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greenbagjosh · 4 years

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28 March 2000 - Kremlin Bicêtre army base, Montmartre, top of the Grande Arche de La Défense and last time for 2000 on the M8

Bonjour mesdames et messieurs!

Today is Tuesday the 28th March 2000, and the last full day of my visit to Paris. What should we do today? I have always enjoyed going to Sacre Coeur de Montmartre, and have always wanted to go to the top of the Grande Arche de La Défense, as I had previously done on the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower. There was one curiosity on the left bank, just south of the Paris city limits towards Villejuif through Place d'Italie. Before I made a plan, I had to have breakfast at 6:45 AM. I decided first to go to the Forte de Bicêtre at Kremlin Bicêtre.

About 7 AM I walked to the Crozatier bus stop on Rue du Faubourg St. Antoine and Rue Crozatier, just a few hundred meters from Rue Trousseau. I boarded bus line 86 and took it as far as the Sully Morland Metro station, via Bastille. At Sully Morland I could catch the M7 to Villejuif and stop at the Kremlin Bicêtre. However I was a bit impatient and caught the Mairie d'Ivry branch train. Two stops after Place d'Italie, I had to alight at Maison Blanche and wait on the next train to Villejuif Louis Aragon. From there it was just one metro stop away to Le Kremlin Bicêtre.

What was expected to be at the Fort de Bicêtre at Kremlin Bicêtre? It is an actual fortress. It is not as exciting to see as the one in Moscow. And there is no external mausoleum for any leader that I am aware of. From the Kremlin Bicêtre metro stop, I took the bus line 47 to Barnufles la Piscine and walked down Avenue Charles Gide to the driveway of Fort de Bicêtre and then uphill to the northern gates. At the time it was not equipped to handle visitors, so there was nothing much to do but stand outside the big green gate with FORT DE BICÊTRE in big letters. Note from Wikipedia: "Since it is still used by the Ministry of Defense, the fort is closed to the public. However, tours are organized for European Heritage Days in September.". About 7:55 AM I went back to the metro station and around 8:06 AM I boarded the M7 on the way back to the AIJ to get some more freshly charged camera batteries.

I took the M7 to Place d'Italie and changed for the M5 to Bastille. The ride went uneventful until 8:23 AM when an Eric Clapton impersonator boarded the M5 at Gare d'Austerlitz. While the train was crossing the Seine for Quai de la Rapée, he performed a nice guitar solo of "Tears in Heaven". That lasted until a minute prior to the train reaching Bastille, when he did an alto saxophone solo of a different song. The train reached Bastille about 8:30 AM.

I went one stop on the M8 to Ledru Rollin. There was a bunch of children, maybe about 50 of them, leaving the AIJ. They were lined up on the Rue du Faubourg St Antoine just after Chez Tony. I went to my room and collected one of my video camera batteries and about 9:30 AM I left for the city limit at Porte de Charenton, seven stops away from Ledru Rollin. There was a city boundary bus line that I could take to Porte de Bagnolet via Porte de Vincennes.

At Porte de Bagnolet I could take the M3 to Gambetta. Gambetta used to be a branch off the M3 line for Les Lilas, but it became a separate line known as the M3Bis. There was supposed to be a station after Porte de Lilas called Haxo, which would connect to the 7Bis line, but the plan was tabled, and it seems like Haxo would need to be reconstructed in order to be able to be used, possibly for a future M17 line or so I have heard. The 3Bis stations don't look too much different than those built in the 1920s to 1940s. The one thing I noticed about Porte des Lilas, at the north end of the 3Bis exit platform, was an upwards escalator with wooden steps. I had not seen such an escalator since the 1970s when I first rode the Northern Line in London. Back then London Underground was operating 1938 tube stock, the one with wooden flooring, similar to that of the escalators.

At Porte des Lilas, I had a quick snack of a lemon crêpe. It tasted good also with powdered sugar. Not bad for about 10 FF. I then took the M11 to Belleville and transferred to the M2 which I rode until I arrived at Anvers. Anvers is the southern access point for the Montmartre and its respective funicular train at Place Saint Pierre. The train requires the same fare as the Metro. Paris Visite is also valid. I spent maybe twenty minutes looking at the Sacre Coeur and then southeast towards Gare du Nord, République, Bagnolet and Vincennes. I saw a "living statue" standing on the pillar of the stairway to Sacre Coeur. The noontime bells rang. Then I took the funicular down. I returned again in April 2008, February 2009 and September 2011, and spent more time exploring the nouveaux artes area between Rue Norvins and Rue de Saules. Even one time I spent an evening at the Lapin Agile on Rue de Saules.

