Arts & Literary : Good Reads
Que j’aime le premier frisson d’hiver…Que j’aimais ce temps gris, ces passants, et la Seine
Sous ses mille falots assise en souveraine !
J’allais revoir l’hiver. – Et toi, ma vie, et toi !
Oh ! dans tes longs regards j’allais tremper mon âme.
Je saluais tes murs. – Car, qui m’eût dit, madame,
Que votre cœur sitôt avait changé pour moi ?
How I love the first shiver of winter...How I love the first shiver of winter!
The stubble, under the hunter’s foot, refusing to bend!
When the magpie comes to the fields scented by the green hay,
At the back of the old castle the hearth awakens.
It’s city time. – Oh! when last year,
I came back to it, when I saw this good Louvre and its dome,
Paris and its smoke, and all this beautiful kingdom
(I can still hear the postilions shouting in the wind),
How I loved this gray weather, these passers-by, and the Seine
Beneath its thousand lanterns seated as sovereign!
I was going to see winter again. – And you, my life, and you!
Oh! in your long gazes I was going to soak my soul.
I greeted your walls. – For who would have told me, Madame,
That your heart had so quickly changed for me?
Alfred de MussetAlfred de Musset was a French poet, playwright and writer of the Romantic period, born on December 11, 1810 in Paris, where he died on May 2, 1857.
In 1829, Musset published his first poetic collection, Tales from Spain and Italy, hailed by Pushkin. He is also the only French poet of his time that the Russian poet really appreciated.
In 1830, at the age of 20, Musset's reputation is centered around his "dandy side" and debauchery. The poet also begins a relationship with George Sand.
Depressed and alcoholic, he writes less and less after the age of 30. Musset was appointed librarian of the Ministry of the Interior on October 19, 1838. Under the Second Empire, he became librarian of the Ministry of Public Instruction. Appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor at the same time as Balzac, Musset was elected to the French Academy on Feb 12, 1852. Just a few years later, he dies from alcoholism and tuberculosis on May 12, 1857.
Saint Martin's GhostOther long-term options have been tried, such as decommissioned 19th-century military forts, but these are usually too far away from the city centre. Some even proposed using the 150km-long network of empty catacombs under Paris because they never freeze (the temperature remains a constant 13°C) but they are just too deep, and have neither light, electricity nor running water.
So what about metro stations? They are ubiquitous, easily accessible, have all of sorts of utilities. But the metro stations are already used by 4 million travellers everyday - or are they? Enter some of Paris' largest and most fantasy-inspiring secret locations: "ghost metro stations."
These stations aren't truly haunted, per se, they're just not officially in use.
They are sometimes still visible today, fleeting visions from metro cars that pass them without stopping. Some of the ghost stations were partially built, but their access staircases were never dug out, such as "Haxo" in the 19th arrondissement. Others were fully finished and used, but were shut down during WWII to reduce operating costs. The largest of these is "Saint-Martin," at the border of the 3rd and 10th arrondissements, on metro lines 8 and 9. After a last attempt at revival in 1941, it proved too close to nearby stations and, to this day, trains now just pass it and stop at "Strasbourg - Saint-Denis," only 100 meters away.
Unbeknownst to most, Saint-Martin station is actually still in use - just not for transporting Parisians.
The western side of Saint-Martin station was first used for experimental advertising in 1948, with giant ads made of porcelain tiles. Longer-lasting than paper posters, these ads sometimes literally popped out of their frames as thick relief could be added to the 2D-graphics. That concept didn't take off, but the fact
that Saint-Martin's platform is still visible from passing trains has led it to be used over the years for art installations or publicity stunts by H&M, Microsoft, Nike, or film producers who even placed props from Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus”.
The ceramic concept ads can still be visited with metro employees, who even have a room dedicated to the history of the metro, including some old maps of the catacombs!
While the west is devoted to consumerism, Saint-Martin's eastern sectors show its more charitable side, creating an eerie connection across centuries.
Which brings us back to today's homeless population in Paris. In 1988, the platform of Saint-Martin's station on line 8 was walled off from the metro tracks so that its vast expanse could be used as a homeless shelter.
Housing people overnight eventually proved unsustainable, but since 2000, the Salvation Army has run a daytime service point inside the station. Homeless people can get a free breakfast, shower, receive legal & job search advice... as well as a mailbox.
So while nobody sleeps overnight inside Saint-Martin station anymore, people do live there administratively, with a proper postal address at 31 boulevard Saint-Martin. To be fair, Saint Martin was busy being the bishop of Tours, and didn't spend a lot of time in Paris, though legend has it he did kiss & heal a leper when he visited in 385-386 CE. But he would probably be happy to know that centuries later, in secular France, his legacy of helping the poorest lives on, under the streets of Paris.
Download the walking tours
Episode 1 : Around Montsouris
You may have heard of this 14th district park, but the surrounding neighbourhood has an incredible history: nearly 2000 years of ruins, visible from its streets, and locals ranging from the first Black star of Montparnasse (before Josephine Baker!) to a leftist lesbian painter who became a heroine of the Resistance during WWII.
Episode 2 : Above the Catacombs
This brand new tour will take you on the footsteps of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, above the underground locations that were used to film a very special episode of the hit Netflix series.
Learn about the legal and not-so-legal uses of the catacombs over more than five centuries.
More about the CountThe Count of St. Germain invites you to unique walks through Paris. Let his voice and your smartphone’s GPS guide you to (re)discover the City of Lights, embracing the authenticity and subjectivity of a person who actually experienced the events they’re recounting.
