He explained some of the history of the Paris metro, which was first mooted in 1845 and discussed and argued about for 55 years until the first metro line 1 opened in 1900!
 
The time for planning and consultation in comparison to construction hasn’t changed much since then as the first 11 km line was completed in only 2 years after parliamentary laws and permissions were finally put in place. Interestingly these laws considered the metro to be an extension of the surface tramway system, which meant that it runs on the right. Thus it differs from the train system, which runs on the left because the first lines were built by British engineers.
 
The “trademark” canopy that we were standing under is not an original, it was replaced in 2000 by the same foundry in Eastern France which made the first canopies and still holds the original moulds.
 
Initially the metro network was centred around the Chatelet / Les Halles area, which housed the main food markets for Paris. The first concept was only for goods traffic and passenger service were added later. Stations were at first very utilitarian and badly lit but over the decades they were developed in different ways, some stations having art nouveau decoration until in the 1920’s and 30’s the white bevelled tile finishes still to be seen in many metro stations were introduced as standard. Metro buffs like our guide can date station finishes by their style, the orange tile finishes for example date from the 1960/70 era. Rolling stock has had a similar evolution with older style trains dating from the 1960s gradually being replaced by fourth generation trains.
 
We then walked to the main Chatelet station via a pest control shop window displaying purportedly the last 25 rats (stuffed) caught at Les Halles before they moved out of Paris to Rungis with the food markets! Another interesting footnote on the way were the covers of the old public compressed air system valves, compressed air having been used in the postal system, many factories, shops and offices until well after WW2.
 
In Chatelet station (line 7 on the north bank) we saw a vaulted area which was found when the station was excavated. This formed part of a 17th century quay wall to the Seine with a covered walkway under the riverside arches which was not known about previously. From Chatelet we travelled South on Line 4 under the Seine to Cité, which is on the island, Île de la Cité.
 
The connections to Cité from each bank were built in the first decade of the 20th century and as we stood in the large diameter access shaft sunk for the station, with its riveted steel plate lining, our guide passed around copies of drawings and newspaper articles from that time explaining the construction of the tunnel in each direction. Basically each one was a submerged tube, oval in shape, sections of which were fabricated at Chatelet on the north bank and at St Michel on the south bank. Launched onto the Seine each side of the island, they were towed into position, flooded and sunk to the river bed. Large steel skirts had been fixed onto the lower perimeter of each tube and steel tubes passed vertically through the main tubes from the surface to the area underneath within the skirts. The caissons which this formed were then excavated by hand under compressed air, excavated material and men passing through the vertical tubes. When the tubes had been lowered to the required alignment the voids underneath were filled to form the permanent foundations. Adjacent tunnel sections were then connected using collar shaped caissons at the interfaces. The work took 5 years and we were told that there were only 2 workers killed, which seems remarkable for that time and the rudimentary safety measures adopted.

From Cité we travelled to Gare d’Austerlitz on line 10 on the south bank. We heard the history of the still missing cross river link between Gare d’Austerlitz and Gare de Lyon before transferring to the above ground section of Line 5 to travel North via Quai de la Rapée and Bastille to République.
 
From République we walked West along Boulevard Saint-Martin until unexpectedly we were taken down some anonymous steps into a disused “phantom” station.
 
This station was closed in 1939 and has not been used since although Lines 8 & 9 still run through it, one above the other. A locked off section of the old concourse is still used by maintenance staff and this area was used in the 1950s to install sample relief tile advertising panels, which advertisers were brought to see. Two good examples still exist but it was apparently too expensive to catch on. Nice details on the tiles though!
 
We also learnt that metro stations still had toilets in 1939 and the tiling still exists here but the room is now in use for utility companies’ communication cabling installations.
 
Only a single staircase now links the locked underground passages and staircases to the surface for use by maintenance teams and this is kept locked. The closed station still provides escape routes to the surface so that, unfortunately, graffiti artists have found some of the closed off areas and have made their attempts to “improve” other tile panel samples.
 
After peeping through the doors at the bottom of the disused staircases (our guide had a key) when no train was approaching to see the still remaining platforms, we made our way back to the surface.
 
Our guide tantalized us with stories of other “phantom” stations but we all had our appetites whetted for a future visit, when we heard that on an old track now only used for testing purposes and not public transport there is a metro station which is hired out to film and TV companies for metro scenes. It is run by a special department, which is able to adjust the decoration of the station to suit any era and has built up a wardrobe of costumes for the metro officials corresponding to the year of the scene being filmed. It is apparently sometimes possible to arrange a tour ...
 
Back in the street at 12.45 we arrived punctually at the nearby restaurant Houblon and Sarrasin for a group lunch. We thanked our guide, who had stood in for the indisposed Julian Pepinster, and his two assistants for a very interesting morning, not forgetting Robert Broatch our organizer. We all enjoyed a very convivial lunch together and then went our separate ways.
 
Derek Gear CEng MICE, ICE French Local Association Secretary and ICE Member in France