I wanted to walk from the funicular station to Pigalle. I walked from Place St Pierre on Rue d'Orsel, then Rue des Martyrs and I ended up at 12:30 PM at the Pigalle station. Sadly the Moulin Rouge was nowhere to be seen. It turns out that the actual Moulin Rouge is close to the Pigalle station and is along Boulevard de Clichy, but is closest to the Blanche station, just one metro stop away.

I caught the M2 to Place de Clichy, transferred to the M13 and went northeast to St Denis Université. At La Fourche, is the separation station, where the M13 separates for two branches, one to Gabriel Péri and the other to St Denis Université. The M13 branch to Gabriel Péri has since been extended two stations to Asnières-Gennevilliers Les Courtilles. At Saint Denis Université there was not much of touristic value to see, so I had a sandwich at a nearby bar. About 1:20 PM I took a bus which I thought would take me to the St Denis RER D station, but somehow I ended up at Garges-Sarcelles instead. I took the southbound RER D line as far as Chatelet Les Halles to connect with the RER A line for La Défense. I did not reach La Défense until 2:40 PM.

To access the Grande Arche, you have to go under the stairway kind of on the southeast side, and then go to the admissions window. Or you could go up the stairs and back down by the escalator. They were giving a 33% discount off the regular admission price because of the foggy weather. Going up is by glass elevator. I think it was about ten to twelve stories high. Access to the paying public is through the top two floors. There was an art gallery plus a room with small scale models, about 1:1,000 scale, of the Grande Arche and neighboring buildings around La Défense. There was a video about how the Grande Arche was designed and what building materials were used. Previously the outside was designed with marble, but it had to be replaced from 2010 to 2017 with granite. This may explain as to why I was unable in September 2011 to visit the Grande Arche. There were also some aerial photographic maps, of the area including Champs Elysées to La Défense, and you could see the top of the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Orangerie, and also the Bastille.

The point of going to the top of the Grande Arche de La Défense, was to go to the observation level. As it was not raining, it was possible to go upstairs to see as far as the Arc de Triomphe, and maybe also the Eiffel Tower. The fog was so bad, that I could barely see "L'AN 2000" on the Eiffel Tower. The camera could not see it properly. The Arc de Triomphe was not much better.

I went back down about 4 PM, and walked to the Bassin Takis at Place des Pyramides, located directly above the Metro Station Esplanade de La Défense. That was the splash pool that I remember from August 1997, where the light poles had blinking lights, and they were more active during the summer. Looking southeast from there, I could see the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. By then the fog situation may have improved, but I had already moved on.

I went for another walk about 5 PM on the Champs Elysées and then I took a ride from Auber-Boulevard Haussmann Saint Lazare station on the RER E. The escalator had a two level incline, with a flat section in the middle. Basically down – flat – down. I rode one station to Magenta. I went back to Haussmann Saint Lazare on the same line. I went into both the Printemps and Galleries de Lafayette. I think I spent an hour in total between both places.

The rest of the evening I did some more shopping and then a burger at Quick. I walked to the Place de la Concorde and the Grand Palais. At Concorde there was a large ferris wheel.

I made one last ride with the M8, to Balard. That was the western end of the line, where Créteil Préfecture was the southeast terminus. Note, it was since extended to Créteil Pointe du Lac. I spent five minutes at Balard, from 9:30 PM to 9:35 PM. Then I went back, and it took only 30 minutes to reach Ledru Rollin. I went to bed about 10:40 PM.

The next morning, Wednesday the 29th March, I woke up about 6:50 AM. I had a 1 PM flight from CDG T1 to San Francisco. I had my last breakfast at the AIJ, took a shower, packed my belongings, checked out and caught the line 86 to the Bastille metro station – so that I would not need to go up and down stairs while transferring from the M8 to the M5. I took M5 to Gare du Nord to transfer to the RER B. By 9:15 AM I was on the RER B platform and sat on a strapontin (folding seat) close to the door. I caught the 9:30 AM train to CDG T2. It stopped at Sevran Beaudottes at 9:38 AM. I arrived at the Roissypôle station at 9:50 AM. It took maybe seven minutes for the shuttle bus to arrive to take me to CDG Aérogare 1. The bus departed for the terminal using the access roads, and passing by the abandoned SK6000 railway that would eventually become part of the existing CDGVAL. The bus ended just outside the southeast end of the CDGVAL station, and everyone alighted. I entered Aérogare 1 about 10:05 AM and checked into my United flight, nonstop to San Francisco.

CDG Aérogare 1 is shaped in a circle, that just over 270 degrees can be used as airline gates. I think seven terminals exist as satellite gates, each one with an underground travellator, after clearing the initial security gates. In the middle is a large fountain, and you can see the hamster tubes with escalators.

I was not quite ready to go through the security gates and Schengen zone passport control. In the meantime I bought a few magazines, and a couple of music cassettes at the record store. I remember in August 1997 and August 1998 buying cassettes from the same place.

