21 August 2013

The Paris metro early on a Sunday morning

Can you imagine the Paris metro with no people in it? It's easy — all you have to do is go down into a station at about 6:30 on a Sunday morning. As you can see, I had the place to myself.


This is the Ségur station, in the 7th arrondissement. It's just on the edge of the 15th, and a five-minute walk from CHM's apartment. Twice in July, at the beginning and again at the end of the month, I had occasion to take the metro from Ségur to the Gare d'Austerlitz. It's a direct line — no changes all the way to Austerlitz.


My train back to the Loire Valley was at 7:38 a.m. on those Sunday mornings, so I left CHM's place on foot, pulling my suitcase behind me, at about 6:30. I wanted to make sure I'd be at Austerlitz on time. As you can see, one time I had to wait more than eight minutes for a metro train to pull into the station. The other time, I was luckier and the wait was shorter.


I had time to examine all the advertising and posters in the Ségur station. There were no people to block my view. There was plenty of seating.


I arrived at Austerlitz with time to spare. No jostling, no lines to stand in — just a smooth ride. Even at the Gare d'Austerlitz metro stop, there were few other travelers.


As I walked along the platform at Austerlitz, I noticed that the metro tunnel was all lit up ahead of me and the train I had just gotten off of. There was a metro employee in the tunnel, but I tried not to get him in the picture or let him see that I was taking a photo. He might have thought I was a terrorist or something.


I headed for the sortie and walked through a series of corridors and up a few flights of stairs to get to my SNCF train, destination Blois. One Sunday, I had time to sit down and have a café and a croissant before my train was announced. The other Sunday, I had less time but I never had to feel rushed.

8 comments:

  1. SOOOOO much cleaner than the London tube system!!
    Lovely set of pix...

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  2. Nice to see the underground; France has been lucky with a great transportation system. As there are more and more people, I hope it still works well. I was reading a post from Dina,
    http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2013/08/fine-for-tram.html
    The ministry of transportation is fining the consortium who built the tram because they are having so many problems. Such a waste of resource and time!

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  3. If I ever need to take an early morning train, I'll surely remember this emission and take an extra early train. How nice to relax at the other end with a café and a croissant.

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  4. That is amazing Ken ,, and as Tim said ,, so much cleaner than the UK ,, I love the Paris Metro system ,, I think it is great to go off early ,, I love arriving early to have a coffee ,,

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  5. I love the Paris underground. Wish I was there as they say in all the best postcards.

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  6. Philip, thanks for all the good comments. Hope you'll be back in France soon.

    Anne, you too.

    Mary, I love the early morning times, trains or whatever. And that café and croissant... well, miam miam.

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  7. Ken, what wonderful photos! Here in USA one can get in trouble for taking photos.... My nephew was doing a school project taking a film in BART and was chucked out!

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  8. "I tried not to get him in the picture or let him see that I was taking a photo. He might have thought I was a terrorist or something" Pretty sad times in which we live!!

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