The Messageries Maritimes is an old French maritime company. It was originally created in 1851 as Messageries Nationales, later called Messageries Imp?riales, and in 1871, Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes. From 1871 to 1914, the Compagnie des Messageries maritimes experienced its Golden Age. This was the period of the colonial expansion and of the French interventionism in the Middle and Far East. In the Far East Saigon became the regional headquarters of the company, with regular sailings to Hanoi, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Australia and New Caledonia. The Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris ? Lyon et ? la M?diterran?e (usually known simply as the PLM) was a French railway company. Created between 1858 and 1862 from the amalgamation of the earlier Paris-Lyon and Lyon-M?diterran?e companies, and subsequently incorporating a number of smaller railways, the PLM operated chiefly in the south-east of France, with a main line which connected Paris to the C?te d'Azur by way of Dijon, Lyon, and Marseille. The company was also the operator of railways in Algeria.