- FRANCE - PART ONE -

Paris Miscellany Part 2 :
Métro and RER, La Madeleine
and other outer city destinations

LINKS to other pages in the FRANCE PART ONE site and to the Colin Day Travelling Days series:

From the official Métro and RER websites:

"The Métro opened on 19 July 1900, its first line being from Porte de Vincennes to Porte Maillot (not surprising it is now the line number 1).

"The system has 199 km (124 miles) of track and 15 lines. There are 368 stations (not including RER stations), 87 of these being interchanges between lines. Every building is within 500 metres of a métro station. There are 3500 cars which transport roughly 6 million people per day. The Métro (in 1989) had 15000 employees."

Entertainment on a late evening Métro train!

"The RER is a hybrid transportation system, being an integration of the modern city-centre subway system and pre-existing suburban rail. Within the city of Paris, the RER serves as an express network offering multiple connections to the Paris Métro. The essential central part of the RER was completed by a massive civil engineering effort between 1962 and 1977 and features some unusually deep and spacious stations. The RER network is still expanding today — the new line E was inaugurated in 1999. As of 2006 the RER comprises five lines: A, B, C, D and E."

"The RER currently serves 246 stops and runs over 571 km (355 miles) of track. Nearly 60 kilometers of tracks are underground (mainly in the central part of the network). 33 stops are served inside the city proper of Paris. Due to its hybrid nature, some parts of RER lines are operated by the city transport authority managing the Métro (RATP) and others by the national rail company (SNCF)."

"The origins of the RER can be traced back to the 1936 Ruhlmann-Langewin plan of the Compagnie du Métropolitain de Paris for a wide-sectioned "métropolitain express" (express métro). As the CMP's post-war successor, the RATP revived the scheme in the 1950s and in 1960 an interministerial committee decided to go ahead with construction of a first (east-west) line. As its chief inspiration, the RATP was granted authority to run the new link and the SNCF thus ceded operation of the Saint-Germain-en-Laye line (to the west of Paris) and the Vincennes line (to the east).

"The embryonic (and as yet unnamed) RER was conceived in the 1965 Schéma directeur d'aménagement et d'urbanisme as an "H"-shaped rapid transit network (that is, with two north-south routes). Only a single north-south axis crossing the Left Bank has so far come to fruition, although the Métro's Line 13 has been upgraded to perform a similar function."

The Church of St Mary Magdalen (left and below) known as 'La Madeleine' was consecrated in 1842. Built in the style of a Greek temple the church is situated on Rue Royal north of La Place de la Concorde.

When construction of the church started in 1764, the plans made by architect Pierre Constant d'Ivry called for a design similar to that of the Invalides church.

When d'Ivry died in 1777 his designs, which can be seen in the Musée Carnavalet, were dismissed by his successor, Guillome-Martin Couture. He decided to raze the unfinished building and start with a new design, this time based on the Panthéon.

Construction was halted during the French Revolution. In 1806 Napoleon decided to build a temple in honour of his army, a ''Temple of Glory'. He appointed Pierre-Alexandre Vignon who razed the building yet again, and started with the construction of the temple based on the 'Maison Carrée', an ancient Roman temple in Nîmes.

With the construction of the Arc de Triomphe, which honoured the French Army, a different function was sought for the new temple. Suggestions included its use as a parliament, a bank or even a train station. However, in 1842 the building was consecrated as a church, a function it still holds today. No less than 52 Corinthian columns surround the temple, each of them twenty metres high. At the front, the columns are topped with a sculpted frieze. The bas reliefs on the bronze doors are by Henri de Triqueti and represent the Ten Commandments.

Inside, behind the altar is a large statue depicting the ascension of Mary Magdalene. It was built in 1837 by Charles Marochetti. The church also boasts a pipe organ, built by Cavaillé-Coll in 1846. Nowadays the organ is still used for concerts.

One of the side chapels is shown below.

And after a game of boules, perhaps a walk to the Clichy district........

Church in the Clichy district north west of the Paris centre (right and below).

Street scenes in the Clichy district (left and below).

The tour group Paris hotel in the Clichy district (above).