Paris off the beaten track: Two ancient Triumphal Arches

Paris is full of major must see monuments, sights, and museums. However, hidden within the small side streets of Paris and down some of the less traveled boulevards there are some hidden gems; secret sights that are off the beaten track but are well worth visiting. Not only will they give you some photos of Paris that are different from your friends and family, but they will also give you an insight into the real Paris of today, and the Paris of yesterday.

This weekend's off the beaten track site is two triumphal arches. Right down the road from each other in the 10th arrondissement these two ancient triumphal arches feel like they have been cast aside and forgotten as the town has grown up around them.

Both arches were built by the order of Louis XIV to replace gates (in French: portes) in the original (and now demolished) city walls of Paris. They both celebrate the victories of Louis XIV on the Rhine (over Germany) and in what is modern day Burgundy.

The first arch, is right outside the Strasbourg-Saint-Denis metro station: Porte Saint-Denis.

Porte Saint-Denis as seen from
Rue de Faubourg Saint-Denis

The Porte Saint-Denis, built in 1672, is on the intersection of Rue saint-Denis which turns into Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, and Boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle which turns into Boulevard Saint-Denis. Porte Saint-Denis has a large central arch and used to have two smaller arches on each side to allow pedestrian traffic. These have now been sealed up.






The Porte Saint-Denis was the gate that the kings of France would use to return to Paris from religious services at the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Napoleon's troops also passed through the arch, entering the city in 1816 after his victorious campaign. The last sovereign to have passed through the arch was Queen Victoria when she visited Paris for the Universal Exposition in 1855.

The front face of the Porte Saint-Denis

The front face (facing North) has figures picturing the Rhine and Holland. The rear face (facing South) contains a sculpture of the passage of the Rhine.

Porte Saint-Denis looking to the North

On the top of the arch is inscribed the words: LVDOVICO MAGNO which can be translated as "Louis the Great".

Looking at the Porte Saint-Denis towards the North

One thing to note about the area directly around the Porte Saint-Denis is that it is the beginning of one of Paris' red light districts. Down the Rue Saint-Denis there is a lot of prostitution and adult themed shops, particularly further down. There is sometimes some of this activity across the road from the Porte but the area itself is perfectly safe and you are very very unlikely to have any trouble however, it is good to be aware.

Porte Saint Martin

If you walk 5 minutes down the road, away from the Opera House and away from Rue Saint Denis, staying on Boulevard Saint Denis (this is towards the Socitie General with its distinctive black and red square logo you will come to the second triumphal arch: Porte Saint Martin

Porte Saint Martin carvings.

The Porte Saint-Martin was built in 1674 the gate was designed by Pierre Bullet, who was a student of Francois Blondel who designed the nearby Porte Saint-Denis, at the command of Louis XIV. The gate was built on the site of one of the gates of the original, and now dismantled, Paris city walls. The arch celebrates the victories of Louis XIV on the Rhine and in modern day Burgundy.

Porte Saint Martin looking North

The monument is a triumphal arch made out of limestone and marble. The front (North) and back (South) have carved reliefs on them. The front on the left depicts the Capture of Limbourg portrayed by a woman setting next to a lion. The right side depicts the defeat of the Germans. Louis the XIV, depicted as the Greek God Mars, is portayed with the shield of France pushing back a German eagle. On the back (to the South), the left side depicts the breaking of the triple alliance with Louis XIV portrayed as Hercules and on the right side, the capture of Besancon where Louis XIV is dressed as the Greek God Fame and is standing in front of an olive tree retrieving keys from a woman.

How to get there: The Porte Saint-Martin and the Porte Saint-Denis can be accessed by taking the metro to the "Strasbourg Saint-Denis" station. This station is on the 4, 8, and 9 metro lines.

For other activities that are off the beaten track and to get a taste of the real France, explore options for day trips from Paris using public transport on www.beyond-paris.com.

Keep up to date with upcoming "off the beaten track" locations, and ideas for day trips from Paris on our Facebook page and our Twitter account.

Train Tips - first or second class on French trains.

When you are travelling on the TGV or a French regional train SNCF will give you the option of first class or second class travel.

With these names come a number of mental pictures. First class feels like you will be reclining in large seats, being served copious amounts of food and drink while smoking a large cigar while those poor people in second class will be jammed in like sardines, six across and two high.

