# Leaving Paris - The city that never ends



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

INTRODUCTION:
(you can skip directly to the bolded part if you're in a hurry to see the pics )

When I first moved to Paris, I remember I bought a very detailed ordnance map (carte IGN) of Paris and its suburbs. The map was very large, it covered half the floor of my parents' living room, and yet that wasn't large enough to contain the entire urban expanse of Paris. I was fascinated by how this huge map was entirely filled with urbanization: little houses, apartment blocks and urban parks, with no open countryside whatsoever. And I was excited at the idea of exploring this huge megacity that I was going to move to.

Since then the fascination with this huge urban expanse hasn't left me, and over the years I've been going on several exploration trips in the sprawling suburbs riding my bike (hybrid bicycle that is). Those trips work like this: I depart from the very center of Paris, and I ride outwards, without a map, in as straight a line as possible (avoiding major roads), until I reach the open countryside. Try it someday, the experience is impressive, because you suddenly realize how truly huge Paris is (something that is hard to realize if you only live or stay in Central Paris).

When you arrive in Paris from abroad either by driving intro Greater Paris on motorways or by taking the RER from the airports, you don't really get a sense of the sprawling suburbs (the motorways avoid urbanization as much as possible, and the RER lines from the airports cross only a small section of the suburbs). A few times, I've taken some foreign friends on these biking trips from the center of Paris to the open countryside, and after riding our bikes for 20 km or so and still being inside the urbanized area, the typical reaction has been "wow, I never thought Paris was so huge, when you come from the airport with the RER you don't see so much urbanization". On one such trip from Central Paris to the Chevreuse Valley at the very end of the southern suburbs, my Belgian friends were amazed that there was actually more urbanization south of Orly Airport than between Orly Airport and Central Paris (they had somehow imagined that urbanization stopped at Orly Airport, since they only took the RER between Central Paris and Orly).

Now that this amazing tool known as Google Street View has been invented, those living far from Paris can go on some urban exploration trips in the sprawling Paris suburbs almost as if they lived here. I thought I would take advantage of Google Street View to take you on a virtual tour of the huge Paris urban area.

*The principle of 'Leaving Paris'* is as I explained above with my bike trips: we depart from the very heart of Paris, and ride (or drive) outwards, in as straight a line as possible, avoiding motorways and major roads, until we reach the open countryside. This is basically how people wishing to leave Paris crossed the Paris urban area before the motorways and major bypasses were built in the 1960s-1970s. With Google Street View, I took a picture every 0.5 km (i.e. every 500 meters, 547 yards, or 0.31 miles) along our route. Apart from the first two pics, I won't give any geographical information, because the point is to lose yourself in the never ending Paris urban area, just as you would if you went on a real trip without a map. Just trust my words when I'm saying that we're going in a really straight line, and not turning round and round in the suburbs. At some point I'll post a map showing the route we took, but I don't want to post it now, to keep the feeling of wild urban exploration without a map.

For those who have the time and patience, it would be great to see a "Leaving XXX" thread showing your city. In particular, I would love to see a "Leaving Tokyo" thread. :angel:


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Ok, now that the introduction is over with, fasten your seatbelt (or strap on your helmet), and get ready for our trip in search of the elusive open countryside.

Just be warned though: pictures don't replace a 3D experience (personally crossing the Paris urban area on a bike is much more impressive than pictures, because you can see the urbanization surrounding you all around). Also, the route that we'll be taking goes through essentially working-class districts, so what you'll see here are really not the most beautiful suburbs in Greater Paris (I couldn't reach the open countryside going through nicer suburbs, due to Google Street View's limitations).

*Km 0:* This is Place du Châtelet, our starting point, at the center of Paris. During the Middle Ages, it was the very heart of Medieval Paris, teeming with life in the crowded streets around the Châtelet fortress, but nothing remains today as all the Medieval streets and buildings have been destroyed by Haussmann in the 19th century, and only the towers of the Medieval royal palace across the Seine River have survived Haussmann's massacre.









