Horses in Paris

Have you been in the area between the Place de la Bastille and the Seine and happened to cross riders on horseback?

Chances are you met members of the Garde Républicaine, the Republican Guard, on patrol. Yes, those same ones you see parade on July 14 on the Champs Élysées.

Note the traditional helmets which date back to 1876, inherited from the dragoons and cuirassiers of the First Empire.

The cavalry of the Republican Guard is housed in the Célestins Quarter with its main entrance on boulevard Henri IV.

Its most visible role is in the honor missions (escorts, also carried out by the motorcycle squadron) although those represent only about 20% of the total. The majority consists of security missions such as patrols in Paris, the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, but also in the forest of Chambord royal palace and other royal forests.

Chambord Palace

They also carry out surveillance of the sites at summit meetings for certain sports events and in areas with difficult access, for example a missing person search in the woods, and also surveillance of tourist areas.

Napoléon Ier

The origins of the Republican Guard go back to Napoléon Ier, who created the Municipal Guard of Paris in 1802. After many back and forth over the turbulent period of the early 19th century, it was integrated into the Gendarmerie in 1849 by Napoléon III.

Contrary to other cavalry units, the Republican Guard did not participate in WWI as its mission was to maintain order in Paris and oversee the city’s defense. That is how it survived as the last mounted regiment.
During WWII, the Republican Guard was demobilized and attached to the Police Prefecture under the name of Paris Guard. Part of the troops secretly joined Charles de Gaulle, and the Guard participated with the French Forces of the Interior in the combats for the liberation of Paris.
The Guard also participated in the Indochina War from 1947 to 1954, and in 1978 it changed its name back to Republican Guard.

President Emmanuel Macron initiated a “horse diplomacy” by giving a Republican Guard horse to the Chinese president in 2018. He gifted another Republican Guard horse to Queen Elizabeth II for her Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

On Heritage Days in September, the Republican Guard will open the doors of the Célestins Quarter where you can see riding demonstrations, visit the horses in their stables and see the blacksmith at work.

Did you know the horseshoe sizes range from 28 to 50, with the smallest fitting inside the largest?

Republican Guard at Célestins Quarter

At the Paris International Agricultural Fair 2024, the Republican Guard, including their fanfare or orchestra, put on an impressive show. A few highlights below.

Share this:

Meridians and Paris Time

Did you know that for a while, official Paris time was 9 minutes and 21 seconds ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)? Let me tell you how that happened.

First of all, I assume you know a meridian is a line that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole. It is used to indicate the longitude of a location.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (a town just outside London), is the reference point for both the Prime Meridian, putting Greenwich at 0° longitude, and Greenwich Mean Time. Both these references were progressively adopted around the world over the second half of the 19th century, some international conferences helping the process along.

The Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Paris is in the GMT+1 time zone and at a longitude of ~2°20’E. New York is in the GMT-5 time zone and at ~74’W.

Back in the 17th century, Sun King Louis XIV authorized the building of the royal observatory of Paris (today the Paris Observatory). On Midsummer’s Day 1667, scientists traced the outline of the building in such a way that the Paris Meridian bisected the site from north to south. Meridians were really important in that time as scientists attempted to determine the size and the figure of the earth.

The Paris Observatory

So we now have the Paris Meridian. What about Paris time?

Once upon a time and ironically long before the Sun King came along, people told time by the sun. Later, church bells calling to prayer marked time during the day. Each village, each town lived by the time of their local clocks.

It was only with the arrival of the train that France started to feel the need to unify time across its territory. In order to assure a regular train service, the train companies used Paris time. Progressively, over the second half of the 19th century, French towns adopted double display, local time and Paris time, and in 1891, Paris time was enforced by law across the country.

However, in the meantime, the Greenwich Meridian and GMT had been widely adopted around the world, first by navies, then by train companies and then (nearly) everyone else.

Finally, with the law of March 9, 1911, France adopted the time of the Greenwich Meridian and the division of the day into 24 hours instead of two times 12 hours. However, the text of the law never mentioned Greenwich. Indeed, the reference time remained “Paris time” which is 9 minutes and 21 seconds ahead of GMT. This corresponds to the distance between the Paris Meridian and the Greenwich Meridian.

La Mire du Sud – a sight that originally stood on the Paris Meridian in the gardens of the Paris Observatory, allowing to focus on the Meridian (today it can be found in the public Parc Montsouris)
Paris Observatory and Paris Meridian

In Paris, the Meridian is materialized both inside and outside the Observatory, as well as across town by the Arago medallions, named for Astronomer François Arago (1786-1853) whose statue near the observatory was destroyed by the Vichy Regime in 1942.

