Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Beginning
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In the 1860s,
Paris grew up. Paris grew out. Paris needed a better way to get
around. So Paris built the Petite Ceinture, a railroad that
circled the city on its outer perimeter. The Petite Ceinture (little belt) was
inaugurated in February of 1867. As a
freight line, in the 15th arrondissement it served the Citroën
factory as well as the metro workshops and slaughterhouses of Vaugirard. It also
transported passengers around the city until 1934. Its use for moving freight continued until
1979. What happens
when humans abandon infrastructure?
Nature takes over. Vegetation
has planted itself spontaneously along the tracks since 1979. Nature created habitats for birds and
animals in that vegetation. The Petite
Ceinture became a unique place. I’ve known
about plans to open sections of the Petite
Ceinture as pedestrian promenades for some time. I was anxious to see it happen, but
realized when I read about the controversy surrounding this project in the 15th
arrondissement that it would take some time. Now, suddenly,
it is there! I was reading Facebook
postings yesterday morning when one from Paris city hall caught my eye: it announced the opening of one section of
the Petite Ceinture yesterday! I was excited to see that it was the
stretch from the rue Olivier de Serres to the rue Desnouettes along part of
the southern edge of the 15th arrondissement. (The stretch from Desnouettes to Balard is
scheduled to open in late September.) I planned our
route. When we were done working at
the computers yesterday, we took off on this latest urban adventure. While we love
the Promenade Plantée in the 12th
arrondissement, we can see that mistakes were made there. That Promenade was also built on the former
site of a railway, but it was done in a highly refined, heavily landscaped
way, with lots of infrastructure to maintain.
It has become a maintenance headache; the city is clearly having
difficulty keeping up with it. The
plantings constantly need water and attention, fountains and pools must be
repaired, the wood benches, planters, and decking need work, etc., etc. The Petite Ceinture is being developed differently,
naturally. It is reversible, in case
the city decides to use it for a railway again in the future. One of the several informative
signs/plaques that we encountered on the walk explains it this way: This public promenade has been made to preserve
the heritage of the former uses of the site.
Habitats have been preserved and elements of the historic railway are
retained and re-used. With a goal of
not disturbing the biological rhythm of the animals, no lights have been
installed. The site is closed at
night. The slopes are not accessible. Maintenance is adapted to biological cycles,
notably the nesting of birds. There
are three levels of vegetation, and the prairie vegetation is cut only one to
two times per year. The trees lining the passage are natives, like
the English elm which is now rare, and the English oak and sycamore maple. Dead wood from the trees is left to accommodate
the growth of microorganisms, fungi, and insects (which break up the dead
wood) – all essential to the ecological balance of the forests. Where new
elements/infrastructure has been added, it has been done with care. As another plaque explains: The history of the railroad has inspired this
promenade. One finds here another city,
between the trees, like on postcards. The railway heritage, preserved, is shown the
way it was, particularly in six places along the parcourse. This includes the existing ironwork on the
ramp/stairway of the Vaugirard station, which has been restored. The renovation of the Pont Desnouettes, with
alternating perforated grating and perforated sheet metal, evokes the rhythm
of the cross-ties of the tracks. Rail
stops and levers have been kept and emphasized. The elements that have been added are sober and
minimalist. The existing rails emerge
on the surface of stabilizing dirt of an ocre color, to blend with that of
the ballast (rocks along the railway). Just before we
found the beginning of the spur of the Petite
Ceinture on the rue Desnouettes, Tom made the surprise discovery of the
tiny rue Théodore Deck, which has a small scarlet-and-gray theater on
it: Theo Theatre. And we thought we knew the 15th
arrondissement so well! Ha! In reality,
much of what we saw yesterday in the 15th we were seeing for the
first time. Other than n’er-do-wells
and graffiti vandals, not many people have seen this section of the Petite Ceinture for a long, long
time. We felt honored to be among the
aware citizens who walked this promenade on opening day. When we arrived
at the place where the rail spur connects with rue Desnouettes, there was a
tall metal fence with a closed gate.
But I was sure this was the right place, because one of the ubiquitous
Paris parks signs was on the fence, announcing that this was the Petite Ceinture. I decided just to stand there and
wait. Tom followed my “lead.” Sure enough,
after a minute or two, a couple came strolling down the spur to the
gate. They somehow knew how to open
it; it wasn’t apparent to us at all.
Later we discovered a few other gates like this along the way, but
they were all standing open. Some
mischievous person had closed this one, I guess – perhaps a disgruntled
neighbor. The spur runs
along the back side of a very modern building. Unlike the rest of the Petite Ceinture, this spur is now a lighted, paved
walkway. I think it may have been
completed a while ago, because the park signs at each end of it do not seem
to be brand new. They also have tape
residue on them, where some notice had been placed (probably a closure notice
due to neighborhood objections) but has now been removed. On the other
side of the spur was a tall chainlink fence, which was adorned in one place
with a threatening “beware of guard dog” sign. Beyond the fence were vegetable gardens for
some kind of institutional building – perhaps one of those educational
kitchen gardens that we keep finding here and there in the city. I hope that mean guard dog doesn’t mess up
the garden plots. The spur was like
a long, curving ramp. When we reached
the far end of it, it wasn’t much of an elevator ride up to the main
tracks. The tracks of
the Petite Ceinture are elevated in
the Desnouettes area, because that part of the 15th was a
swamp. As we made our way along the
tracks to the east, toward the Montparnasse side of the 15th, the
elevation changes somewhat dramatically.