However, this is not the case on the French train system. In fact, within France there is almost no difference between at all between First and Second class.

On the TGV, the main difference is that the chairs are slightly larger and recline slightly further (but in reality, not that far). Instead of being two seats on each side of the aisle (as there is in second class) there are two seats on one side, and one seat on the other. In first class there is very likely to be a power point at your seat. Sometimes there is a power point in second class, but not always. There is no complimentary food or beverages and no additional service provided to first class. Therefore, normally it is not worth the additional price. Although, on some occasions, it can be cheaper to buy a first class ticket than a second class ticket.

On the regional trains, there is even less of a difference. It appears mostly that first class is supposed to be quieter, and again, there may be a power point.

Therefore, if there is a price difference, it makes sense to stick with second class when travelling inside France.

This does not apply to the Thalys line which services Belgium and the Netherlands. With the Thalys service first class still has the larger seats and the power point, however the first class cars are more plushly decorated, you are provided with free wifi on board as well as a meal and beverage service. If there is only a small price difference between first and second class, splurge out and buy first class - it's worth it!

If you are looking for places to explore outside of Paris - for a day trip or maybe something longer - check out www.beyond-paris.com for ideas.

RATP Twitter Parody

RATP is the state-owned public transport operator. RATP stands for Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (or in English "Autonomous Operator of Parisian Transports"). They run most of the public transport system (Metro, Tram, Bus and some of the RER) in Paris.

RATP reserved several Twitter accounts for tweeting updates for the public transport network. They launched several accounts recently (@Ligne1_RATP, @Ligne4_RATP, @Ligne12_RATP, @Ligne13_RATP). RATP reserved the remaining accounts however, someone managed to divert the unused accounts and has been using them to send parodies of the RATP transport announcements.

The RATP, showing their good natured side, have collected the parodies and put them on a tumblr account called "RATP Hall of Fake". The fake Twitter accounts have now been suspended.

Here are some of the better ones.

Ligne3_RATP:  @Ligne2_RATP Hi Line 2, I'm Line 3. Let's meet at Villers or Pere Lachaise (metro stations)

Ligne8_RATP:  Good news, I have finished eating - Traffic will resume

Ligne11_RATP: Hey You, the big guy with the brown hair who jumped the turnstile at Republique  (metro station) ....I see you!

Ligne14_RATP:  Is there a driver on the Metro?

Ligne14_RATP:  Attention, this metro is not taking any more passengers! (I have to be lighter for the race with line 7).

Ligne14_RATP:  I have to pick up a pizza from Olympiades (metro station). Therefore I will not make any stops from Saint-Lazare (metro station) to keep them warm. Sorry

Journee du Patrimoine - next weekend

Remember that the Journee du Patrimoine is next weekend (15 - 16 September).

Government and public buildings and facilities that are not normally open to the public will be open during the weekend.

The programme can be found at http://www.journeesdupatrimoine.culture.fr/

Someone has posted a personal selection on Tripadvisor, which is well worth looking at.

If you are in Paris for that weekend, skip the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, and visit somewhere a little different, that most people don't get to see (of course the Journee du Patrimoine is not just restricted to Paris - whatever French city you are in for that weekend is likely to have a programme!)

For ideas of where to go for your day trip from Paris, see www.beyond-paris.com

Trip report: Angers

OK, so easy to read the above title like we are angry - but not so - it is in fact the name of a city at the end of the Loire valley and is pronounced An-jay.

We chose to head down to Angers on Friday night rather than catch an early train on Saturday morning. The train ride was only 1h30 and the first train leaves 07h30 on Saturday morning so it is easy to get to from Paris on Saturday morning for a weekend or just a Saturday if you prefer.

We arrived mid-evening and our sandwiches on the TGV hadn't quite hit the spot, so we decided to go out and look at the town and get something to drink since it was a nice night. We saw a number of buildings, which we knew none of, and found the castle and the cathedral. The castle is one of the key sites of Angers, but I will save that till later to discuss (its amazing by the way). Eventually we found a nice 'place' (French courtyard between streets) - The Place Sainte-Croix- which is just behind the cathedral and is surrounded by medieval buildings. It was a nice place to relax on a warm summers evening before heading back to our hotel.

