Floating above Paris

Paris has all sorts of pleasures to offer, of course, but for a train geek like me there are very special joys to be had. I'm a bit of a fan of the overhead bits of the Metro -- like this section of Line 2:


There's something joyful about standing above the city, waiting for your train to arrive:


Er... except, of course, that one is arriving at the other platform, Metro trains driving on the right (unlike French mainline trains which, in unacknowledged homage to the influence of British railway engineering, drive on the left).


Many Parisian overhead stations have a lightness and transparency to them (unlike, say, Chicago's, which seem to hunker down beneath the sheer weight of skyscrapery architecture looming overhead) -- here at Barbès-Rochechouart:


As is often the case, paying attention to the detail is rewarded:


Some rather sensitive rebuilding and restoration work has gone on -- the traditional-looking railings in this image are actually rather Modern affairs made of lovely-looking stainless steel:


The trains themselves are also being modernised -- the old, 1960s MF67s being replaced by these rather fine MF2000s, which feature vast, panoramic windows and a sense of openness (unlike Transport for London's rather wretched new fleets which seem to be reducing the amount of glass to the minimum possible):


Although the stations feel light and airy, there is no disguising the heavyweight civil engineering involved in carrying the Metro over the streets of Paris:


But the wide boulevards enable the viaducts to slot in without overwhelming the streets:


There's also no disguising the steepness of some of the gradients, though, and I wonder how steam traction coped with stretches such as this:


And there's something vaguely anticlimactic when the system finally burrows into the ground, leaving behind the panoramic views and the sense of floating above Paris:


God, I am such a geek.