Tag Archives: Paris

20,000 Leagues Under Paris

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This métro station in the 3rd arrondissement is served by the lines 3 and 11. It takes its name from the nearby National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (Conservatoire national des Arts et Métiers) that today houses the excellent museum of the same name (Musée des Arts et Métiers).

The station was first opened in 1904 for line 3. Today, however, we will visit the platform of line 11 which joined line 3 in 1935. When you access the platform, you will find yourself in a steampunk Nautilus-style submarine. Everything is covered in copper, including the trash cans, and some giant gears hang from the ceiling. The seats are made from wood, and no billboards ruin the atmosphere.

Ready to dive Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea Paris?

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The Arts & Crafts Museum

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The Musée des Arts et Métiers. the Museum of Arts and Crafts in the 3rd arrondissement is dedicated to science and technology.

It occupies the premises of the former Priory of Saint Martin des Champs, which was nationalized during the French Revolution. Part of the museum is even housed in the former priory church.

Even though only about 2,500 of the over 80,000 objects and 15,000 drawings are on display, there are many treasures to discover, such as an original Foucault pendulum, the official meter and kilogram, printing presses, first-generation cars and planes, the original model of the Statue of Liberty or the first mechanical calculator.

The museum was first opened in 1802, at which time the different devices were explained to the visitors by demonstrators. The collection grew also thanks to the various World Fairs held in Paris.

The Foucault pendulum
Meters

The permanent exhibition is organized into seven collections, scientific instruments, materials, energy, mechanics, construction, communication, and transport, which are again subdivided into four time periods: before 1750, 1750-1850, 1850-1950, after 1950.

An object from a very recent period
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Louvre Rivoli

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This station on the line 1 is the oldest existing metro station – construction started in October 1898. Its name indicates its location at the intersection of the Rue de Rivoli and the Place du Louvre.

The station foregoes commercial advertisements and instead showcases copies of exhibit items from the Louvre, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages – a foretaste of a visit to the museum above!

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Street numbers follow the river

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Did you know there is a logic to the street numbers in Paris? There is, and it’s really quite simple and has helped me many times in pre-cell phone days or when I am on a bike and my phone is in my pocket.

The rule is very simple and distinguishes streets running (roughly) perpendicular to the river and streets running (again, roughly) parallel to the river.

For the perpendicular streets, numbering starts on the end closest to the river. Uneven numbers are on the left, even numbers on the right. So if you’re looking for a number higher than the one in front of you, go away from the river.

For the parallel streets, numbering starts upriver. The south side of the street will have the uneven numbers, the north side the even numbers. So if you’re looking for a number higher than the one in front of you, go downriver.

Easy-peasy, right?

A street running parallel to the river – numbering starts upriver
A street running perpendicular to the river – numbering starts near the river
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A little bit of Magic in Paris

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Visiting Paris and your children need a break from Champs-Élysées and Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and Boulevard Saint Michel?

In the 4th arrondissement, between the Rue de Rivoli and the Seine, nestled in between storefronts of the Rue Saint Paul, hides one of Paris’ smaller and less-well-known museums – the Musée de la Magie.

Enter and immediately descend a flight of stairs into the underground realm of Magic and Automatons. A hundred automatons await you and your children, wind-up toys, optical illusions, magic mirrors and more. And of course, a magic show.

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Place Charles de Gaulle-l’Étoile

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This giant roundabout where twelve avenues meet, called Place de l’Étoile, Square of the Star, exists since around 1670. It received the Star name some sixty years later, as even then roads and paths crossed on this hill, giving the intersection the shape of a star.

When the General Farmers city wall was built in 1787, passing to the east of the square, the barrière de l’Étoile city gate was set up in the vicinity.

The Arc de Triomphe was built in its center on Napoléon Ier’s orders. It construction began in 1806 and took 30 years. From 1845 to 1855, visitors to the Arc de Triomphe could look down onto a racetrack.

