin Rouge, which opened in October 1889.
38:52Fanny Rabass is its press relations and events manager.
38:58The Moulin Rouge became successful straight away for many reasons.
39:03It was a beautiful place, brand new, and there was a lot of artists who wanted to inspire themselves.
39:09Henri Toulouse-Lautrec designed its first poster with the dancer La Goulou.
39:14And it created a huge scandal because La Goulou on the poster, because she showed her bottom.
39:20Everybody was shocked, but a big scandal attracted.
39:24So everybody rushed to the Moulin Rouge to see La Goulou, so this is how it started.
39:28During the two wars, the Moulin Rouge really was the iconic venue of the Paris artistic scene.
39:35The most famous artist during that time was Miss Stanguet, and she's the one who created the kind of show we still do at the Moulin Rouge.
39:45A lot of people on stage, big costumes, feathers, jewelry, and she was really a character.
39:52Miss Stanguet reigned as Queen of the Moulin Rouge until the mid-1930s.
39:56She was called the General because she was very top. If a dancer was too pretty next to her, the girl was put behind because she always wanted to be the star.
40:06For the passengers of the Orient Express, the Moulin Rouge really was a must-do.
40:11It was at that time already the most famous cabaret in the world, and it still is, 135 years after its opening.
40:18The Moulin Rouge in the 20s was already avant-garde, showed today as the same spirit.
40:23But of course we have more technical, you know, it's more grandiose and it's more impressive for the audience.
40:30We have 60 people on stage, so people are stunned by our show.
40:34The costumes have always been important. We have 1,000 costumes unmade in our workshop, shoe workshop, feather workshop.
40:43And, for example, one of my favorite costumes, the Pink Finale.
40:47We have 50 dancers on stage wearing this amazing pink costume.
40:59And the cost for one costume was 15,000 euros, so multiply by 50, 750,000 euros just for 4 minutes on stage.
41:11The total budget of the costumes since the opening of the show 25 years ago is now 10 million euros.
41:20We have 50,000 euros.
41:29In the 1920s and 30s, multiple dancers were on stage at once to create a great spectacle.
41:43Today, there are around 80 people in the troupe, and Portia Secca is one of them.
41:52I started dancing when I was 2 years old, and I just kind of never stopped.
41:58I fell in love with it, I trained almost every day, I performed as much as I could growing up.
42:05To become a dancer at the Moulin Rouge is even more competitive now than it was 100 years ago.
42:12It's one of the hardest auditions I've ever done.
42:15We do cartwheels, kicks, walks, combinations, everything you can imagine.
42:20So there's a height requirement, so girls have to be 175 centimetres.
42:27I'm probably a little bit short, but I stood up as tall as I could.
42:33The whole audition, I don't think I slouched once.
42:36I really wanted the job, and then finding out I booked it was probably one of my happiest memories.
42:43I screamed, I jumped up and down so much.
42:46My neighbours probably thought I was, I don't know, dying or something.
42:51There has been hundreds and thousands of girls before you, and you suddenly feel like you're part of the legacy, I guess.
43:03You know, Moulin Rouge, it's an institution, it's iconic, it's historic.
43:07You need to be flexible, you need to be able to perform and command the space, because at the end of the day, you know, we're all on stage together, but you want to stand out a little bit.
43:19In the 1920s, there was typically one show a night.
43:23Now, there are two performances a day, six days a week.
43:27It is very hard, but, you know, we love it.
43:32We love it. It's what we've trained our whole lives to do.
43:36It doesn't feel like work at the end of the day.
43:39I think we're all very grateful that, you know, we get to do what we love.
43:45My favourite number in the show, I think Can Can is the most rewarding.
43:51The Can Can was first performed in 1861.
43:54It soon became synonymous with the Moulin Rouge.
43:58For its time, it was provocative, daring and risque.
44:24There's intention behind each movement, which is, it's so incredible, Dan.
44:32It's nice to, you know, follow in the footsteps of the greats that have come before us.
44:37I think it's just incredible that, you know, a hundred years ago, people could step off the Orient Express and come to the Moulin Rouge and see a very similar show to what they're getting today.
45:03Next time, a modern luxury train follows the Orient Express's most iconic route.
45:32An epic transcontinental adventure from Paris to Istanbul.
45:40Let some light in.
45:44Reviving the golden age of rail with all its glamour and its charm.
45:49It's a great honour to be travelling at the footsteps of the great historical Orient Express.
45:56Along the way, luxury transformed.
45:59What you see here is the translation of the Orient Express idea into individual mobility.
46:09A unique artistic form.
46:11Here we store about six to seven hundred different puppets.
46:16And Hitler's dark obsession.
46:17It showed that the Nazi were able to run the Orient Express just as well as another country.
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