The "petite ceinture" of Paris (by kerouac2)

[woody77]

The row of invaders reminds me that I have a bunch that I want to catalog near here. I guess he's installed over 1000 of them?

www.space-invaders.com/1paris.html

[Deleted]

I continue to see new ones all the time, generally within a few streets of each other, because when Invader goes to work, he tries to complete 3 or 4 mosaics in the same night. I just wish I had been aware of it the night he put one on my building!

Anyway, back to the Petite Ceinture... The next section to do was west of Porte de Clignancourt. I started with a photo of the food truck that was there -- last time, I just showed where the food trucks park, but it was not feeding time yet, so no one was there. Unfortunately for this food truck, even though it was already 12:30, it still did not appear to be feeding time. Frankly I don't think that pink is a good colour to induce salivation. And also the list of items listed on the van do not fit my definition of "food." Too bad, because before arriving at Porte de Clignancourt, I was already thinking about buying something from whatever food truck might be there. Maybe next time...

Then, right behind the food truck, I made the most amazing discovery.





I had thought that this might be one of the creepiest areas, full of trash, but it was the exact opposite.



The garden down there was perfectly organised.



It just happened to be open, so I went down for a visit.







The zone for beehives is right below the old station.





Even plastic bottles can become planters.



Unfortunately, they were closing for lunch, so I was evicted. Here is the young woman checking for stragglers.









And then I had to go back up the stairs.





It was an amazing little discovery.











They even have a henhouse down there.





Yet you can walk along this street and never notice that there is a whole other universe down there.

[Deleted]

Some of the stretches look just like other stretches, but I still find the wild greenery brilliant in a big city.



The PC disappeared in a tunnel. Over it was this boring stretch.





At first I thought it was a careless 20th century coverup, but these ventilation shafts proved that it was right from the start.



To have shafts like this, this part of the line dates back to the time of steam engines.



And then the line was out in open air again.



Ah, the tunnel has a date on it.



This was an interesting graffiti zone.















The next station (Porte de Saint Ouen) had seen better days.







I went around to the other side because while I looked at the graffiti across from me, I knew there must also be graffiti beneath my feet.







How does the old station look from the front? A totally invisible abandoned space. You would never know what was behind it.

[htmb]

Could you make out the date, Kerouac? It looks like 1885 to me, but it's not very clear.

[fumobici]

This is only getting better.

[mossie]

You have really made a tremendous effort to document this strange relic for us, you must have walked many miles getting these photos.

So I hate to criticise, but you have omitted a couple of quirky bits in my favourite Belleville area. The PC crosses rue Petit via a bridge which passes through the modern building on the south side of the rue. After disappearing into the parc des Buttes Chaumont it reappears just after the parc to Belleville to cross under the rue des Courones and under the rue de la Mare by a strange angled footbridge. It then passes just east of Pere LaChaise to show up under the cafe you show on rue de Bagnolet.

[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2013 19:51:14 GMT htmb said:

Could you make out the date, Kerouac? It looks like 1885 to my, but it's not very clear.

Yes, it is 1885.

[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2013 20:12:20 GMT mossie said:

You have really made a tremendous effort to document this strange relic for us, you must have walked many miles getting these photos.

So I hate to criticise, but you have omitted a couple of quirky bits in my favourite Belleville area. The PC crosses rue Petit via a bridge which passes through the modern building on the south side of the rue. After disappearing into the parc des Buttes Chaumont it reappears just after the parc to Belleville to cross under the rue des Courones and under the rue de la Mare by a strange angled footbridge. It then passes just east of Pere LaChaise to show up under the cafe you show on rue de Bagnolet.

That must be a spur line because the PC hugs the rim of Paris, but I will investigate. I was perturbed by a number of spur lines as I walked this route.

[Deleted]

Unfortunately, the next section was underground.



At least the park sign acknowledged that it covered the train line.



The band shell (? rain shelter?) was pretty avant-garde for 1940.





Just after the park, there was a mosaic on a building which seemed to pay homage to the petite ceinture.









The line finally sprang out of the underworld again.



It shared its space with a new garden running parallel to it.



I came down these stairs.







It was a nice little park but obviously too thin.



These were not original railroad ties since they curved whimsically.



I tried to keep an eye on the tracks as I progressed...



... but the vegetation became increasingly thick.



By the time I exited the park through the arch, the PC had once more risen above street level.

[htmb]

Oh, darn you, Kerouac. I need to get over my lazy self and look up all these streets and parcs up on a map. This is just too darn intriguing. Fascinating really.

[woody77]

The jardins are quite the find!

[Deleted]

Just beyond that bridge, I was surprised to find the entrance to an RER station that used to be on the line.



The current line actually runs in a different direction, but I went down into the station because I needed to get to the other side.



This station is actually below the original petite ceinture line.



I came out the other side on Avenue de Clichy.



You can see that the PC bridge has drifted away from where I emerged.





When you see some really old looking stonework in Paris, you should know that some of it is really quite recent.



This sign confused me completely. What is the "reconstitution" of the PC when they are not going to put it back into service?



The pathway is still there, without any rails.



What on earth are they doing?



This is looking back to where I was coming from.



Are they building a tunnel for the phantom PC?

[fgrsk8r1970]

The effort and detail of this report is outstanding. I love the little Jardin finds too!! really fascinating
Thank you !!!

[Deleted]

Whatever they are scheming at Porte de Clichy, the reason that the original PC suddenly disappeared in this area is due to the huge new Batignolles development area, including the recently created Parc Martin Luther King. The most earthshattering change in that zone, however, will be the installation of the both the Préfecture de Police and the Palais de Justice in 2017, which will move from their historical (and almost mythical) headquarters on Ile de la Cité.

Anyway, I crossed the park to go to Pont Cardinet, which was the head of the line of the very last part of the Petite Ceinture, which remained in service until 1985. Since I actually lived at Pont Cardinet for two years in the 1970's, I took that train line regularly, because tickets only cost 0.80 francs (0.12€), compared to a metro ticket at 1.10 francs (0.17€).

Pont Cardinet was not actually an official part of the Petite Ceinture as you can see from this map where it is called "Batignolles." But it was close enough for an easy connection when the rest of the PC closed.

The station is actually still quite busy since it is the first commuter stop out of Gare Saint Lazare even though it is still inside Paris.



The old PC platform has been cut off, though, as the new buildings go up all over the place.





All of this stuff is being built over the line.





But finally the line escapes from this mess.



It used a single track at Pont Cardinet, but it divided into two tracks for two-way traffic as soon as there was room to do so.



One last look back at the dismantled section...





In this rich part of town, people think nothing of disposing of Persian carpets in the jungle.

[Deleted]

Generally, the only excuse I had to ride this line was to go to the end at Porte d'Auteuil to shop at the Euromarché hypermarket(now Carrefour). But even back then I found the trip to be completely magical because it was so odd to be riding a little train that seemed to be going through the woods even though it was inside Paris.

Just like in the rest of Paris, people lacking curiosity probably have no idea what is behind these fences.



However, there are a number of pedestrian bridges over the tracks here so you can see what is down there.









Here was a place to scramble down to the tracks, but I couldn't imagine being able to scramble back up.



Place de Wagram, one of the landmarks of the 17th arrondissement, is directly on top of the PC.





A shelter for the homeless in the rich part of town looks like it is designed for the rich homeless.



There were even streetlights that used to light the tracks not so long ago.





Suddenly I arrived at the back entrance of the next station -- which is part of the resurrected RER C line.



There are tennis courts built on top of the line here.



Here is what an old station that has remained in service looks like.



This tells the story of the brothers who built this part of the line.



I thought it was interesting that they have maintained a bus service back to Pont Cardinet which was cut off when the RER C took over.



The stations of the RER are quite large.



Walls appear to be hiding things.



I just waited for the next train. The next investigation will take place soon.

[Deleted]

The next section was one of the most boring, in terms of seeing rail lines, because it was completely covered over for a pretty long stretch. All of the rest of the petite ceinture runs through extremely rich neighbourhoods, and they clearly felt that seeing a form of transportation that they would never use was injuring their eyes.

One last look across Place Pereire Place du Maréchal Juin before I trek forward...



This first section is another narrow park.





It's the best season for autumn foliage right now.



Lots of little playgrounds, used by nannies with toddlers.



They kept the old SNCF fences from the PC in most places.



These are not official names but they are commonly used, because there are actually two boulevard Pereire -- one on each side of the old rail line.

               



This garden is for schoolchildren to play farmers.



If they grow beans, they could at least harvest them.





Then the park ended... to become ugly empty space.



I decided to enter the back entrance of the Porte Maillot RER station and emerge from the front.



These stations are really huge considering how little traffic they get.



The original old walls are still there.



At the "busier" end of the station, a decorative effort was made.





I glanced into the dark tunnel before going up to exit.



The original station is still in service.



It is right next to the Paris convention centre and the Hyatt Regency.



Look one way and you see La Defénse...



... look the other way and see the Arc de Triomphe.

[Deleted]

There is an unusual modern sculpture in honour of the illustriously forgotten General Koenig.



I can only imagine a certain amount of controversy among war veterans when it was installed.



It was rather unclear exactly where the rails were running underground. Here perhaps?



I tried to remain lined up with the Porte Maillot station and the gentle curve to the next station.




I finally pinpointed the location of the line because there was a huge empty space between the boulevard and the first buildings.



Big enough for an archery range.



The fences were still there.





The most famous and almost completely unused Guimard metro entrance is also here.





I'm just showing avenue Foch because in the 1980's at least 200 cars would park here at night with swinging couples looking for game.



Meanwhile, the Porte Dauphine traffic circle was an incredible display of rentboys. (See André Téchiné's movie J'embrasse pas.)

That is 99% gone now, swept away by the internet where people can hook up much faster without having to cross the city. Since there are a few older clients who don't yet will never have the internet, I did see a couple young men sitting on motor scooters waiting with bored expressions, and there were also a few hooker vans parked on the edge of Place Dauphine -- these used to be closer to Porte Maillot, but they seem to have driving away from there. Since all of this is right on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, this trade is relatively well tolerated, because they really are not bothering anybody.

Here is the Porte Dauphine RER station on the other side of the circle.



Here is a little known fact about me: I lived in a service room in this apartment building for six months in 1973.



I dipped down to see the station underground, but there was not exit at the far end.

This university building at Porte Dauphine used to be NATO headquarters before NATO was invited to leave France in 1966.



Following the PC was a bit chaotic for a few blocks.



This clearly used to be a bridge over the rails, now buried.





Then there was a new garden over the rail line.





At last I found a ventilation shaft. I hadn't seen any for ages.



You can see that I am headed south from the lush vegetation.





And then I went into the back entrance of the next station again.







The RER entrance is on the side of the old station building now.



The front of the station has a new vocation.



I've actually used this station to go to the Cambodian embassy. Here it is with its flags.

Much to my surprise, this trek was soon going to start to get interesting again...

[Deleted]

Across from the Avenue Henri Martin station, there was a surprising service station on top of the tracks. According to my decoding list, the CMD1 plated car belongs to the Thai ambassador.

But this car park was the ugliest thing I saw on the PC during all of my explorations.



Not the friendliest ugly car park in the world.



This sign says that upkeep is performed by workers in rehab programmes.

All of a sudden, the rail path emerged... without rails. "So, what happened to the RER C?" I can hear some of you asking. Well, after Avenue Henri Martin, the RER takes a new path towards the centre of Paris and even cross the Seine on a bridge near the Eiffel Tower. I'll add a few things about that line, as least as far as the Eiffel Tower, once I have finished with the original PC. This other branch was built just before the 1900 World's Fair, and closed in the 1930's also. It came back to life when the RER C opened in 1988.

A tree chose its spot and grew right in the middle.





And all of a sudden it was gone again.



It disappeared around here, but there was no trace of how it got to the next station.



I was ready to give up, but then I spotted the next station in the distance.



Since the rail line no longer exists here, obviously it is not a station anymore, in spite of its name.



Going behind the station, I was able to walk parallel to the pathway again.



It appears that some landfill was done.



And all of a sudden, I came upon this. How could it have been hidden from me all this time?



I have never read anything about this walkway before!





In spite of how bucolic it looks, Paris lurks just a few metres away.







There was just one little breach in the continuity.





This went on for a long long time, and I only saw one other person there -- here he is.









There are numerous signs with ecological information.





The path finally became a shallow trench.



Just one street crossed over it.











It finally came to an end.





I continued onward.



This must have been more than just the rail line in the past but a full railyard.



No, I don't know why the Red Cross is parked there.



The little ecological park is so discreet that they have to explain to people where to find it when they come out of the Porte d'Auteuil metro.



Since the steps going up to the old Porte d'Auteuil PC station, I went up them.



But I couldn't really see anything at the top.



I just took a couple of pictures of the old station.





Then I took the metro home until I finish the last bit of this report.

