Go underground on a tour of the Paris Métro 一个英国人游巴黎地铁

 
Metro station "Palais Royal", Paris

一个英国人的巴黎地铁游记, 有点夸张。英国人多少还是哈法的...They just love the French touch!

Go underground on a tour of the Paris Métro

By Andrew Martin

Published by FT: April 3 2010 01:55 | Last updated: April 3 2010 01:55

The French have a more grown-up attitude than the British towards sex, drinking and railways. Regarding the latter, the approach is that French trains work, and so they should, given the amount of public money put into them. This leaves little room for the underdog trainspotter on the British model, a self-consciously marginal figure who presents himself shambolically in emulation of a shambolic network. But a more refined and worldly kind of rail enthusiast does exist, and one such is Julian Pepinster, whose special subject is the Paris Métro.

I first met the Anglo-French Pepinster, 37, some years ago over dinner. He was working in insurance while running a society known by the acronym Ademas (www.ademas-assoc.com), and dedicated to appreciation of an early Métro train engineer, Frank Julian Sprague, who gave his name to the classic Métro stock phased out in the early 1980s: pretty yet spartan trains with hard wooden seats and sparks flying out from underneath.

Pepinster now works for the security department of the Métro, and has collaborated on a new book about the system, Paris Métro Style, with Mark Ovenden, author of the international bestseller (yes, really), Metro Maps of the World. Pepinster – who often travels on the Métro in his spare time “just to relax” – offered me a tour, beginning at Gare du Nord on Line 4.

The train came in after about 30 seconds. I have never waited more than two minutes for a Métro train, or been stuck in a tunnel. This is because the Métro was, in the French way, planned (rather than arising haphazardly from the schemes of speculators, as with the Tube). There’s none of that Edgware/High Barnet nonsense seen on London’s Northern Line. The Paris lines are simple. The trains go to the end, then come back.

Line 4 is one of those featuring trains with tyres. Pepinster is ambivalent about these. “They were brought in to make the trains look more like cars.” But the tyres mean faster braking. There’s a pleasing terseness to the Métro: the train stops quickly; the nearest passenger to the door flips the catch – the loqueteau – and the doors bang open. I always fantasise that I am chasing a suspect, or being chased, in a French policier when I do this.

I mentioned to Pepinster that, for all this briskness, I felt more relaxed on the Métro than the Tube, and he suggested that this was partly because Métro tunnels are not tubular, but vault-shaped: “They remind you of the wine cellar of a château, which is a pleasant thing to be reminded of.” The shape is dictated by the method of construction. A narrow hole was dug in the street, then widened out below. The tunnels were lined in white tiles with bevelled edges, “which means they sparkle”.

At Châtelet, we changed to Line 1, and went to Louvre-Rivoli station, where subtle lighting displays pieces of statuary, replicas of those in the museum above. This is one of a dozen themed stations on the Métro, and in these (again, that French severity) advertising is not allowed. My favourite is the one at Arts et Métiers. It’s lined with riveted copper, like the inside of Captain Nemo’s submarine.

We exited the station, and crossed the Rue de Rivoli towards the entrance of Palais Royal station, which looks like a bejewelled bird cage. It was created by Jean-Michel Othoniel for the Métro centenary of 2000. It’s small for a station entrance but then Métro entrances are usually small. Paris, the creators of the Métro acknowledged, was beautiful, and the street scenes ought not to be disrupted. Attention would be drawn to the system by the beauty of the entrances, not their size, hence the sinuous, green, art nouveau ironwork of Hector Guimard, which survives at a third of the 273 stations. For years after the opening of the Métro in 1900, entrances didn’t even proclaim the station name.

As we roved around the network Pepinster talked constantly, but never boringly. He does the same on the nocturnal tours of closed-down Métro stations sometimes operated by his group, Ademas. As these tours depart, Pepinster reads a Latin quote from Fulgence Bienvenüe, chief engineer of the Métro at the time of its construction: “Jovis erepto fulmine per inferna vehitur Promethei genus”, which means something like, “Prometheus’s children are transported in the underground inferno with the power of Jupiter.” The tours finish at dawn in a depot beneath Gare du Nord, with a chance to walk along an inspection pit underneath a Métro train while drinking kir royale.

We were now at Oberkampf station on Line 5. In the 1960s, it was decided that white tiling was boring – “People said, ‘Why must our stations look like bathrooms?’” – so something more psychedelic was tried in a few cases: orange tiling. The Line 5 platforms at Oberkampf are the most orange on the network. The effect is queasy, and the orange is now regarded as a mistake, as was fitting steel panelling into certain stations to accommodate advertising hoardings. (We saw an example at Trinité-d’Estienne d’Orves on Line 12). This was called “carrossage”, and it disrupted the purity of the vault, just as false ceilings or boarded-over fireplaces were beginning to spoil historic houses of the time. But a current renovation programme will restore the original purity: white tiles, white station names on blue backgrounds.

For the grande finale, Pepinster took me to Gare d’Austerlitz, where the Métro station, far from being underground, is excitingly incorporated into the glass roof of the mainline station. The line then crosses over the Seine, giving glorious vistas. Pepinster pointed out the sights, including that of the Paris Morgue on the right bank. Naturally enough, all the other Parisians in the carriage continued to read their newspapers.