Many of the Arago medallions have gone missing since their installation in 1994, not least due to the Da Vinci Code, which has their location all wrong, so don’t go looking for one at the Louvre Pyramid! (Please don’t take any of the remaining medallions. Eiffel Tower key chains only cost 0.50€.)

And if you go to Villers-sur-Mer  in Normandy, you will find a marker materializing the Greenwich Meridian on the beach wall. That’s how much 2°20’ are in distance!

Location of the Paris Observatory on a map of Paris
Share this:

A rail belt around Paris

In the mid-19th century, a train track was built circling Paris like a belt just inside the boulevard des Maréchaux (see The Adolphe Thiers Wall). Called La Petite Ceinture, or Little Belt, it had junctions with all major train lines, so there was no need to go to the terminus stations. Initially meant for freight traffic, it started opining to passenger trains in 1862, giving workers relatively moderately priced train service through the suburbs of the capital to which Baron Haussmann’s works had relegated them.

Ouest Ceinture station near Porte de Vanves

At the end of the 19th century, another belt-like railway line was built, 15km outside the Boulevard Périphérique (which roughly corresponds to the official city limits). This was called La Grande Ceinture and meant to connect the radial train lines linking Paris to the rest of the country and relieving the Petite Ceinture.

Nevertheless, peak traffic of 39 million passengers was reached on the Petite Ceinture during the 1900 World Fair. However, afterwards Parisians gradually abandoned the line in favor of the newly created métropolitain and omnibuses, which provided alternative offers better adapted to urban needs.

The Montrouge station on Avenue du Général Leclerc in the 14th has become a restaurant, behind it (to the left), there’s a staircase giving access to the Petite Ceinture.

The train line closed down definitely in 1934. It was immediately replaced by a bus line taking its name, shortened to “PC”. Only a few night trains still ran for a while, freight trains kept running until the 1990s.

A passenger train on the Petite Ceinture for a special occasion in 1992

The PC bus line has since been partially replaced by the T3A and T3B trams, but the last section between T3A terminus Pont du Garigliano and T3B terminus Porte d’Asnières is still served by the PC bus.

The Petite Ceinture infrastructure was largely abandoned and is today invaded by vegetation, which has given the line a special atmosphere and allowed for the development of a unique biodiversity in Paris.

Since 2007, the national French railway company SNCF, has authorized the temporary creation of greenways on certain sections. By preserving the platform, the SNCF keeps the option of one day reopening the line to passenger traffic.

There is one exception though: On the stretch between Avenue Henri Martin and Porte de Clichy stations, the RER C trains still run on the Petite Ceinture platform.

the Petite Ceinture near Vaugirard

There used to be an entrance to the Paris Catacombs in the Montsouris tunnel, and even today adventurers out for the (completely illegal) exploration of the catacombs can be spotted in certain spots of the train track in the 14th arrondissement.

At Poterne des Peupliers in the 13th arrondissement, the train tracks were used for test runs of the new fully automatic metro line 14 before it was put into service in 1998.

The Petite Ceinture rail line (in purple)
Share this:

World Fairs in Paris

World Fairs, or universal exhibitions, exist since the industrial revolution in the 19th century. Since 1931, they are overseen and regulated by the International Bureau of Expositions.
The first World Fair was held in London in 1851. It is said to have been inspired by the French Exposition nationale des produits de l’industrie agricole and the Exposition des produits de l’industrie française, the latter having existed since 1798.

Prior to 1931, 20 World Fairs were held, five of those in Paris. As in other countries, these Expositions universelles, despite consisting mostly of temporary structures, have left a mark on the host city.

1855

The Palais de L’Industrie was built on the Champs Élysées. It was inaugurated by Napoléon III and was the emblem of the World Fair which had over five million visitors. Contrary to the Crystal Palace of the 1851 London World Fair, the Palais de l’Industrie was meant to become a permanent exhibition space.

1867

The second World Fair to be held in Paris took place on the Champ de Mars, as decided by emperor Napoléon III three years prior. The transformation of Paris by Baron Haussmann had just been completed. On the Champ de Mars, a military site, a giant oval building was constructed, the Palais Omnibus. A young entrepreneur specializing in metallic structures, was tasked with building the galérie des machines, where cranes, weaving looms, machine tools, power hammers, locomotives etc. would be displayed. His name was Gustave Eiffel.

