Which Paris station served as the original western terminus of the Orient Express?

The Paris station that served as the original western terminus of the Orient Express was the Gare de l’Est.

The station opened in 1849 as the Strasbourg platform, or Gare de Strasbourg, serving railways heading east from Paris. It was renamed Gare de l’Est in 1854 after the network expanded toward Mulhouse. Its eastward orientation made it the natural Paris departure point for the pioneering international service.

The first Orient Express departure took place in 1883. The early service initially ran toward Vienna and later extended through the Balkans toward Constantinople, now Istanbul. The route was not always a single uninterrupted train journey: changing railway networks, ferries and political borders affected the itinerary over time.

The Gare de l’Est is sometimes confused with the Gare de Lyon because later southern routes, including the Simplon Orient Express, used different Paris stations. The original Orient Express, however, was identified with Gare de l’Est. The station remains one of Paris’s principal long-distance termini.