About 11:45 AM I crossed the security gates and had my passport stamped as having exited France and the Schengen Zone. I went on the travellator to the United Airlines terminal and waited until about 12:45 AM to board the plane. In the meantime there was a snack bar in case I were hungry.

At 1 PM the flight was ready to board. I took my place towards row 30 in the 777 aircraft. I think the flight was about 11 hours long. Since the USA at the time did not switch to daylight saving time until the first Sunday in April, the time difference between Paris and San Francisco was 10 hours.

I arrived about 2:30 PM Pacific Standard Time in San Francisco, landing at Terminal 2, having my passport checked and luggage inspected. After that, I was legally in the USA. I took the shuttle from the airport to the Millbrae Caltrain station, took the train to Hillsdale station, and transferred to the SamTrans bus line 252 to the intersection of Hillsdale and Edgewater Boulevard in Foster City. It felt good to return home. My car was still in its stall. The next day, 30th March 2000, I returned to work. My next overseas journey would be Tuesday 5th September to Wednesday 20th September 2000, and then to Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and a little bit of France at Bellegarde.

Well that was the last of my journey to Paris for March 2000. I hope you enjoyed.

Au revoir, et bonne santé!

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greenbagjosh · 4 years

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27 March 2000 Stravinsky fountains, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower with L’AN 2000

lundi le 27 mars 2000

Bonjour mesdames et messieurs! Did you enjoy the journey to Geneva from yesterday? Sorry that it was so short. The reason I went is because I wanted to go on Sunday the 16th August 1998 to Geneva instead of Lyon. But this time I had the chance to go to Geneva, regardless of how long the train ride would be. And it would not necessarily by my last visit at all. I returned in September 2000, April 2001, November 2002, August 2003 for the Lake Parade, August 2004, February 2012 and most recently December 2016. Each time a different part of Geneva and environs, but the two places I always visited in Geneva were the l'Horologe Fleurie (flower clock) and the Jet d'Eau (big water spout on Lake Geneva). Well I am glad to have gone the first time to see it.

Now we are back in Paris, and the 27th March 2000 is the first workday of the week, and the first weekday using GMT+2 timing for that year. I had some places I wanted to visit. These included the Centre Georges Pompidou, Stravinsky fountains, Notre Dame, the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Eiffel Tower, the Esplanade du Trocadéro for a wider view of the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysées, Neuilly and to the Grande Arche de La Défense though I would not go to the top until Tuesday the 28th. Then I would make a counterclockwise journey with the T2, the M10 and the M8 back to the AIJ and end the day there.

After breakfast, I took the M8 from Ledru Rollin to République, changed to the M11 and went to Place des Fêtes to connect with the M7bis. What is special about the 7bis line? It was originally a branch off the M7 in the northeast part of Paris, kind of towards Lilas, and south of Porte de Pantin. It runs in a counterclockwise direction from Botzaris, stopping at Place des Fêtes, Pré-Saint Gervais, and Danube, to come back at Botzaris and operate bidirectional to Louis Blanc with a direct connection to the M7. At 9:49 AM the M7Bis train, operated with the MF88 series, took me one stop to Pré-Saint Gervais. That station operates with only one platform open to the public.

Since I did not want to wait the extra ten minutes for the M7Bis to continue to Louis Blanc, I exited the station and looked around for the bus which would go to Porte de Pantin so I could catch the M5 south to Stalingrad, then take the M2 to Belleville and then the M11 to Rambuteau where the Centre Georges Pompidou and Stravinsky fountains were located. The water for the fountains was shut off. I have been back as recently as September 2011 and have seen them in action. In the summer they are very animated.

To get to Notre Dame, I would have to go to either Rambuteau for the M11 or Chatelet Les Halles to get the RER B and go just one stop. Chatelet Les Halles, as I mentioned, is a very large RER station, with three lines shared, namely the A, B and D. I only needed the B line to go one stop. It took about three minutes to reach Saint-Michel Notre-Dame. I had to exit on the right hand side. Then I had to go up an escalator to reach the RER C platform of the same station, then exit to the street. Notre Dame is on an island, sharing it with the Préfecture de Police on Quai du Marché Neuf. I think this was the first time I had managed to get video footage of it. I did something similar also in April 2008 and February 2009, but somehow not in September 2011.