*Km 0.5:* Rue Saint-Denis, the largest street in Medieval Paris. Picture taken in the very early morning by Google Street View. The street is normally packed with people during the day, but Google Street View probably couldn't drive through the crowd. Rue Saint-Denis survived Haussmann's massacre, but the section visible on this picture was slightly enlarged by Haussmann (buildings on the left side), so the street was even narrower during the Middle Ages, despite being Medieval Paris's largest street. 









From now on, I'll stop giving geographical information. I'll let you guess at which point exactly we leave the Medieval heart of Paris, at which point we leave the administrative City of Paris, and which suburban areas we're crossing.

*Km 1.0:*









*Km 1.5:*









*Km 2.0:*









*Km 2.5:*









*Km 3.0:*









*Km 3.5:*









*Km 4.0:*









*Km 4.5:*









*Km 5.0:*









*Km 5.5:*









*Km 6.0:*









*Km 6.5:*









*Km 7.0:*









*Km 7.5:*









*Km 8.0:* (5 miles)









*Km 8.5:*









*Km 9.0:*









*Km 9.5:*









*Km 10.0:*









*Km 10.5:*









*Km 11.0:* Monoprix!! We haven't left civilization yet! 









*Km 11.5:*









*Km 12.0:*









*Km 12.5:*









*Km 13.0:*









*Km 13.5:*









*Km 14.0:*









*Km 14.5:*









*Km 15.0:*









*Km 15.5:*









*Km 16.0:* (10 miles) (note: our side of the road is to the right of these bushes, but Google Street View only had a view of the left side of the road; Central Paris is many km/miles in our back, the open countryside is many km/miles ahead of us towards the horizon)









*Km 16.5:*









*Km 17.0:*









*Km 17.5:*









*Km 18.0:*









*Km 18.5:*









*Km 19.0:*









*Km 19.5:*









*Km 20.0:* (12.4 miles)


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

That's already a lot of heavy pictures, and I don't want to crash your browsers, so I'm temporarily stopping here. We're still a LONG WAY from reaching the open countryside though. I'll post the rest of the trip on the next page, as soon as we get there. So leave many messages so we can get to the next page soon.


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## Erolisk (Aug 18, 2008)

Nice pics indeed ,it's my first year in Paris as a student,and i love to get lost in the metro and discover new areas.


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## Iskandar (Oct 5, 2008)

That was great, Paris is huuge.

Honestly, it didn't crash my browser, that's nothing.


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Iskandar said:


> Honestly, it didn't crash my browser, that's nothing.


Yeah, I hesitated, I wanted to post all pics at once (because it's more mind-boggling to scroll up and down all the pics together), but then I remembered many people complain when the pages contain too many pics, so I thought it would be better to spread it over two pages.

In any case, on page three I'll post all the pics together so people who have powerful browsers can scroll up and down all the pics together.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Interesting photos brisavoine  thanks for sharing


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## ww_lodz (Mar 23, 2007)

This thread is amazing! And Paris too! Thank you for creating it! I'll be watchin! :cheers:

Btw: this is true what you've written. I was in Paris last summer and we set off from not the very centre of the city and it took us about 1 hour to see what you call _open countryside_  What's more: there were no traffic jams on one's way at all!


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## Fuzzy Llama (Jan 24, 2009)

I just love the very idea of this thread 
Since largest metropolises I've driven from city centre towards the countryside was Warsaw, Budapest and Hamburg I've always wondered how continuous urban tissue in which over 10M people lives looks like.

Keep posting 

And if anyone feels like doing the same thing with their own metropolis (assuming that it is within Street View or local analogue coverage) - please, please, pretty please - do it


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## aaabbbccc (Mar 8, 2009)

wow this great I love it !!!! can you do that with any city in the globe ?
paris is truely one of the most amazing cities in the world


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## Minato ku (Aug 9, 2005)

brisavoine said:


> Also, the route that we'll be taking goes through essentially working-class districts, so what you'll see here are really not the most beautiful suburbs in Greater Paris (I couldn't reach the open countryside going through nicer suburbs, due to Google Street View's limitations).


