Back in October 2007 sometime after midnight and before the first trains rolled into regular service, qx and I took our first timid steps onto the tracks of the Paris metro. With more nervousness and care than I’d like to admit we gingerly stepped down between the metal rails just off the end of a platform wondering what madness had possessed us to do so. We’d never done Metro like this before and this scary new world was full of elements we didn’t understand at all. Looking at every rail critically working out which carried the power, asking ourselves so many questions: how far could the electricity arc, would that even happen, could the cameras on the platform see us, did security wait in the tunnels after hours, were there any trains after service, if so how fast did they go, did anyone live in the tunnels, would we encounter writers? We’d heard lots of stories about RATP security forgoing the usual legal punishments and simply beating up those found in the tunnels and kicking them out onto the street. We weren’t packing paint but would that matter?

Sleepycity’s travelogue from an illicit exploration of the Paris Metro.

tags:city exploring metro paris photo trains underground urban

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1. Matt Says:
   December 25th, 2010 at 2:21 am

   Wow, there went a half hour. Fascinating.

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It was written on December 23rd, 2010 at 10:42 am
Filed in the Category architecture, interesting, photography, urban