‘Paris Métro Style’ is published by Capital Transport Publishing
法国人对于性、酒和地铁的态度较之英国人更为成熟。说到地铁，他们的态度是法国的地铁还不错，鉴于其中投入的公共资金数量，这是应该 的。《猜火车》 中颓废失意的英国人在这里几乎没有用武之地——那是一个具有自我意识的边缘人形象，他的好胜心在混沌的铁路网络中，浑浑噩噩地自我表现着。不过，确实存在 着较为优雅且入世型的铁路爱好者，其中之一便是朱利安·佩平斯特(Julian Pepinster)，他的钟情对象是巴黎地下铁。

我在几 年前的一次晚宴上初识37岁、英法混血的佩平斯特。他当时从事保险业，同时经营着一个缩写为Ademas的社团(www.ademas- assoc.com)，而且沉湎于对早期地铁列车工程师弗兰克·朱利安·史普拉(Frank Julian Sprague)的激赏之中。20世纪80年代初被淘汰的经典地铁列车就曾以这位工程师命名，那是一种木质硬座、可爱但简朴的列车，开动时车轮下火花飞 溅。

佩平斯特如今为巴黎地铁的安全部门工作，正与马克·欧文顿(Mark Ovenden)合作，写一本有关这一世界的新书——《巴黎地铁风尚》(Paris Métro Style)。欧文顿是国际畅销书《世界地铁地图》(Metro Maps of the World)的作者（是的，货真价实的畅销书作者）。佩平斯特常常在空闲时间乘坐地铁，“仅仅为了消遣”，他邀我一游，行程始于四号线的火车北站 (Gare du Nord)。

列车大约30秒后进站。我等巴黎地铁的时间从未超过2分钟， 也从未有过被堵在隧道中的经历。因为巴黎地铁是 以法国方式规划的（而不是伦敦地铁纸上谈兵凭空而起的设计）。这里绝没有伦敦北线埃奇威尔(Edgware)/高巴涅(High Barne)站那样的不可理喻的景象。巴黎的轨道线简单平实。列车从头开到尾，然后再返回。

4 号线属于拥有带轮胎列车的线路之一。佩平斯特 对此颇为矛盾。“引进轮胎是为了让列车看上去更像汽车。”但轮胎意味着刹车速度更快，这对巴黎地铁来说产生了一种令人愉悦的简洁之美：列车迅速停止，最靠 门的乘客敲打着把手（按钮），车门嘭地打开。我这么做的时候，总是幻想我正在追踪嫌犯，或正被一个法国警察追踪。

我向佩平斯特提到，虽然感 觉形色匆匆，但我仍觉得法国地铁比伦敦地铁更让人放松。他表示，部分原因在于巴黎地铁的隧道不是管状而是拱形的：“它们让你想起城堡里的酒窖，这是一种美 好的回忆。”这种形式是由建筑方式造成的。从街面上打一个窄洞，然后从下面挖宽。隧道以带斜面的白色瓷砖为墙面，“这意味着它们显得熠熠生辉。”

我 们在夏德莱(Châtelet)站换乘1号线前往卢浮宫-瑞沃利站(Louvre-Rivoli station)，那里，精美的灯光中展示着雕塑作品（地铁站上面博物馆里的复制品）。这是10个主题地铁站之一，在这些站点不允许发布广告（再次体现了 法式的苛刻）。我最喜欢的一个车站是工艺博物馆站(Arts et Métiers)。铜质铆钉的墙面让人如犹如置身尼莫船长(Captain Nemo)的潜艇内。

我们离开车站，穿过瑞沃利大街朝王宫站(Palais Royal station)入口而去，地铁入口犹如一个珠光宝气的鸟笼。这是由让-米歇尔·欧托尼耶(Jean-Michel Othoniel)于2000年为地铁100周年纪念而创作的。这对于一个地铁入口来说有点小，不过这里的地铁入口通常都很小。地铁创始人认为，巴黎是美 丽的城市，街道景观不应被割裂。地铁系统引入注意的应该是入口处的美感而不是其大小，正因为如此，273座地铁站中的三分之一保留了赫克托·吉马德 （Hector Guimard）的绿色盘曲状新艺术主义铁艺作品。在1900年地铁开通后的数年中，地铁入口甚至没有标注站名。

我们流 连于地铁网络之中，佩平斯特不停地讲述，但从不让人觉得乏味。有时，同样的行程被安排成夜间游，在地铁关闭时，由他的Ademas社团组织。在这些游览出 发时，佩平斯特会朗读一段拉丁文，出自巴黎地铁建造时的总工程师费尔杰斯·比耶维涅(Fulgence Bienvenüe）：“Jovis erepto fulmine per inferna vehitur Promethei genus”，大意是，“普罗米修斯的孩子们在地狱里以朱庇特的神力穿行。”行程于黎明时分在北火车站的一个站点结束，在那里你有机会喝着皇家基尔 (kir royale)，沿着列车下的检查平台到处走走。

现在，我们到了5号线的奥贝肯夫 站(Oberkampf station)。20世纪60年代，人们认为白色瓷砖的方式过于单调——“人们说，‘为何我们的车站一定要弄得像浴室？”于是一些更为怪诞的尝试在某些 车站出现了，那就是橙色墙面。奥贝肯夫5号线站台的橙色最为醒目。效果令人作呕，如今橙色被看成是一个错误，因此在这些车站安上钢板护墙作为广告围栏，我 们在12号线的特里尼泰-德帝安纳·多尔韦级站(Trinité-d'Estienne d'Orves)就看到了这样一个例子。这被称为“曲面”，它破坏了拱顶的纯净，就像假房顶或壁炉上的横梁开始糟蹋具有历史意义的房屋一样。不过一个正在 进行的整修项目将恢复原有的纯净：白色墙面，蓝底白字的站名。

作为盛大的结尾，佩平斯特带 我去了奥斯特里兹车站(Gare d'Austerlitz)，在那里，远离地下的地铁车站惊心动魄地融入主干线车站的玻璃屋顶。轨道线随后跨过塞纳河，形成壮丽的景观。佩平斯特指点着外 面的风景，其中包括右岸的巴黎太平间(Paris Morgue)。很自然，车厢里其余的巴黎人继续看他们的报纸。