The Watteau was an express train that linked

Gare du Nord The Gare du Nord (; English: ''station of the North'' or ''Northern Station''), officially Paris-Nord, is one of the six large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. The station accommodates the trains that run between the capital ...

in Paris, France, with Tourcoing in the North of France. The train was named after the French painter Antoine Watteau. One year before the creating of the TEE-network the French railway

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

introduced three ''Trains d'affaires'' to link Paris with the industrial area in the North near the Belgian border. This trains were scheduled with a morning, midday and evening service in both directions. Initially the service was operated with RGP 600 DMUs. In 1959 these were replaced by locomotive hauled trains consisting of Corail coaches. Although domestic TEE-services were allowed from 1965 the ''Trains d'affaires'' were not upgraded until 1978. Together with the upgrading to TEE the trains were named. The evening service pair was named ''Watteau''. In 1991 the service between Tourcoing and Paris was converted to a two-class Rapide. The ''Watteau'' revived in the Paris- Brussels service on 23 May 1993 for two years. On 26 May 1995 the ''Watteau'' was the last TEE service. La Légende des TEE p. 409.

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* * {{Trans Europ Express trains EuroCity International named passenger trains Named passenger trains of France Trans Europ Express Railway services introduced in 1978