One Week from Today

But first, a song.

"Under the Bridges of Paris" is a 1913 popular song with music written by Vincent Scotto, the original French lyrics (entitled "Sous les ponts de Paris") by Jean Rodor (1913), and English lyrics by Dorcas Cochran (1952). Recordings by both Eartha Kitt and Dean Martin charted in the United Kingdom in 1955, but failed to chart in the United States, though both were subsequently released as LP album tracks as well.

Other versions have been composed, and fbb has found these words on the back of an RATP poster:-

How would you like to be

Trav'ling with fbb
He'd love to ride on a Métro or two
Over the bridges of Paris with you

Then there's the RER
Enjoy a double deck car
Fast through the tunnels of Paris with you
And make your dreams come true

How would you like to be
Riding tram number three
Or four or two or tram number one
Round the ring road of Paris is fun.

There's a funiculoeur
Up to the Sacré Coeur
Also the buses of Paris will do
Over the bridges of Paris for you 

How would you like to be

Trav'ling with fbb
He will blog on transports français
On and on for many a day

This time next week, God and Eurostar willing, fbb and his chum from Leicester will have spent their first night in the expansively named Hotel Pacific ...

... on Rue de Fondary (Métro Dupleix) and a short walk from Mr Eiffel's clever (but obviously inferior) copy of Blackpool Tower.

The potential menu for the week includes:-

14 Métro lines; two driverless**
5 RER lines (think Paris Crossrail)
8 SNCF suburban line groups
8 Tram lines
2 Fully automatic tram lines
1 Funicular
2 Express bus route (reserved track)
Loadsa ordinary city buses (RATP)
Loadsa suburban buses (Veolia)

Should keep the old blogger busy for four and a half days. 
Highlights are:-

Tram Line 4

La ligne 4 du tramway d'Île-de-France est une ligne exploitée par la SNCF, mise en service le 20 novembre 2006 entre Aulnay-sous-Bois et Bondy, et longue de 7,9 kilomètres.

Elle est issue de la transformation et de la mise intégrale à double voie de la ligne de Bondy à Aulnay-sous-Bois dite ligne des Coquetiers ouverte en 1875, qu'elle emprunte sur la totalité de son parcours. Elle est ainsi devenue la première ligne française utilisant un matériel tram-train, bien que son exploitation soit entièrement assurée en mode tramway.

Looks fun!

And bus T Zen

La ligne 1 du T Zen est une ligne de bus à haut niveau de service d'Île-de-France. Elle relie les gares du RER D de Lieusaint - Moissy et de Corbeil-Essonnes. Cette ligne dessert deux grandes zones de l'Essonne et de Seine-et-Marne : Sénart et Seine-Essonne. La ligne a été mise mise en service le 4 juillet 2011.

Chatelet-Les Halles Station

Intégralement souterraine et située en plein cœur de la capitale, la gare voit converger plus de 1500 trains par jour, elle constitue le plus important pôle de transports de la région, avec 750,000 voyageurs par jour dans l'ensemble du pôle ferroviaire.

Here, five Métro lines (1, 4, 7, 11 and 14) and three RER lines (A, B nd D) intersect and all underground. There a good half day's exploration and excitement in this one station alone. (click on the diagram to enlarge)

One experience fbb cannot enjoy is the "Balabus".

It links the main places of interest but runs only on Sundays from April to September inclusive.

**14 Metro lines. It depends how you count. Lines 7 and 13 split into two branches at one outer end and lines 3 and 7 have little shuttley bits (3bs & 7bis) at one end.

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HEALTH WARNING

The Hotel has WiFi (in French, WiFi; pronounced WeeFee) and fbb intends to summarise each day's activity. Monday 4th will be a report on Sunday 3rd and so on. In the event of technical problems, fbb will be copying the BBC etc. and publishing selected repeats from the last five years of Public Transport Experience.

Detailed blogs on Parisian transport topics will continue from time to time over the ensuing months.

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 Next UK bus blog : Tuesday 28th April