It depend where.
So we left inner Paris at the km: XXX
Between the km: XXX and km: XXX we crossed Levallois Perret, Courbevoie and La Garenne Colombes, it is not what I would call working class suburbs.
Anyway these high density suburbs are indeed not the most beautiful but it is still far more than the average idea about Paris suburbs.



> *Km 11.0:* Monoprix!! We haven't left civilization yet!


LOL, exactly the same reaction than me when I am in Province or in outer suburbs. 
Anyway here in XXXXXXX it is maybe too earlier to have this reaction. :lol:

Great thread, this is to the kilometers 0 to the western limit, it will be interresting to do the same in the east, south and north.

This trip is going to be long. Where we will end in Cergy or in Mantes La Jolie ? 
The LONG WAY in your post made me think that we will go in Mantes la Jolie... Sadly I took my bike, a car would have been a better idea. :lol:


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## juancito (Mar 1, 2006)

Paris is just everlasting. Love the history it has


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Minato ku said:


> It depend where.
> So we left inner Paris at the km: XXX
> Between the km: XXX and km: XXX, we crossed Levallois Perret, Courbevoie and La Garenne Colombes


The Parisian forumers are not supposed to give the answers. 

It's the foreign forumers that should guess (and probably they would have a hard time guessing where exactly the adminitrative City of Paris is ending).



Minato ku said:


> it is not what I would call working class suburbs.


These inner suburbs are gentrifying now, but historically they were working class districts, that's why their architecture is not very beautiful.


Minato ku said:


> This trip is going to be long. Where we will end in Cergy or in Mantes La Jolie ?


Surprise, surprise. All I can say is we won't go all the way to Mantes because a- Google Street View doesn't go that far, and b- it wouldn't be really fair to show foreign forumers a trip to Mantes given that it is not representative of the real extent of the Paris urbanized area (Mantes lies at the end of a long urban tentacle completely surrounded by countryside). 

Here I have selected a route that is not some sort of urban tentacle surrounded by countryside, but which crosses the urbanized area in its flesh, so to speak, with urbanization all around our route.


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## eklips (Mar 29, 2005)

Very good idea for a thread.

I'd be nice to do a Mantes - Corbeil Essonne similar trip....


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## oktober69105 (Jun 2, 2008)

Thanks for the pictures. This is a good idea, I love to see how cities change as you move away from the CBD. I wonder how long the thread would be if someone did this with Mexico City...


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

oktober69105 said:


> I wonder how long the thread would be if someone did this with Mexico City...


First of all, remember that not all the pictures have been posted here yet. Only part of the trip towards the edge of the Paris urbanized area has been posted. The rest of the pictures from Km 20.0 to the countryside will be posted when we reach page 2.

Now concerning Mexico City, it has a smaller urbanized area than Paris, despite having more inhabitants, which is often the case in developping countries where there is less car ownership, and urban areas are more concentrated and denser than in the highly motorized developped world. Nonetheless, due to geographic constraints, the Mexico City urbanized area is rather elongated on a north-south axis and not roughly circular unlike the Paris urbanized area, so it would be possible to make a longer thread of pictures with Mexico City in a north-south direction, because the urbanization goes further than in Paris. In an east-west direction, however, a Mexico City thread would have less pictures than Paris because the urbanization is not as extended as in Paris.


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## [email protected] (Oct 1, 2008)

Great idea for a thread. Maybe within some months it will be possible make a similar thread in all the directions.


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## fri (May 2, 2009)

It would be cool having an Entering Paris thread too.  

And Paris looks more North American than I thought, or maybe just in these pictures. I've never been to Paris so I'm probably completely wrong.


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## Ribarca (Jan 28, 2005)

Interesting idea. It also shows that even the nicer cities get rather ugly after leaving the core.


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## rpc08 (Mar 28, 2008)

Let me try:

- We left Medieval Paris at km 4.5
- We left Inner Paris at km 6.0

Am I correct? 

Excelent and interesting thread, by the way


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