1878

The third Paris World Fair was again held on the Champ de Mars. For the occasion, the Palais du Trocadéro was built on the opposite bank of the Seine, on the Chaillot hill (la colline de Chaillot).

No longer does the Palais du Trocadéro stand on the colline du Chaillot!

One of the main attractions of the exhibit was the head of the Statue of Liberty, and among the inventions presented was Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone.

1889

The tenth World Fair and fourth to be held in Paris, celebrated the centenary of the French Revolution. As a result, European monarchies refuse to attend. However, some of them were represented by private initiatives. The Fair was held mainly on the Champ de Mars but also on the Esplanade des Invalides.

Its main attraction, while controversial at the time and destined to be dismantled after the end of the fair, can still be visited there today.

1900

The fifth Paris World Fair was no longer restricted to the Champ de Mars. While previous World Fairs already includes the Jardins du Trocadéro on the south-eastern slope of the Colline de Chaillot and the Esplanade des Invalides, this fair also occupies the riverbanks on both sides of the Seine, from the new Pont Alexandre III to the Pont d’Iéna.

While the Pont d’Iéna links the Champ de Mars to the Trocadéro, the Pont Alexandre III links the Esplanade des Invalides on the left bank to the Champs Élysées on the right bank. Two palaces were built for this World Fair in the place of the Palais de l’Industrie, demolished in 1896: the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais.

Aerial view of the Grand and the Petit Palais
The Petit Palais

Of those five Expositions universelles held in Paris, it is the 1900 one that has left behind the most landmarks and structures still in existence. Not only the Pont Alexandre III built in a way to allow for a view from the Champs Élysées past the Grand and Petit Palais and across the river to the Esplanade des Invalides and the Invalides itself, but also the Gare d’Orsay (today Musée d’Orsay), the Statue of Liberty on the Pont de Grenelle, and, above all, the first sections of the Métropolitain, inaugurated on July 19, 1900.

The Musée d’Orsay still looks like the train station it once was.
The Statue of Liberty on the Pont de Grenelle
early métro trains looked like this

Take a ride on métro line 1, the first métro line which, at its inauguration in 1900, ran from Porte de Vincennes to Porte Maillot.

Share this:

Bones beneath the Stones

When you find yourself with an avalanche of human bones in your basement, you know it’s time for change.

Which is what the city of Paris did when exactly that happened to neighbors of the Cimetière des Innocents in 1774. Looking for a place to store the bones from the overflowing inner-city cemetery, they came up with the idea to put them in the decommissioned stone quarries underneath the city.

After arrangements had been made, bones from the various cemeteries of Paris, Les Innocents included, were carted to a chute in the avenue René Coty (near Place Denfert-Rochereau) to be stored underground. The name Catacombes was borrowed from Ancient Rome, even though there were no graves and funerary monuments. At first, the bones were stacked along the tunnels over hundreds of meters. It was only after the first VIP visits at the beginning of the 19th century that the bones were somewhat organized. More cemeteries had to be closed as the city grew, and their bones were added to the ones already in residence.

Signs were added to indicate the cemetery of origin, and the gravediggers arranged skulls and bones in patterns that can still be seen today.

In 1809, the Catacombes became a museum that today is part of the Musée Carnavalet and gives visitors access to a small fraction of the tunnel network of Paris’ ancient stone quarries.

In one of the first sections of the visit, sculptures made by a quarryman in the late 18th century can be seen. They represent sites from Port-Mahon on the Spanish island of Minorca where he was said to have been a POW.

There used to be a long line of visitors starting out from the old entrance and winding back around the square behind the eastern lodge of the barriére d’Enfer (entry point of the General Farmers’ Tax Wall), but recently, it was closed in favor of a new entrance, and the ticket sale has shifted online, so now visitors can book their spot in advance and don’t need to queue any longer.

signage in the métro station Denfert-Rocherreau
N° 2: Catacombes entrance, n° 5: Catacombes exit
Location of the Catacombes entrances on a map of Paris
Share this:

Below the Bastille

Below the Bastille, three metro lines meet: line 1, line 5 with remains of an outer Bastille wall on the platform, discovered during the construction of that metro line, and line 8.

The line 1 platform is above-ground and on the eastbound side allows for a view of the Arsenal harbor basin. The walls on both sides are decorated with a 180m² ceramic tile fresco of scenes from the 1789 Revolution, created in 1989 for the bicentennial of the Revolution.

Below the platform, the Canal Saint Martin ends in the Arsenal harbor basin which in turn connects with the Seine east of Saint Louis island.

