If you want to treat yourself and avoid the usual sandwiches and other junk food when travelling with Corail Teoz, all you can do is to opt for the cold "Assiette Traiteur".

This is what was on offer on 30th December 2003.

Starter: Fromage de Tete with a cherry tomato

Main course: Turkey roasted breast, with green beans and ratatouille.

Roquefort serving.

This cold meal is sold at EUR 9.95

For EUR 5 more, you can top it up with a Pastry (Abricot Tartlet) and a drink of your choosing (Coffee)

Catering is provided by Cremonini S.A.

While the quality was roughly OK, it was not fine enough to qualify for anything labelled as "Traiteur". Servings are too scarce, and the cold tray was really cold. So cold that the emeritous attendant of Cremonini had to defrost it as he could, on his coffee machine, as the small catering compartment in the B3Su car is devoid of anything like a macrowave oven...

All in all, a commendable effort to re-introduce some decent catering on board of French Mainline services, yet still very much substandard to anywhere else in Europe (including Britain). Not so long ago, B5rtux Bar-Corail cars were diagrammed on Paris-Clermont Ferrand, while 1st-class passengers could opt for at-seat complimentary catering at meal times...

30th December 2003. P.L.Guillemin (plguillemin@yahoo.fr)