1 I needed to go to Paris for a work conference. As the conference would start early I needed to catch a TGV from Rotterdam to Paris the preceding day. I took the opportunity and liberty to book an early train so I had some time to spend in Paris.
9 Passing one of the large SNCF maintenance depots in the suburbs of Paris
10 Snow had turned to sleet. Very unpleasant cold, wet weather. We had arrived in Paris, Gare du Nord, with a small delay.
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14 Bombardier Omneo, SCNF Class Z 55000. Entered service in 2013 and is still being built. Sofar approximately 116 trainsets have been delivered out of a contract comprising 940 in multiple classes in total. Top speed 200 km/h
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17 Time to move on. It was way too wet and too cold to stay out for long.
18 Impressive roof
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27 The front of the station is equally impressive
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29 A memorial to the railway men and women who died in active service in two wars.
30 My hotel was quite close to the Sacre Coeur, so I paid a visit.
31 View over de city. It had seen better days :-)
32 Metro station Anvers with its classic Art Nouveau signing
33 By now I had walked from Gare du Nord to my hotel, from my hotel to Sacre Coeur and from there to Metro station Anvers.
34 RATP Metro no 2. I took it to Pigalle and changed there to line number 12 and left at Rue de Bac
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38 I walked to the Musée de l'Armée
39 to meet this little friend
40 It was situated in front of the south side of the Hotel des Invalides
41 This is one of only two surviving Péchot-Bourdon articulated steam locomotives
42 One resides in Dresden and the other is usually in Slovenia, but brought to Paris for the occasion of the centenary of the cessation of hostilities of WW1. And guess what, I incidentally happened to be here!! No.....
43 It was designed for military railways directly behind the front lines.
44 Rumour has it the loco was conceived as a double Fairlie to enable it to keep moving if one of the sides would be damaged. Personally I hold that as an urban myth. The best it could do was bring the crew into safety if such a thing would occur. Adaptability for badly laid track and extremely sharp curvature are more likely to be the reasons for this design.
45 The chimneys have large spark arrestors to catch all embers. Sparks are conspicuous at night. One of Murpy's laws of combat says: Never be conspicuous, it draws enemy fire. A simple wisdom.
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56 Operational weigth: 14 tons. Length: 6.15 m. Power: about 60 hp. Speed: 15 km/h. Number built: 356.
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85 Bye
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87 Because my hotel was so close I made a few night shots of the Sacre Coeur
88 I went to the Quartier Latin to eat. Line 4 this time
89 Cité is beautiful old riveted station
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92 Seine
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94 Notre Dame
95 The next day I left my hotel and passed the Sacre Coeur again to be greeted with a cold but glorious autumn morning
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97 I took the metro to Bir-Hakeim
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102 Runing on tires!
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107 Well this is where the fun ended and worked started.
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109 A view from one of the conference rooms. Most distracting. Also disturbing to know that the Péchot-Bourdon was now basking in the sun and I had no time to visit it, despite being only 2 km away.
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111 By the time the conference was over the sun was setting.
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113 As darkness grew the lights of the Eiffel tower grew ever more impressive.
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118 Pont d'Alma, where princess Diana died.
119 Pont Alexandre III
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121 Hotel des Invalides
122 Ile de Paris
123 Metro traffic was in turmoil after various simultanuous disturbences. I had serious trouble getting to Gare du Nord in time.
