The TGV commercial service opened to the public between Paris and Lyon on 27 September 1981. France thus entered the era of high-speed rail seventeen years after Japan. Interestingly, the first TGV driver had a son called Patrick; it was in his honour, but also in order to better distinguish the different trainsets being tested in the French factories, that the very first TGV trainset was nicknamed Patrick. The Cité du Train-Patrimoine SNCF in Mulhouse presents the engine of the TGV Paris Sud-Est no.61 put into service in 1982, with the orange livery of the time.