The station was opened in July 1900 as part of the first section of line 1 which ran from Porte de Vincennes (east) to Porte Maillot (west). It was built above the canal in order to avoid the foundations of the July column which dominates the Place de la Bastille.

Bastille was the last station on line 1 to have automatic doors installed as line 1 was automatized due to the difficulty of the curved shape of the platform.

Share this:

A station for crossword and scrabble lovers

Concorde métro station was part of the very first metro line, the 1, it was opened in the summer of 1900. It takes the name of the Place de la Concorde above. However, barely two months after its inauguration, Concorde is the site of the very first metro accident, with 38 injured following a collision of two metro trains.
In 1910, metro line 12 is added to the station, later line 8.

The platform of line 12 will delight solvers of crossword puzzles and players of Scrabble with its lettered ceramic tiles. Do you have the patience to read the text, namely the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789? It is spelled out without spaces, and if you are looking for punctuation marks, you can find them neatly grouped at the bottom!

Share this:

Avenue de la Grande Armée

This avenue is the continuation of the Champs Élysées and runs from the Place de l’Étoile to Porte Maillot. It is one of the 12 avenues forming the star of the Étoile, and it also constitutes the limit between the 16th and 17th arrondissements.

It is named after Napoléon’s Grande Armée (Great Army), the French Imperial army under Emperor Napoléon Ier that participated in all the campaigns of the First Empire (that is, Napoléon’s reign 1804-1814).

For drivers who’d rather not brave the Place de l’Étoile roundabout, the tunnel de l‘Étoile links the Champs Élysées directly to the Grande Armée.

Twice per year, the sun rises in the axis of the avenue (around Feb 7 and Nov 4), and twice a year, it sets in the axis (around May 10 and August 1).

Share this:

Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe, or Triumphal Arch, was built on the orders of Napoléon Ier. Its construction began at the same time as that of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, in 1806. By the time it was achieved in 1836, Napoléon had long since disappeared and a king sat once again on the French throne, namely Louis-Philippe.

Built on a hill, the Arc de Triomphe is easily visible both from the Place de la Concorde and the Esplanade de La Défense.

Napoléon Ier had the arch built following the victorious battle of Austerlitz. Initially, he wanted it to be located on the east side of the city, near the Bastille, so that returning armies would enter the Faubourg Saint Antoine by passing under his arch. However, he could be convinced that the current location was better suited (especially for financial reasons).

Today, the Arc de Triomphe still is a monument with a strong historical connotation, which was only reinforced by the burial of the unknown soldier from WWI beneath it in 1921. The eternal flame arrived two years later, one of the first of its kind in the modern era. It is rekindled every evening at 6.30pm.
When the European Union flag was flown inside the Arc de Triomphe at the beginning of January 2022, to mark the French presidency of the European Union (January-June 2022), it earned much criticism, and the flag was taken down. (The EU circle of stars on a blue-illuminated Eiffel Tower was fine, as the tower does not bear the same historical significance.)

Several times a year, the sun rises or sets in the axis of the Arc de Triomphe: sunrise on February 4, 5 and 6 and November 7, sunset on May 7, 8 and 9 as well as August 3, 4 and 5.

Among the events that took place at the Arc de Triomphe, the most notable ones are the transfer of Napoléon Ier’s ashes in 1840, the vigil of Victor Hugo prior to his funeral in the Panthéon, and sadly the yellow-vest riots’s third protest on December 1st, 2018, during which the Arc de Triomphe was smeared, damaged and graffitied.

In September 2021, the Arc de Triomphe was wrapped up by Christo and Jeanne Claude.

Share this:

The Luxor Obelisk

Following an equestrian statue of Louis XV, a statue of liberty and a statue of Louis XVI, the Luxor obelisk has stood at the center of the Place de la Concorde since the 1830s.

Actually, there were two obelisks given to France by Egypt. Jean-François Champollion, the French scholar who deciphered the hieroglyphs, chose which would be transported to France first.

A ship had to be built specifically for its transport as it had to be able to navigate the Nile, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Channel and the Seine, all with the 23m-long 230 ton obelisk aboard. The journey ended up taking almost two years.

Details of the complex machinery needed to transport and erect it were added to the pedestal in 1839.

Today’s gold-leaf pyramid cap was added in 1998.

In 1981, President François Mitterrand officially renounced possession of the second obelisk, restoring it to Egypt, where it can still be seen at the Luxor Temple.

I said Obelisk, not Obelix!
Share this: