Wednesday, May 03, 2006

A bridge on a bridge


In some areas of Paris the Metro (subway) has to cross the Seine to go from one bank to another. On some lines they dug under the water and on some other lines they built a bridge on a bridge... I already showed you one example, here is another one on the Bir Hakeim bridge close to the Eiffel tower. It is also interesting to know that, on this line (line 6), trains run on tyres and not on regular steel wheels to be less noisy during the 6 km long aerial portion that runs in the middle of buildings.

37 comments:

  1. A train on rubber tires?! Who knew? I'm impressed. I like the layers of your shot - boat, train, buildings. Excellent, as usual.

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  2. Were in the neighborhood visiting la Tour Eiffel?

    I really like this shot. Like blondetown said, the layers look really cool.

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  3. Le Pont de Bir Hakeim is my favorite bridge in Paris and that is a beautiful photo of it!

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  4. Uh, oh... very good point, Buzzgirl! If Eric's in the neighborhood ... we just might get a couple of pictures of Lady Eiffel Tower at some point! Oh, goody!!! :-)

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  5. oh goodness, that brought back memories... the 10 months I spent in Paris I caught the line 6 across to uni 5 days a week. Not to mention the number of times I met people at the bridge, or went walking down the Ile des Cygnes from it...

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  6. I really like this photo when enlarged where you only see the train and the top bridge.

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  7. I seem to recall that there was such a line we were on that went near Le Jardin des Plantes but my mind is fuzzy. Do you know?

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  8. "Ile des cygnes"… still a fashionable cruising area ?

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  9. Another gem, another memory. Thanks Eric.

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  10. By the way, nice to guess not the Eiffel Tower - BTW Hello Tomate Farcie - but the Sacré Cœur in the background.

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  11. Great photo- I like the contrast between light and dark.

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  12. I especially like what you see when you peer through the bridge. And yes, the multiplicity of levels on this image is remarkable.

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  13. > Blondetown. Yes a train on rubber tires... Weird isn't. But it works fine.

    > Buzzgirl. The Eiffel tower is on the right of this bridge (well, if I had taken this photo more on the right you'd see the Eiffel tower in the background)

    > Drea. I understand... A lot of fashion photographers use this bridge as a scenery for their photos.

    > Terra Vecchia. Quel autre monde ??

    > Tomate. I actually took one of these photos with the Eiffel tower in the background but it looked too "busy". Besides: aren't you tired of the Eiffel Tower?!

    > Catrin. Nostalgia? Which university was that?

    > Denton. And in real it's even more impressive.

    > Markandrew. It does, doesn't. That reminds me of an old movie from 1974 by Henri Verneuil where Jean-Paul Belmondo escapes the bad guys (or chases the bad guys...) by running on the rooftop of this open air Metro exactly on that bridge.

    > Nerissa. It's not the same line. Must have been line 5 which also runs partly open air.

    > Dirty GG. Well, I don't know.

    > Wilf. Thanks. Haven't seen yours yet. Will do.

    > GG. Yeah. I did it on purpose. But some people seem to miss the iron lady!

    > Louise. Thank you.

    > Ljubljana. LOL.

    > Elisabeth. I like this perspective too I must say (I don't want to sound pretentious; I said I like the perspective, not the photo!).

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  14. Interesting details of the bridge, Eric!

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  15. Nice that care went into minimizing the noise factor. Something we could use a lot more of over here...
    Lucy

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  16. must be nice to be inside the train..i can only immagine the view from inside

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  17. I was always wondering why the bridge-and the metro station- was called Bir Hakeim?
    During my stay in Paris I dicovered that it has something to do with a battle in Algerie.Am I right? Do you know more,Eric?

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  18. Special wheels....? Ahhhh La France:)

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  19. Hi Eric!

    I will have a joy ride in that train avec mon amour!!!

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  20. Oh, so that's the line (6)! I rode that train the first time I went to Paris (we got lost getting out of Gare de Lyon on our way to Montmartre) and on my recent (Nov) trip I kept wondering which line it was that took us on an elevated track near the Tour Eiffel. Now I know, and next time I go I'll be sure to hop a ride!

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  21. sur la 5, entre "Gare d'Austerlitz" et "Quai de la Râpée", on traverse la Seine et on voit, vite vite vite,
    Les Invalides, Montparnasse, Notre-Dame, et... le temps qu'il fait à Paris!
    enjoy the ride!

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  22. Tired of the Eiffel Tower? Why, no, I'm not! You know, it's a funny thing, Eric, but when I lived in Paris I couldn't care less about the Eiffel Tower. Just took it for granted; it was there, tourists liked to go see it, and that was that. I went up a couple of times and that was cool, but mostly it was just another place to go walk the dog (I mean the park, not up the Tower, of course!)

    And then, I brought so many Eiffel Tower souvenirs back to the US over the years that now when I get back to Paris, as soon as I see the top of that building sticking out in the background, my heart beats a little faster. It's like finding a long lost friend or something. Really :) OK, I'll shut up now...

    (By the way, hi GG! Long time!)

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  23. thats amazing!
    how did i miss this when i was there?
    you are always giving me reasons to go back to this beautiful city!

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  24. A big request! Across the street from the Bir Hakeim metro station there is a cafe with some outdoor tables right where people cross the street. Very touristy, but if you have a chance to take a picture of this cafe...

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  25. ps I noticed that even very tired Parisian commuters look up and out the window when the train crosses the river here.

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  26. Love the layers and it's nice see blue skies again!

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  27. What a great shot, glad to see it.



    http://kansascitydailyphoto.blogspot.com

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  28. souviens toi le clip de Téléphone ca date pas d'hier...

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  29. Astonishing! I kept having dreams of a Paris métro train crossing the Seine on a bridge above another bridge and thought it was just something I'd imagined. I must have taken this route once (I haven't often taken that line).

    I'd been to Paris many times before I went anywhere near the Tour Eiffel. Think the first time we really appreciated it was its 100th anniversary (200th of the Revolution).

    As for rubber tires, the entire Montréal métro system runs on them, but it is much younger than the Paris sytem. It is only 40 years old this year.

    One more thing to make Parisians and others dream. Watching an RER train on a high bridge, a professor friend from Argentina marvelled (in his soft, gentle voice) "c'est merveilleux, Paris".

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  30. Markandrew: THAT looks like a scene from a movie

    Actually, that does look like a scene from a movie!!! Doesn't Marlo Brando lives right in this neighborhood in the movie "Last Tango in Paris?"

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  31. Thanks Eric, brings back memories. First souvenirs of Paris I ever bought were from a tiny stand right under the Bir Hakeim bridge just as it crossed back to land.

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  32. I am in Germany but accessed your blog from here (I must be obsessed ).

    Très jolie photo...and typical Paris. Bravo! .

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  33. By the way Eric, I noticed that everyone has commented on the Eiffel Tower, but is that Sacre Coeur standing in the backgroung behind the bridge? It must have been a clear day!

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  34. Exactly, that looks like the bridge from "Last Tango in Paris", back in the 70's, where Brando and Maria where chassing eachother!

    Nice suprise to see this photo, thanks!

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