Angers church at night

Angers castle at night

Angers cathedral

Our 'place'

Another church in Angers

One of the major problems in France is often finding somewhere that does breakfast. Every now and again you can find somewhere that does something reasonable for breakfast, but most of the time it is coffee (which is not too bad) and croissant (which is reasonably bad - or at least not what we wanted for breakfast). The time was no exception - we looked at a ton of places with no luck. Eventually we found an area with a lot of restaurants, which looked like they had some lunch food which would substitute for breakfast food. We ordered an omelette and also bruschetta. The omelette, besides the fact that it came with fries which I can't stomach for breakfast, was ok. When we ordered the bruschetta, we thought it would be nice fresh tomatoes and basil (the way the Italians do it, as bruschetta should be). Turns out it was a mass of cheese on bread with half a tomato cut up - very disappointing - be warned re: French bruschetta. So we needed to find a second breakfast -we found a little place that did orange juice and yogurt on the place Sainte-Croix and we felt better.

For the middle of the afternoon we decided that we would rent some bikes and explore a little further outside of Paris and so we rented bikes and headed towards the park on the far side of the river (Parc de Balzac). I would recommend booking bikes in advance in Angers as it is a popular destination to rent bikes from.

The view crossing the river

We biked down the river as far as Savennieres, which with the exception of one reasonable hill, was quite flat and ride-able. The town is quaint with a 10th Century church and a nice little Tabac/cafe/bar to refresh at. We were feeling pretty tired from the week and thankfully one of the three trains that stop at Savennieres (the station is Savennieres Behuard) was due in 40 minutes.

10th Century church in Savennieres

Before dinner we followed the "Circuit Angers Historique" on the east side of the river. The circuit is a walk of the historic sites of the city. We had seen many of the sites on the west side during the day and through our walk the previous evening, so we focused on the east side. It is not packed with sights on the east side, but it makes for a nice evening walk and has some great views of the castle from across the river.

The castle from across the river

For dinner, we first explored the main eating area - Place du Ralliement - but found the eating a little bland and uninteresting. There is a little side street called Rue des Deux (2) Haies which has some smaller and more interesting places to eat. We were tempted by a Cambodian restaurant. It was a really really good meal - like the great Indian meal we had in Switzerland, sometimes things surprise you.

Anyway, we were quite finished for the day, so we headed back to the hotel.

The next day we did not have very long to spend in Angers before we had to catch the train - basically just the morning. But it was time for the castle.

The castle is one of the big highlights of Angers. It has huge grey towering walls with uniquely rounded towers. The castle also has some great gardens in the dry moat.

Castle walls

Gardens in the moat

We took the only entrance into the castle (on the right side of the castle if you are standing outside the tourist office on Place du President Kennedy), which has a proper portcullis and everything. Then, inside the castle it gets less industrial and more, well honestly, "french". There is a formal garden area, a chapel and the formal living areas. Like a little mini castle inside a castle. Or probably better put, a chateau inside a castle.

Main entrance to the castle

We spent some time exploring the castle grounds, including the rampart walk - all of this is better shown in photos than explained in words......

Inside the castle - Gardens in front, chapel on the left, chateau on the right

Chateau inside the castle

Looking up to the chateau and the chapel

The chapel through the castle's vineyard

Photo of an aerial photo of the castle

The other major attraction at the castle is an immense tapestry called the Apocalypse Tapestry and it is the largest and the oldest French tapestries in existence. It dates from the 1300's and is a graphical representation of the whole of the book of Revelation. It is quite stunning. Divided into sections, each with their own header panel, the tapestry must be one of the best depictions of the book of Revelation I have seen. It was awesome.

One wall of the Apocalypse Tapestry

Part of the second wall

And after having had our fill of the castle, it was time to board the train to return to Paris.

A last look at the Angers castle

For details on travel to Angers and what to see and do see www.beyond-paris.com/angers.

List of SNCF Boutiques

If you are in Paris and need to buy a train ticket for your onward journey or for exploring France then there are a number of options. You can buy train tickets at any of the major train stations although these can often be reasonably busy and have long lines. There are also the yellow machines - although these are sometimes not the easiest to use and you need a chip credit card to use them (which you won't find out until you get to the end of your process and its time to pay).

