Tag: Porte de Passy

Chemin de Fer de Petite Ceinture

Two weeks after I moved into my new home here in the 16th, I had some friends visit.  We walked up to La Rotonde at La Muette for a cafe allonge (a long pull coffee as opposed to an expresso).  We sat outside and enjoyed the people watching and street watching.  Across the street sat La Gare.  I knew there was a train station nearby that serviced the RER C but I didn’t think it was that close.  The next day, a friend came in from the suburbs and I asked her about it.  She told me about la Petite Ceinture–literally the little belt.  La ceinture was a rail line that serviced all the main stations in Paris and by the time it was finished construction made a loop around Paris.  It’s heyday was the 1900 Universal Expo in Paris.  It was also the beginning of the end for the Ceinture as the metro lines were being built and introduced.

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Sign as one enters the pathway near my street.

La Gare, which we had been admiring, was one of the little stations for the Ceinture.  It is now a terrace tea room on it’s main floor and a restaurant underneath where the trains would stop.  The architects of La Gare as restaurant saved the signs so one can see exactly where the quays were.  The mezzanine is marked Baggage and houses the toilets and coat service.

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Once a rail station for la Petite Ceinture now a restaurant and tea shop
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Photo of the menu showing the restaurant.  Sunday brunch is 39euros!

The 16th arrondissement has resurrected 1.2 kilometers of the rail line and turned it into a nature path.  It lies directly between my building and Porte de Passy.  At the end of rue de l’Assomption is one of the gates to enter into the path.  It is green, inviting, extremely quiet and shady for our hot summer days.  Along the way are signs inviting us to look at the trees, birds and other natural phenomena telling us what to look for.  You just get started and the walk is over.  I gather there is great and on-going debate about what to do with the 36 kilometers total of the old rail line.

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A waste container made from the wood along the path and a sign begging us not to throw our cigarette butts or any ‘crap’ on the path.

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At the end of the nature path, in the Jardin de Ranelagh, is this insect hotel! with an explanation of why they are so important.

If you want to know the fascinating history of the Chemin de Far de Petite Ceinture, go to:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemin_de_fer_de_Petite_Ceinture

In a 2004 episode of Poirot “The Mystery of the Blue Train”, Poirot and friends board the Blue Train in London to go to Nice.  On the way, he explains to his traveling companion that they are on La Petite Ceinture to get to the Gare de Lyon where they will turn south to go to Nice.

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Above: One of the last Petite Ceinture de Paris passenger trains in 1933 – its passenger service would close one year later. right: View of the Ouest Champ du Mars station during the 1900 exposition, with the Boulainvilliers bridge-viaduct for Batignolles trains in the background.

Some of my readers know the 16th quite well.  Perhaps this little sign with a map will bring back memories. The three metro stations are Ranelagh, Jasmin, Michel-Ange.

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A bientôt,

Sara

Bois de Boulogne

If you look on your map of Paris, you will see that the 16th arrondissement is huge.  Many map books divide up the 20 Paris arrondissements into quartiers (neighborhoods).  Very sensible for the 16th.  On the East is the Seine, on the north is Avenue Marceau going up to Etoile and Ave de la Grande Armee going all the way to Porte Maillot.  And along the entire length of the west of the 16th is the Bois de Boulogne. To the south is Porte Saint Cloud and Boulogne Billancourt.

I’m just a smidge further than half way down and two blocks from the Bois.  Sunday morning, I put on my sneakers and went exploring to see what I could see.  Within five minutes, I had crossed over the Porte de Passy and was in the Bois.  Another five minutes and I was at the Hippodrome d’Auteuil which is large.  On one end is a golf course.  On the other is a swimming pool.  I’ve been thinking that I should start swimming again, that my hip would thank me.  It was a Sunday and I saw no one to ask so I left that investigation for another day.

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I came to Lac Superieur.  I started to walk around it.  Runners were everywhere, many doing the Lake circuit a number of times.  And as often happens, everyone seemed to be going the same direction.  This time it was clockwise.  I was walking counter-clockwise.  Arriving at my starting point, I began walking down L’Hippodrome.  Signs kept telling me that Les Grands Cascades were in that direction.  I don’t see them on my map.

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Lac Supérieur

Walking, I was mostly alone on this wide tree-lined street.  The trees had grown into an arbor over the road.  It felt like Fall.  A lot of leaves had fallen so there was green, yellow and that tannish brown that leaves get when they aren’t in Vermont but haven’t drowned in rain. In spite of the runners, it was very quiet.  Surrounded by trees and beauty produced a calm.  There was hardly any wind so the stillness seemed complete.  One could walk and think, solve a few problems, pay attention to what is around me and feel at total peace for a few minutes.

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I believe Ave de l”hippodrome is closed to cars on Sunday

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I passed dirt paths telling me that  if I walked north I’d arrive at Porte Maillot where I lived all May and most of June.  Porte de la Muette was northeast.  I now shop there. Porte de Passy is the next one after La Muette.  Two of my buses stop there and are often easier than taking the metro.  You have to picture Paris before cars. Those who could rode horses.  If you left Paris, you came back in through one of the gates.  These are the Portes that circle the city today.  They are often entrances onto the Peripherique which is the major through-way circling the city.  You have to get on it to go anywhere unless, like in days of old, your road takes you up to the Porte and you keep going because you are already in the right direction.

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I walked for over an hour and was barely inside the Bois.  Just before I entered, I saw  a long stand of city bikes, known as Velib’.  Next week, I will rent one and see how much of the Bois I can cover.

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Walking up to Porte de Passy
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Fountains are everywhere so no one goes dehydrated.

I am not ready for summer to end.  It all goes too quickly.  So though it looked and smelt a lot like Fall during this walk, I’m crossing my fingers that we still have hot days ahead of us.

A bientot

Sara

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