[htmb]

I have passed by La Gare at Chaussée de la Muette a few times and had wondered why a train station building was there when I could see no evidence of a train. Interesting!

In the first part of your recent posts you say the tracks are covered over. I assume you mean the pathway is still open underneath, and not that the pathway has been filled in with dirt, etc. Is that correct?

Also, the Guimard metro entrance.... What metro entrance is that and why is it little used?

[Deleted]

By "covered over", I mean that the tracks are underground now. But they were covered not so long ago in certain places -- generally most of the places where there are parks now such as "Promenade Pereire" were covered over with the specific intent of putting the park on top.

What really strikes me as odd now is thinking that I used to take the train all the way to Porte d'Autueil, meaning that I actually rode the train right through where the little 'forest' is now and also the stations at La Muette and Porte d'Auteuil were in service. Since the line was open until the 1980's, it means that they ripped out all of the rails and ties only about 20 years ago.

The Guimard metro entrance at Porte Dauphine is hardly used because it comes out in the middle of nowhere on avenue Foch. There are other entrances to Porte Dauphine that are much more practical.

[htmb]

Thank you for the explanation, Kerouac. I find this last section of your report very interesting, but I think that's because I recognized certain landmarks in your photo as places I've visited. I must go back and see more.

[Deleted]

Well, that certainly makes it clear that the rest of the report was as boring as I suspected.

[htmb]

That's certainly not what I meant. Please do not take my comments as negative. It's much easier for me to first relate more to the places I recognize, but as I mentioned earlier, now it makes me want to go back into the rest of the report, look up places you visited on maps along with cross streets, and then plot out visits of my own. I think it is very interesting for me personally to have seen parts of the track and either not thought about it, or never taking the time to do any research. Now you've really sparked my interest even more.

[Deleted]

You really have to stop taking my comments so seriously.

[htmb]

I'm just a serious kind of girl, Kerouac.

[fumobici]

This, after a cursory look around the www thing, appears to be the absolute definitive street level tracing and collection of images regarding the PC. Thanks k2 for the exhaustive reporting, highly interesting and entertaining. For some reason I found myself probably nearly as excited seeing you'd discovered a new trail in the 16th as you no doubt were. I love discovering little secret places or unexpected natural beauty in a city such as that.

[woody77]

That path along the old line in the 16eme is just wonderful, kerouac, a great find. I also really like the RER station at Henry Martin, with the old walls and the modern lighting and signage.

[Deleted]

Here is yet another article about the Petite Ceinture, thanks to one of the faithful readers of this report: www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/travel/above-below-and-around-paris-on-foot.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=travel

[mossie]

Many thanks for that link Kerouac. Some very interesting stuff in there.

[Deleted]

Since all good things must come to an end, it's time to wrap up this report with the last tiny bit of the rail line before it hits the Seine again. But it is quite possibly the most completely disappointing section of all, because there is absolutely nothing left.

Boulevard Exelmans is freakishly wide, however, due to the disappearance of the line.







Automobiles have completely replaced the ecological transportation that used to be there.





The cars go across the Pont du Garigliano which replaced the previous bridge.

So, what happened, you wonder. Well, at least I wondered so I looked it up. First of all, remember those stairs going up to nothing at the old Auteuil station? The old platforms were up there, because the line was elevated in this part of the city. And the reason that Boulevard Exelmans is so wide now is because the rail line ran down the middle of it.

To cross the Seine, there was the Pont du Point du Jour.



Here's how it looked during the great flood of 1910.

And here is the lively area along the Seine before the expressway was built.

Anyway, the upper section was abandoned in 1934 when the rail line closed. The bridge was also damaged by American bombs in 1943, but it stayed in service after the war. The bridge was demolished in 1959 and the new bridge was inaugurated in 1962. So here is the Pont du Garigliano. (It is named after the Battle of Garigliano where French troops won a battle in Italy in 1944.)

So, that's the end of the Petite Ceinture, but I promised a few photos of the spur line that was built for the World's Fair in 1900. It is now part of the RER C and leaves the PC route after the avenue Henri Martin station.

Here is the Boulainvilliers station, which connects to the La Muette metro station.



This is a back entrance to it.





Some of the old signs have been preserved.





All of this section is underground now, but it wasn't before. Here is a photo from 1986 when the RER was being built.



The very last station of this report is Avenue du Président Kennedy.







The old name was Quai de Passy, and the line heads across the Seine from here.

But that's another story, so my report ends here.