A nicer option is the SNCF Boutique. The SNCF Boutiques are scattered all around Paris and will sell you train tickets to anywhere. It's not the place to buy your Metro or RER tickets, but if you want to head out of Paris then they can help you.

Often there will be someone who speaks English which can be helpful, but if you are intimidated by French, you can write down what you want beforehand. They will need to know where you want to depart from ("Depart") where you want to go to ("Arrivee"), the date you want to leave ("Aller le" or "date"), the time ("a partier de" or "temps"), and the number of people travelling ("Nombre de Passengers"). If you want to just go one way, you want "Aller Simple" if its return you will need "Aller-Retour" and provide the above information for your return journey.

Here is a list of SNCF boutiques in Paris. The postcode tells you which one is closest to you - 75 is Paris, the last two digets tell you which arrondisement it is in (ie 75016 is in the 16th). Most are open Monday - Friday 9am - 6pm and many are open on Saturdays. Most are closed Sundays.

Paris : Boutique SNCF - Forum des Halles Niveau -4 salle d'échange (75001)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 18 rue du Pont Neuf PARIS (75001)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 2 rue de Turenne PARIS (75004)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 54 Bd St Michel PARIS (75005)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 17, rue Littré PARIS (75006)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 79, rue de Rennes PARIS (75006)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 80, rue St Dominique PARIS (75007)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 229, rue du Fbg St-Honoré PARIS (75008)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 2 rue Chauveau-Lagarde PARIS (75008)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 53, rue de la Chaussée d'Antin PARIS (75009)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 24 rue Poissonnière PARIS (75009)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 32, 34 rue Joubert PARIS (75009)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 71-73, Boulevard Magenta PARIS (75010)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 5 rue de Lyon PARIS (75012)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 30, avenue d'Italie PARIS (75013)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 105, rue de Tolbiac PARIS (75013)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 3 avenue du Général Leclerc PARIS (75014)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 68 avenue du Maine PARIS (75014)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 1 rue Balard PARIS (75015)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 33 rue du Commerce 75015 PARIS (75015)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 202, rue de la Convention PARIS (75015)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 19 rue de Passy PARIS (75016)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 76, rue d'Auteuil PARIS (75016)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 82,avenue de la Grande Armée (75017)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 116 Bd Péreire PARIS (75017)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 27 rue Lepic PARIS (75018)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 133, rue Ordener PARIS (75018)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 110, rue de Belleville PARIS (75019)
Paris : Boutique SNCF - 127, avenue Simon Bolivar PARIS (75019)


An interactive map, only in French, showing everywhere you can buy train tickets is available at the SNCF website.

For places to go and ideas for day trips from Paris, see www.beyond-paris.com.

Trip Report: Mont Saint-Michel from Paris

Several weeks ago my partner organised a secret weekend for us to Mont Saint-Michel (MSM). The Mont is somewhere we have wanted to get to since we moved to France, however it can be a little difficult to get to from Paris by public transport.

We made a weekend of it (two nights away) although you could probably do it in less.

We left Paris, from Gare Montparnasse, on Friday evening. The train ride from Paris is about 3 hours to a small town called Folligny. Folligny is a small town in the middle of nowhere, with little to see and do, but thankfully the connecting train didn’t take too long to come through.

The closest town to MSM which has a train line associated with it is Pontorson. We arrived there in the evening and stayed at a great Bed and Breakfast called Le Belle de Mai. The rooms are clean and well decorated and the proprietor is very friendly, but the highlight was definitely the breakfast. One of the best breakfasts I have had in Europe. Fresh breads, pasties, hams, local cheeses, cereals, fresh fruit, confiture, etc.

Pontorson is 9KM from MSM. There are a number of places in town that rent bikes at reasonable rates. The one we chose was the Pontorson camp site. They have good 18 speed bikes available. The camp site backs on to the river and there is a path beside the river on which you can bike down to MSM completely avoiding the roads. The bike ride is a flat, easy 9K with great views along the river and of some of the small towns closer to MSM. If you don’t want to bike there are buses and taxis from Pontorson down to MSM.

There is a parking area before you reach the causeway to MSM where all cars need to park and where you can catch the free bus over to MSM (although it is an easy walk as well). There are places here to park your bike as well.