So at the rue Olivier de Serres end of this promenade, the tracks are
way below street level, in a gulley. We were warmer
walking along the tracks than we were on the city streets. We paused frequently to examine wildflowers
and informative plaques (all in French only). One plaque was
devoted to explaining “la lisière.” This is a place where two ecosystems come
together; in this case, where the prairie meets the woods. This ecologically rich place, the plaque
explains, has both animals and plants from both the prairies and the woods in
the same time and place. But in
addition, there are plants and animals that live specifically in the lisières. It is especially here that certain birds
will nest because here they find what they need, including the tranquility
necessary for reproducing and raising the little ones. Examples of lisière birds are hedge sparrows and
European robins. Even that rocky
area along the tracks, filled with stones called “ballast,” has a unique
habitat. Here lives the orpin blanc (sedum album, or white
sedum). We like to call this a “rock
plant.” Although we saw and read the
plaque, we could not see the plant anywhere.
This absence was explained on the plaque, however: the plant often sleeps under the rocks. It flowers
between May and August, according to the plaque (French Wikipedia says
July-September), but I think given the warmth of the tracks and the fact that
we didn’t see any orpins, the
blooming season was over before July. In fact, I do
remember seeing and photographing an orpin
blanc blooming on the stone wall behind Unesco in July. The orpin habitat is very fragile; so it
was marked off with sticks and strings just the same way we delineate and
protect snowy plover nesting areas on our beaches in southwest Florida. A few places
for people to sit have been added.
These are constructed of the same kind of heavy timbers used along the
new pedestrianized riverbank area that we like so much. Every place
that the tracks crossed over a street offered city views that could not be
seen before. In the first part of our
walk, we were up at a level where we could see and appreciate some
architectural details on buildings – details that are more difficult to see
down on the street level. The old
Vaugirard train station still exists.
Somebody apparently is living in part of it. Across the tracks from the station,
wildflower seed mix has been planted and is growing well. By the time we
reached the rue Olivier de Serres end of the promenade, we were in a gulley
with a glorious bank of trees off to our right. The tracks disappear into a tunnel under
the rue Olivier de Serres. Homeless
people are clearly living in that tunnel. The tunnel is a
full city block in length, all the way from the rue Olivier de Serres to the
rue Dantzig on the western edge of the Parc Georges Brassens. There could be fifty people living in
there. I noted that we
did not see a single bicycle along the way.
It would be tough for bikes to use the stairways, but I suppose they
could use the elevators. The fact that
they aren’t tells me that they must not be allowed. Of course, the absence of bikes makes
walking even more peaceful along this promenade. Back up on the
streets again, we were entertained by sights such as a row of charming old
houses on the rue Pierre Mille, and a huge yellow duckie outside the École Superieure Nationale des Arts Appliqués (National School of the
Decorative Arts) on the rue Olivier de Serres. We walked our
way over to our neighborhood by taking a couple more streets that were
unfamiliar: rue Leriche, and rue Saint
Lambert. Both would be good streets to
live on, because they have lovely old apartment buildings, low intensity
commercial/office space on the street level, and not much automobile traffic. At the Place du
Comtat Venaissin we collapsed into a couple of terrasse chairs at Les Trois Garcons and ordered
refreshments. Tom had a tart au citron that was wonderful
enough to make us think about going back there to dine sometime. Refreshed, we were able to continue to the
Eric Kayser bakery for a baguette de
tradition, and to the ATM near our apartment. What a
day! I was surprised when I asked Tom
about where he wanted to dine that he said Tandoori Nights would be
nice. So I reserved a table via
Lafourchette.com. We branched out
beyond lamb korma and biryani, deciding to order gambas (very large grilled
shrimp with heads still there) in two different types of curry. When we Floridians order shrimp in a Paris
restaurant, that’s a sign that we have true confidence in the chef. We are finicky about shrimp. We have high standards. Tandoori Nights
passed the test with flying colors.
The sauces were spicy and perfect, the cheese and garlic naans were
delicious and hot, and the rice was excellent. Dessert consisted of two small,
steaming-hot Indian pastries soaked in honey and a couple small scoops of ice
cream, most of which had to be consumed by Tom. The boss was
welcoming and funny. We liked his
jokes. He has unusual light hazel eyes
and a nice smile. Interesting guy. And so ended a
day of unusual sights in a neighborhood we thought we knew so well. Wonders never cease.
One set of tracks in embedded in firmly packed ocre-colored
dirt, the other is left as it was. |
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Theo Theatre, on the tiny rue Théodore Deck.
Paved
walkway on a former rail spur leading to the Petite Ceinture.
Looking
down at the Petite Ceinture
promenade from the rue Olivier de Serres.
The
elevated part of the Petite Ceinture in the 15th.
Butterfly
on a buddleia bloom.
The
old Vaugirard train station.
Wildflowers
across from the Vaugirard railway station.
A
new place to sit along the old railway.
Part
of the tunnel opening under rue Olivier de Serres, and
the new elevator serving the promenade.
Or you can take the stairs, below.
Yellow
duckling outside the École Superieure Nationale des Arts Appliqués on the rue Olivier de Serres. |