The next sight to see was the Louvre. I did not plan to go inside, but rather just see the glass pyramid. I had to cross the Pont Notre Dame to Rue de Rivoli past Tour Saint Jacques. And then it was a matter of crossing Rue de l'Amiral de Coligny. Then I was able to see the big entry pyramid, and the big reflecting pond next to it. I walked then past Place du Carrousel to the bus stop to catch a bus westward along Quai Anatole France to Musée d'Orsay, which I did not go inside until at least April 2008. At Musée d'Orsay there was an RER connection to the C line for Champ de Mars, and the Eiffel Tower. The train took about seven minutes to reach Champ de Mars and it was a ten minute walk to the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower was pretty much like what I remember from 1976 when I first visited as a child. I think back then I may have spent a few minutes on the Champ de Mars sort of southeast of the tower. I thought about going up to the third level of the tower, but I decided to wait until the next day for the La Défense Grande Arche. About 1 PM it was time to cross Quai Branly and the Pont d'Iena and try to catch the M6, mostly an aerial line using MP67 series, to Trocadéro, then Charles de Gaulle Étoile. Do you know the famous landmark at that stop? And the famous boulevard stemming from it? Well first I wanted to get a long distance view of the Eiffel Tower and its big LED banner. I remember from 1997 that it had a countdown of days until the year 2000. In 2000 it just simply said "L'AN 2000". I also remember during the summers of 1997 and 1998 that children were selling half liter bottles of water for 5 FF, around 80 Euro Cents.

When I took the M6 to Charles de Gaulle Étoile, the station was kind of in a curve as it was designed to have a quick turnaround. It is fairly simple to exit the station and go to where you want, either enter the Arc de Triomphe or head to the Champs Elysées. I wanted to go to the Virgin Megastore to see if they had any good music. I found a few CDs, MC Solaar "Paradisique", Véronique Sanson "Indestructible", Pascal Obispo "Soledad" as I already had "Superflu" and "Un jour comme aujourd'hui", and lastly Manau with "Panique Celtique" which has "La tribu de Dana". At the time I had not heard of Serge Gainsbourg, but would later in the year. And to annoy people I bought the CD single by Eiffel 65 "I'm blue, da ba dee", quite possibly the most annoying Italodance song in the world. Well that was my music taste back then.

After I left Virgin Megastore, I had to return to the AIJ. I took the M1 to Concorde, and changed to the M8 and went all the way to Ledru Rollin. The hostel rooms were open at 3 PM so I went to my room to swap out camera batteries and have a look at the afternoon scene on Rue Trousseau. About 4:45 PM I left the hostel to go see the La Defénse arch. I took M8 back to Concorde and changed to the M1 and took it to George V, just short of CDG*. There was one other record store I stopped at, and that was FNAC. I bought a few CDs, one of which Zazie "Zen" which had "Larsen". I also bought three comedy CDs, with contemporary parody songs in French.

The sun was still up at 7 PM. I was curious to see what Neuilly was like, along the M1. I took that line to Argentine and had a view of the Arc de Triomphe and La Défense, along Avenue de la Grande Armée. Then I took the M1 farther to La Défense via Porte Maillot and going under the summertime splash ponds at Espanade de La Défense. Currently the M1 ends at La Défense on a large central platform.

I had a look at the Grande Arche. This was built in the mid 1980s and completed in time for the 200th bicentennial of the French Revolution of July 1789. Most of the exterior was made of marble, rest of it glass. The marble sections were replaced with granite later. I wanted in September 2011 to visit the top but it was closed for the renovations (replacing marble with granite). Going to the top was a plan for Tuesday the 28th anyway. About 7:45 PM I went underground to the T2 and Transilien platforms, which are perpendicular to the RER A station platforms. The T2 makes an arc along the Seine to Issy Val de Seine, but I did not ride it all the way. Instead I rode it up to Parc de St Cloud thinking there would be an easy pedestrian connection to Boulogne de Saint-Cloud. This was not the case. I had to take a bus line 72 to the metro station to catch the M10. That took maybe five minutes.

The M10 in Boulogne up to Michel-Ange Molitor is very different from the station layouts of the rest of the RATP Metro. First, the Boulogne stations have central platforms, then run unidirectional for the Michel-Ange stations connected by the M9. After Mirabeau the M10 runs more conventionally, but at La Motte-Picquet Grenelle, there is a cross platform transfer from M10 to M8 so there is no need to go up and down stairs – quite unusual for the metro. I took the M8 the entire distance to Ledru Rollin, walked to the AIJ and went to bed.

Tuesday the 28th is going to cover even more territory. First I am going to see the Kremlin Bicêtre – do you think it will be quite an exciting event like seeing Red Square in Moscow? Tune in tomorrow to find out. Second I am going to ride the M3Bis and see possibly the last wooden escalator on the RATP metro. Then on to Montmartre and Pigalle before going northwest to St Denis, a bus ride north to Garges-Sarcelles, ride to La Défense with the RER D and then RER A, one more walk along Champs Elysées before heading back to the AIJ and that would be my last full day in Paris for 2000.

Bonne nuit et a la prochaîne!

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