The strange destiny of the Champ de Mars train station

[kerouac2]

As many of you know, the Champ de Mars in Paris is a huge park where they happened to build the Eiffel Tower.  But before the World's Fair of 1889 at that location, there was the World's Fair of 1878.

As you can see, it was a major deal with 41 countries participating.  Baron Haussmann had just finished redesigning the city and it was time to show off.  There were more than 10 million visitors over the six month period, including all of the crowned heads of Europe.  Although most of the visitors were probably French, just imagine the time and effort needed to come from other countries.  Napoleon III might have been as close to a dictator as France ever had, but he put most of his efforts into national infrastructure and one of his triumphs was completing the rail network of France.  By the date of the World's Fair, France had more than 16,000 kilometres of rail lines, operated by six different rail companies.  (The national network was completed in 1871 with 23,000 kilometres.)

A rail line was used to transport most of the building materials for the World's Fair.  An extension was built from the Petite Ceinture to the Champ de Mars for this.  And then a station was built to bring passengers on the same line.  And thus the days of glory of the Champs de Mars train station began.  Doesn't look very urban, does it?

[tod2]

I do hope there is a lot more story Kerouac! Looking at the old first photo I see the Trocadero almost as it is today sans the middle part. On the opposite bank of the Seine I am drawn to two small oblong brown buildings...I wonder if they are still with us.
Please continue on if there is more!

[kerouac2]

I hope to visit a World's Fair some day, but they have basically moved out of Europe. At this particular one, a young engineer called Gustave Eiffel was in charge of the pavillion for displaying cranes, machine tools, pile drivers and things like that. I'm sure this came in handy later in his career. The Americans displayed a security braking system for lifts, which made the construction of high rise buildings possible. A company from New York demonstrated a deep sea diving suit. I'll bet that Jules Verne saw it. A new metal was presented for the first time: aluminium. The national pavillions were glorious and the French colonies also had spectacular displays, particularly Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

There was also a section of the fair displaying "useful and economical" items to ameliorate the life of the working classes. The government also voted a 10,000 franc credit so that all schoolchildren of the Paris metropolitan area could attend free.

It was wonderful, it was magnificent, and after six months it was gone. Everything was torn down. Everything except the train station which was disassembled and rebuilt in the suburb of Asnières. It was used as the terminus of the suburban line of Paris-Saint Lazare to Bois-Colombes on a fabulous new electrically powered line.

[kerouac2]

It was used as the suburban terminus for a few decades, but the suburbs continued to grow, and a new quadruple line was built in 1936 -- along with a new station for Bois-Colombes. And the old Champ de Mars station has sat there abandoned since then. I decided that it was time to go and see it. So I took the commuter train to Bois-Colombes, which has carefully preserved the 1936 look of its "new" station.

I was there on a Sunday morning when the city is not exactly hopping with activity.



First I headed out in the wrong direction, but I immediately saw my destination so I backtracked over to the other side of the rail lines.





The station is locally known as the Carbonnets station because it is at the end of this dead end.



And here it is, trying to maintain a semblance of dignity. The courtyard is a car park for SNCF residences surrounding it.

[kerouac2]

It was scheduled for demolition in 1983, but a campaign saved it and had it added to the official list of protected historical buildings. In the early 1990s it was almost disassembled again to become the new station of one of the outer suburbs, Cergy-le-Haut. However, it was rapidly decided that this would cost too much. I remain amazed that such things are even considered feasible.

In 2012, things really got bad. There was a partial collapse inside, because of trees growing in the building. An inner staircase also lost most of its steps, and there was even a small fire.

In January 2013, the mayor of Asnières organised a meeting to save the building, preferably in an intercommunal operation. Although the building is officially in Asnières, the city of Bois-Colombes in only about 10 metres away. What can they do with such a thing?

I went around the side on a forbidden path.

[kerouac2]

Apparently there have been dozens of meetings since then. People still imagine moving the building to another site -- the Chanteraines park in Gennevilliers (glimpsed in my tramway line 1 report), an undetermined location in eastern Paris to create a railway museum, another location in Asnières along the Seine... In March 2016, there was a Parisian request to move the building to the Cours de Vincennes, near Place de la Nation. To do what exactly? Who knows? -- Paris always comes up with something or other. And the SNCF wouldn't mind getting rid of the building to build more residences on the site. The city of Asnières opposes this because there are already too many residences in that area.

In 2019 a decision was finally made. A private company, "Morning Coworking," will renovate the building. The upper level will become a coworking site with hundreds of work spaces, and ground floor will be a café-restaurant and a public exhibition area. But all changes must be "reversible." There's plenty of time for everything to change, because the project is not due to be completed for... 12 years.

[kerouac2]

With all of that settled, it was time for me to leave the area. I didn't want to go back to the Bois-Colombes station -- too easy. So I set out at random.

The old terminus tracks are still nearby, now used for parking trains.







I walked through a thin park along the tracks.



In the old days, this was the standard look for houses in the suburbs. Now most of them are gone.



We Parisians want to slit our wrists when we see these boring suburban streets.



I tried to imagine what this oddly configured building used to be and couldn't come up with anything.



Were the companions of this building demolished or were they never built?



And suddenly I arrived at the Bécon-les-Bruyères station, the station of my childhood. We always stayed with a great aunt and uncle here when we came to Paris.



From day one of the pandemic, nobody ever really paid attention to the distancing circles on the platform.



And while waiting for my train, I just stared at the former cinema which fascinated me when I was little. 10 minutes later I was back in Paris...

[onlyMark]

I always like the Victorian era industrial architecture. There seems to be a solidity and aesthetic appeal built in to them (like the brick pattern). It'd be a shame if it just gets knocked down no matter what plans there may be for it. No doubt renovation would cost the earth.

[htmb]

An interesting little report, Kerouac. I bet it was nice to be out of the main part of the city for a bit.
This certainly looks like a slow moving project.

[lugg]

What a great report K2 - I really enjoyed reading the details re the history and the pondering the future made more real by your photos. I really hope the Champs de Mars train station is appropriately renovated .

[BigIain]

Thanks K, your travel posts never cease to make me smile. So many hidden gems in one city.

[lagatta]

Why does the town not want more SNCF résidences? Whom are they for, among SNCF staff?

[kerouac2]

It is one of the cities with the most workers' housing in the area -- such things need to be spread out more to avoid the creation of ghettos. It isn't the executive level SNCF employees who live in such places.