The "petite ceinture" of Paris (by kerouac2)

[kerouac2]

Walking around southern Paris today, I came across a new section of the petite ceinture that has been opened to the public.



There is a longer section in the 15th arrondissement in this direction, but clearly they are not ready to consider linking the sections yet.





There used to be dual tracks, but one set has been removed. The SNCF absolutely insisted that one pair of rails remain "usable" because you never know...



There are indicators of directions every 200 metres or so.







It was not at all crowded on this Saturday morning, but I was not completely alone.

[kerouac2]

There are signs to indicate the streets that are passing overhead.















This is not an exit.

[kerouac2]

another street













The end of this section is not too far now.



Here are the platforms of the old "Montrouge" stop on the line.











A new apartment block was built over the tracks here.



this way out





A restaurant and music bar has moved into the old station. "Poinçon" is the validation mark made by ticket checkers.





I had a bus straight back to my place, crossing the entire city from here.

[htmb]

This is a wonderful addition! There is some very interesting art, too.

[bixaorellana]

What a treat, Kerouac! Did you know the new part had opened, or did you just come upon it? I anticipate wonderful updates as this section develops and new parts open up. Intelligent and far-sighted for the SNCF (what does that stand for?) to insist that a set of rails remain. Thanks for this lovely walk!

[kerouac2]

The SNCF is the French National Railways, and they are super protective of everything they own . They do not allow any of their rail domain to be taken over for any reason. On very rare occasions, they will sell a bit.

No, I didn't know that this section had been opened -- I just stumbled across it. And any time that I see an accessible stairway going down to the petite ceinture tracks, I rush down to check it out. However, in the past I had already seen the renovated station where I ended up and had been intrigued by it, so when I started from the far end of this little stretch, I was pretty certain where I would end up.

[lugg]

Really interesting addition to this thread thank you K2 - very colourful too. Great bee capture too.

[lagatta]

Société nationale des chemins de fer. And I absolutely agree with their fervent safeguard of the railways.

[kerouac2]

Today I took the tram 3b to Porte d'Asnières simply because I felt insufficently familiar with that area, even though I lived not too far away for 2 years in 1973-1974.  And suddenly there it was.

But how to get down there?  At least I knew I was near the dead end, but there was no access information.

Therefore I backtracked in the other direction.

Something that made me feel really old is that I used to use this train line, which went from Pont Cardinet to Porte d'Auteuil.

I still remember the price of the SNCF ticket -- 0.80 F ( 0.12 € ) -- that is really a fare from antiquity.

It already seemed very overgrown back then -- branches would brush against the train -- that made the ride even more wonderful in such an urban setting.

There never seemed to be more than about 5 people on the train, so there must have been a very powerful lobby to keep it in service.

[kerouac2]

I found the entrance!

Here is the location in case you want to know.  No painted tags here, because it is a very upscale neighbourhood.

It's lovely down there.

a bit of geographical information

However, the section ended quite rapidly.

It's no longer a tunnel -- it's a sealed wall.

The new Clichy-Batignolles neighbourhood has been built on top.  Here is the view from the other end, with the abandoned platforms from which the trains left.

These are the buildings that are on top.

The Pont Cardinet station is being completely renovated in preparation of the opening of the Pont Cardinet metro station at the end of the year.  This was my old 'hood -- I lived 100 metres from here.

[kerouac2]

I just realised that the sign at the entrance is totally incorrect. It says that the line was abandoned in 1934. This is true in terms of the full circle of Paris, but this section ran until 1996 between Pont Cardinet and Pereire. The continuation to Auteuil closed in 1985. I suppose they are ashamed that it ran empty for so many years.

[bixaorellana]

This continues to unfold and get even more fascinating. Even though some of the walk must be frustrating (the sealed tunnel!), it was infinitely far-sighted for the city to have opened up the petite ceinture to begin with and to continue to maintain and augment it. I do love that even though it's something "official", the air of discovering something remains.

[kerouac2]

There is a new section open to pedestrians between Rosa Parks and avenue de Flandre in the 19th arrondissement, so I finally checked it out.



The rails have been removed for part of it.









This old rail building (not one of the stations) is a bar at night.

[kerouac2]

The old "Pont de Flandre" station is another bar, already open for a few years because it's accessible to avenue de Flandre.







You can't go beyond avenue de Flandre yet.





They should be able to fix this up before long, at least as far as the Canal de l'Ourcq.



walking back towards Rosa Parks...





The underpass under the Gare du Nord train tracks should give direct access to the Rosa Parks esplanade.



However, 200 migrants moved into here before they were removed and the passage closed off. Maybe some day...

[tod2]

That was great - In my dreams to return to Paris next year I really do hope you will walk a section of the P C with us. It would be really wonderful to stay in Paris for a month and get walking it as much as possible. My new hip is in good shape and there is no plan to have the other one done just yet.....maybe will need it if I ever walk enough to wear out the joint completely!