During the Second Empire, the star formed by the avenues was completed and the square was redesigned by an architect under Baron Haussmann as part of his reorganization of Paris. Today it is the second-largest square of Paris after the Place de la Concorde.

In November 1970, the square was renamed Place Charles de Gaulle following the death of the general. It is still frequently referred to as Place de l’Étoile, and the métro and RER station below bears the name Charles de Gaulle-Étoile (which helps avoid confusion with the airport destination of the same name).

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Special Events on the Champs Élysées

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The Champs Élysées is not only called la plus belle avenue du monde, the most beautiful avenue in the world, it is also a central and large space and thus perfect for special events and occasions.
People will assemble spontaneously on “Les Champs” for certain occasions, such as New Year’s Eve, or after the French national soccer team’s World Cup victories in 1998 and 2018.

Some planned events that transformed the avenue temporarily were:

La Grande Moisson (the Great Harvest) on 24 June 1990 transformed the Champs into a giant wheat field with harvesting machines.

During Train Capitale from May 15 to June 17, 2003, historic and modern trains were exposed and temporary train tracks were laid so a train could run between place de la Concorde and Avenue Georges V.

As part of the failed 2012 Olympic bid on June 05, 2005, the Champs became a huge sports terrain with athletics track, swimming pool and more.

In October 2008, it hosted the 100 years of French aviation exhibition.

Nature Capitale on May 22-24, 2010, transformed the Champs into a giant garden.

From time to time, the Paris Friday Night inline skate event will descend the avenue.

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Five fun facts about the Champs Élysées avenue

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1 – The avenue is 1910m long and 70m wide.

2 – Rents on the northern side of the avenue are higher than on the southern side because they receive more sunlight.

3 – The avenue had several names before taking the one that made it to fame in 1789: Grand-Cours, allée du Roule and avenue de Neuilly.

4 – You can reach its five different métro stations with 7 different métro lines and one RER train.

5 – Every year, it hosts the military parade of the French national holiday July 14 (Bastille Day), the arrival of the Tour de France, and Christmas illuminations.

But there are also exceptional events on the Champs Élysées.

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Raise your eyes to the sky for your next train

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Every city’s transport company has its own system of timetables and of informing travelers when the next bus or train can be expected.
In Paris, you raise your eyes to the sky to have the answer. (Unless you check the transport company’s app on your smartphone.)

SIEL on métro 7 northbound

Why the sky? It’s word play. The French word for sky (and heaven, by the way), is ciel. The information system on the Paris public transport is called Système d’information en ligne, acronym SIEL, which is pronounced almost the same as ciel.

SIEL on recently modernized métro 4

SIEL captures the next two métros or buses in real time, so next time you are at a Paris bus stop or metro station, raise your eyes to the SIEL, it will provide the answer.

SIEL at a bus stop
SIEL in a bus shelter

For good measure, here’s one you really don’t want to see:

SIEL on métro 13 southbound on a strike day
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No Phantom at the Opera

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One Friday night when I was marshal at the Paris inline skate, I chatted with some tourists while guarding an intersection on the Avenue de l’Opéra. The tourists were from the U.S., and I told them that the opera building they could see at the end of the avenue was indeed the one with the phantom and the underground lake.

There are many tales about the phantom and how a real person might have inspired Gaston Laroux’ story (which became the basis for Andrew Llyod Webber’s musical), but the lake is real.

Remember the problem with the high groundwater level I mentioned in my previous post?

The building site was swampy, and water rising from below hampered the construction until finally, they encased the “lake” and used the weight of the water in the foundation of the building. The cistern remains accessible, but you can’t take a boat to row across it. However, the Paris fire-fighters use it for diving training.

But the phantom? A combination of mysterious noises during the first shows, rumors about an underground lake and the never fully explained accident in 1896, when the counterweight of the chandelier fell down and killed the concierge.

Box number five is still reserved for the phantom, as the Opéra Garnier itself confirmed in a Museum Week tweet a few years ago:

Location of the Opéra Garnier on a map of Paris
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