Gare de l'Est : A Bit of History: The Gare de l'Est provides the only witness left from the first generation of railway buildings. The square in front of the station was occupied between the XIIIth and the XVIIIth century by the Saint-Laurent Fair or Carnival, mentioned by an inscription situated in the left wing corner pavilion. The original building, now the western wing, was built between 1847-1850 by François-Alexandre Duquesney with the help of the engineer Pierre Cabanel de Sermet, and served the line Paris-Strasbourg, functioning since 1844. Streets in the neighborhood still recall the origins of the first passengers : Boulevard de Strasbourg, Rue d'Alsace and so forth. Its name was changed from Gare de Strasbourg to Gare de l'Est in 1854. The growing traffic brought several extensions, including the building of the present eastern wing, copied symmetrically on the original station between 1924-1931 by the engineer Bertaud. Today, trains leave from here for eastern France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.