The historic Orient Express is hosting a murder-mystery party on 17 May where passengers will enjoy an extremely luxurious trip from Paris to Nice on the French Riviera.
There’ll be 1920s decor, costumes, ‘gastronomic meals’, drinks, high tea and champagne in what Forbes describes as ‘The world’s most luxurious murder mystery vacation’.
The historical train, owned by the French National Railway Company has been restored to its former Art Deco glory and the Orient Express invites those who would like to indulge in the experience to ‘imagine you could open one of Agatha Christie’s novels and all of the sudden, find yourself into the book, on board of the legendary orient-express on your way to nice and, as Hercules Poirot, solve the mystery of the blue train.
The party on the Orient Express begins at the Train Bleu restaurant at Paris’s Gare de Lyon station, where passengers gather to hear the rules of the game before the train leaves at about 11:30am and ends that night in Nice at 11pm.
Tickets for journey start at $10,380 (about R155,000) per person, which meals, the murder mystery game and photos from the onboard photographer.
The Orient Express hosted people like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coco Chanel and Czar Nicholas II on its famous Paris to Istanbul route between 1883 and 1977. The original train is seldom operated these days but it’s being used for this special event. Another equally luxurious train, the Belmond Venice Simplon-Orient-Express operates on the original route also between March and November each year.
If you have a lot more to spare, you can take advantage of the VIP package, which includes a private session with a French theatre and film costume designer to really get you looking the part.
Image credit: Wikkipedia Commons