We walked over to MSM rather than take the bus. There is a main entrance to MSM which is easy to find, although at high tide the water can cover this entrance meaning you need to use the less easy to find side door. It is on your right as you walk onto the wooden walkway for the main entrance. It isn’t always open, but it appears to be unlocked.

Inside MSM there are a number of routes you can take, although they pretty much all lead to the abbey, which is the focus of the island. Most people walk up the main road/path which is steep and filled with shops and restaurants on both sides. If you take a side road to your right and climb the stairs you end up on the ramparts which have a nice view over the bay as you climb around. This route is generally less busy and has more stairs. If you take a left turn you can climb up through the cemetery and through the backroads. This route has the least people of any of the three, however there is a lot less to see.

However you climb up through the Mont (and it is a reasonably steep climb) all roads lead to the abbey at the top.

The three roads mentioned lead to the forecourt of the abbey. From here it is a steep set of stairs up to the ticket counter. There are a number of options available at the ticket counter. General entry, Simple Tour (offered in multiple languages), full tour (offered only in French). We took the full tour, although we are not fluent in French we spoke enough to take in what was being said in general terms. The advantage of the full tour is that you get to see rooms not available on the other tours, but it does take 2 hours. There is also an audio guide option.

The MSM abbey is effectively several layers of buildings, built on top of each other, to give the end result that is the abbey today. All the tours start at the top, in the main church, and move through the various eating and entertaining halls. The full tour shows you some of the smaller chapels, including the original 13^th century chapel, inside the abbey complex.

Once we had finished the tour we took lunch at one of the restaurants on Mont-Saint-Michel. Our experience was that many of these are very touristy, more expensive than on the mainland and that, at least in the restaurant we went to, the food was adequate but nothing to write home about. After lunch we explored the rest of the island. There is another church to visit, and some small streets to walk around, but by early afternoon we had done much of what there was to see on MSM (and this included a nap).

Given we had the bikes, we took the opportunity to bike through the countryside. There is a bike map available from the Pontorson tourist office and may also be available from a hotel (we got ours from our B&B) which has some marked trails. They aren’t especially well marked on the roads, but the trails take you through a number of small French villages and give you some different views of MSM. We biked out to the German War Cemetery at Huisnes-sur-Mer which was a sobering experience (although be warned, they close around 5pm). Biking around this part of Normandy is reasonably easy. We don’t usually bike and are only moderately fit and found it relatively easy going (with the exception of the hill into Huisnes-sur-Mer).

As it became evening we biked back to MSM to watch the sun go down. On the rampart section of MSM (on your right as you go into the main part of MSM) there are a number of bars and restaurants with views over the bay. Some have better views than others. It is a great opportunity to take a small diner. We took a cheese plate and a plate of sliced meats which we then followed up with dessert. As the sun set on the opposite side of MSM we could watch the shadow of the abbey as it grew. We also got the opportunity to watch the tide come in. The tide at MSM is one of the fastest and strongest in Europe. It is literally like a tsunami coming in. It is fast and high. The ground around the base of MSM goes from mud to covered in water in about 10 minutes. If you get the chance to watch it, it is worthwhile.

We then caught the bus back and picked up our bikes from the bike park. It is worth noting that there is quite a lot of construction going on at MSM at the moment as they remove the old carpark (right by the entrance to the city) and build a new access way. They are attempting to make it more similar to how it used to be before the carpark at the entrance which will be a very nice change as the existing car park is not a nice addition (and also gets covered with water at high tide –hence it is no longer in active use).

We chose to stay at Pontorson for a second night in order to maximize our day at MSM. It would be possible to take a train back to Paris in the evening.

We had to be back in Paris on Sunday afternoon so we caught an early train out. We took a routing through Caen where we had about an hour between trains so we explored the castle of William the Conqueror who had his base in Caen, although there are other things to see there as well. If you are doing a tour of Normandy, Caen has a great WWII/D-day museum called the Caen Memorial Centre for History and Peace. It is an excellent museum which could easily take a day in itself. We spent a half day there previously and in the morning took their D-Day beaches tour, which was through, informative and excellent value. It would be possible to do Caen and MSM over 2 days before heading back to Paris.     

Photos and specific itinerary information is available at: http://www.beyond-paris.com/mont-saint-michel.html