The Gare du nord is 150 years old!

The Gare du nord (North station) was open on April 19 1864, it had 8 tracks and people at that time complained because it was too "gigantic"! Little did they know that 150 years later it would be ranked as the 3rd largest station in the world (after Tokyo and Chicago) with no less than 180 million passengers per year. It offers connections with several urban transportation lines, northern France cities and... London with the famous Eurostar. Last, but not least, it's a stunning building that we owe to its achitect Jacques Hittorff.

Music station

Like I already said I'm not in Paris right now (I'm in Bangkok - there I said it!) so I've prepared a stock of Paris photos that I can publish daily from there. The problem is that it's not easy to stick to what's going on in Paris when you're miles away ;-) Like yesterday, when I saw on Facebook that the SNCF (the French railway company) had organized a symphonic concert in the Gare Saint Lazare one of the largest train stations in Paris. How frustrating to have missed that. So I emailed the SNCF who kindly sent me a choice of photos (I think it deserves a little "like" if you're on Facebook). FYI, the orchestra that plays is the OSR (the Orchestre symphonique du rail) in which a lot of (ex)employees of the SNCF play.

Station entrance!

Believe it or not this is a train station entrance! The one of La Gare des Invalides, which goes to the suburbs - that's the line that takes you to Versailles for example. I never knew there was an entrance there - and to be honest I'm not even sure they really use it even though ther is a stair case and track signs. Another question is... what happens in case of floods? For this entrance is right by the Seine.  

A trip to London...

For once, today's story does not take place in Paris, but in... London. For yesterday, I was lucky enough to have been invited by Nikon to try their latest reflex camera D600 (yes, it's advertising in - not so much! - in disguise!) to visit the world famous Abbey Rd. studios, the very same ones where the Beatles (and many other artists) recorded all their albums and took this famous photo! I had a blast, and since I like to share, here is a little Animoto ending with my attempt to ape the Beatles crossing the road!

Gare du nord (North Station)

It may not look so, but this photo was pretty hard to take due to the size of this magnificent train station.. It's called La gare du nord (north station) and quite logically all trains that leave from there go up north (including the suburbs, northern France, England, Belgium, The Netherlands...). It was inaugurated in 1846, then was rebuilt and/or renovated several times since then, especially by architect Jacques Hittorff who gave it this roman look. It was also featured in many movies, including The Bourne Identity, Ocean's Twelve and others.

Forced to be 2 minutes early!

I'm often asked what are the main cultural differences between the French and other nationalities (namely English speaking ones!) and the management of time is definitely one. Hence the "scandal" that is currently taking place in your train stations at the moment: the SNCF (railway company) has decided to close the doors of the TGV (bullet train) as early as 2 minutes before departure! No way you can "jump" on board at the last minute any more... Imagine!  Why is it that French people often arrive just on time or late? I have no idea...

Spooky!

I had to quickly go to Lille this morning (a large city in the North of France) and took the train to go there. Prior to taking the train (which was delayed because of a copper cable robbery along the line, a pretty common robbery these days...) I noticed these weird poles, around which people would stick together! Why, well quite simply, because, as you probably guessed, these are heaters! No very eco friendly I must say, but interesting for a photographer!

Snake trains!

I "ventured" to the very eastern part of Paris yesterday morning and found myself in the middle of giant works (they are installing an extension to the tramway that I already showed several times here). Then I passed on a bridge (le pont National) over railway tracks (coming from Gare de Lyon) and found all these TGVs (bullet trains), waiting for God knows what (the yellow one belongs to the postal services and the other ones are just normal passenger trains). I thought it would make a cool photo - and it does, in a way ;-)

All aboard, all aboard...

Yesterday, I went to Lille in the North of France in train (TGV ), so quite logically, I took this photo in the Gare du nord (North) station. As you can see it's the departure board. The interesting part is that besides the clock on the bottom right, the display has not been replaced with a large LCD screen nor LED digits. I don't know how it works exactly, but whenever a new train leaves you can hear the scroll of each letter being replaced by another. the photo is not very good, but I only had my camera phone with me...

Thalys: Time to reserve your seat...

... And when I say reserve your seat, it's really reserve the actual seat, not the sitting! Explanation: Thalys is the name they gave to the TGV (bullet train) that goes from Paris to the north of Europe (Brussels, Cologne, Amsterdam...). These trains have been running for quite some time now and that is why the SNCF (the French train company) is renewing them at the moment. And instead of dumping the seats, they... sell them on ebay! Check it, it's even in English. I must say I'm tempted to buy one...

Glorious Gare du Nord

There are 7 active train stations in Paris (they are listed here, if you're interested) and I must say I'm not too fond of these places (I don't know why there are always full of drunks and weirdos!), but last evening I had to pick up someone who was traveling from London with the Eurostar at the Gare du Nord. It had been a while since I'd been there and I was really amazed to see how beautiful it is now. I know you don't see much of it in this photo, but, hey... C'est la vie ;-)

Bye bye Paris...

That's it, it's too hot in Paris, I'm off for the day to Trouville! Well, it's true, I'm going to spend my day in Trouville, by the sea where it will probably be cooler, but not really for the good reasons. As some of you may remember, I have an old aunt there (96 years old!) and the news is not too good on this front. Anyway, let's focus on the photo! I took it at Gare Saint Lazare when I went to pick up my tickets. But right now I need to go to bed as I wake very early tomorrow, precisely to catch the train! (Sorry, I'm not to clear today, must be the heat ;-))

Let's celebrate!

No, I have nothing in particular to celebrate, but some people must have... I found this bottle in front of La Gare d'Austerlitz (one of the 6 main train stations in Paris) and I couldn't help but taking a photo ;-) I also noticed the nice lighting that they put on the facade of the building which, I think is new. This station is mostly used to take people to Bordeaux and Toulouse, two large cities located in the South West of France. It was built between 1862 and 1867 and is going to be totally renewed in 2011. Have a good week everyone.

Scandalous train

Big turmoil Sunday: several trains traveling from the South to Paris were delayed. That, in France, is scandalous, believe me! What happened? There was a problem with the catenary between Marseille and Nice and some people had to wait up to... 10 hours to go back home. I was in one of these trains, but was lucky enough to be delayed only 40 minutes. No harm ;) And I really enjoyed my 3 days in the south (in Languedoc, more precisely).

Death Danger!

You can find this sign above most of train tracks (I took this one near the St Lazare train station) and it never ceases to amaze me. It says roughly "it's prohibited to touch the catenary : death danger". Really?! It seems to me pretty obvious, but maybe not to everyone... These signs are pretty popular in France, some are even sold on ebay...

Caps exhibit

Remember the train photo I took last week? I told you it was for an exhibit in Le Grand Palais (the 70 year anniversary of the National French Train Company). Well I went to see this exhibit and it was fun - I even got to see the inside of the locomotive I shot the other day. They also display things that are train related, like station furniture or even ticket controllers' uniforms and caps, as you can see on this photo! A nice change from Christmas scenes... If you want to see more photos, here is a little animated diaporama made with a little help from the guys from Animoto!

Revoir Paris...

I loved California and Boston but after 2 weeks I am happy to go back home (besides, I'm short of photos!). If everything goes well (I hear there has been attacks in London - which I'm not going through, but still...) I should hit Charles de Gaulle airport around 11 am French time. 2 hours later I may be passing by this sign, that I love. It is to be found above the Gare Saint Lazare in the 17th arrondissement, near the rue des dames.

TGV upon Seine!

You must be fed up with my posts on the TGV but I could not really miss what they did with it today... They're so proud of it that they put it on a barge and took it through Paris on the Seine for 2 hours! Around 5:30 they ended up docking the barge near the Eiffel Tower for all the tourists to see it - it'll stay there at least another 2 weeks or so. I took a photo of it but I don't like it, so instead I used one of the postcards they gave the passers by.

French bullet train to break a new record

I will express a bit of a national pride today... The French bullet train, also known as TGV (for Train à Grande Vitesse) will try to break a new world record today (Tuesday). Officially Alstom - the company that makes it - announced that they will try to reach 540 Km/h (336 mph) but in everybody's mind the real goal is to reach 600 Km/h (373 mph) which is faster than many small planes. Of course this does not mean the train will run at this speed eventually (it would be far too expensive) but that it is the fastest in the world. It's important of the image of the company especially if they want to sell it abroad.

Inside the TGV

This morning I had to go out of Paris to attend a seminar in Tours (west center of France) and I went by train, more exactly by TGV (bullet train). Before the departure I took this photo, at the station (Gare Montparnasse). I then noticed how they painted straight lines on the train to emphasize the feeling of speed when it moves... And that was precisely the purpose of my seminar: how to make objects look/sound/feel like what consumers want them to be (solid, reliable, good...). Fascinating!