I have read many reviews of Sacre-Coeur on this concerning the walk from Anvers Metro Station. Last year when we visited this marvel, we took the Metro to Abbesses, but this year, from where we are staying, it would take quite a bit longer to get to Abbesses than Anvers. Is it really a bad idea to go to Anvers Metro Station? Is the walk as unsafe as made out to be? Is Chateau Rouge Metro Station any safer?
Thanks
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Hi
My wife and I took the metro to Anvers when we went to Sacre-Coeur and it is not a problem to walk over to the church. I didn%26#39;t feel that we were walking in an unsafe are but you might pass some sexshops on the way.
Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen@hotmail.com
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Anvers is not a %26quot;bad%26quot; area, but the metro station is always crowded with tourists, so beware of pickpockets! Be also careful with the %26quot;armband twisters%26quot; near the entrance of the funicular... do not complacently give them your arm.. The Abbesses metro station is under construction.
There are no %26quot;adult shops%26quot; around.
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Hi
I guess we must have seen the sexshops on the way down again then :-)
Be also careful with the %26quot;armband twisters%26quot; near the entrance of the funicular...
So what is the deal with the armbands? We were offered some armband for free when we got closer to Sacre-Coeur but we said no and just walked away.
Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen@hotmail.com
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What do you mean by %26quot;armband twisters%26quot;?
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So Abbesses staion is closed now? :-( I was looking forward to finally see the place from %26quot;Amelie Poulain%26quot;. I am not really sure whether I have been in that station during my last visit of Paris 5-6 years ago. Don%26#39;t you know when the construction will be finished?
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%26gt;%26gt; The Abbesses metro station is under construction. %26lt;%26lt;
For those who might be interested :
Abbesses was on one of the two lines (now 12 and 13) that were at start run by a separate company, the Nord-Sud. Since the Nord-Sud wanted to show its difference with the %26quot;regular%26quot; CMP, it had its stations and trains luxuriously decorated (look at Sèvres-Babylone)...
In the %26#39;50s, Abbesses was %26quot;refurbished%26quot; in the cheap way of the time : metal walls hanging over the original tiles.
BUT the Nord-Sud NEVER built any Guimard Modern Style metro entrances. Never !
But, but, will say those who keep in mind the so picturesque entrance to the Métro station : there IS a Guimard entrance at Abbesses !
Yes, there is one. Why?
--%26gt; It%26#39;s an idea of the RATP: it%26#39;s a very touristy station, we%26#39;ll put some Guimard entrance there, even if there has never been one in the past !
Abbesses is currently under refurbishment. It was extraordinary a few months ago : they removed the metal walls ... and hurrah, what appeared behind ? the original tiles with vintage maps, advertising, etc, etc ! They refurbished so cheaply in in 1950s that they didn%26#39;t care to clean before covering !
Abesses will be closed from Sept. 18 to Nov. 11.
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A link (in French) to understand Abbesses station refurbishment :
www.metro-pole.net/actu/article429.html
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A bit of Paris history to Scottishlad and others:
Do you know why it is called %26quot;Abbesses%26quot;?
It is located on the Place des abbesses, where the old Abbey of Montmartre once stood. Then came the Revolution and the abbey was closed down, its buildings torn down, its grounds sold to speculators : not a single stone was left standing.
If you walk by the lively place des Abbesses, have a thought for Montmartre%26#39;s last abbess, the deaf-and-dumb, seventy-seven- year-old Marie-Louise de Montmorency-Laval, sentenced to the guillotine in 1794 %26quot;for having conspired against the republic%26quot;.
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It seems like a prehistorical paintings discovering :o) Really interesting pictures of that old maps and ads. I would like more to visit that station now during reconstruction to see all ahat things and works that are in progress.
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The %26quot;armband twisters%26quot; take on different variations on that scam as tourists start catching on. The most common one is the %26quot;finger string%26quot;, a %26quot;good luck%26quot; string that once tied around your finger (with a square knot}, you are expected to give the scammer money, usually 5 euro. Once it%26#39;s on your finger, it will only come off with a knife so you can%26#39;t simply take it off and hand it back to them. Once caught, you will either give them money or face a very aggressive and abusive individual who will yell and try to physically intimidate you. I%26#39;ve never heard of anyone actuall getting hurt but I once witnessed a victim get angry and try to resist after the string went on.. He started yelling and trying to walk away but he was immediately surrounded by other scammers that were also working the area near the base of the funicular. He somehow got it off but the scammers followed him through the funicular turnstiles (they jumped them) and continued to yell at him in French till the doors of the car closed.
superheterodyne, I have a mystery for you... Last year we had occation to use the Abbesses station just before and immediately after they removed the metal walls. Before the souvenir-hounds pealed it off, we found a poster-sized proclamation issued by the Vichy government/Gestapo with an issue date of December 1942. It declared changes in the regulations in the use of the Metro. It was almost perfectly preserved next to a very old metro map. Could the metal walls have gone up during the occupation of Paris and not in the 50s? If not, somehow it survived, possibly behind some station fixture between the end of the war and the 50s although there was no evidence of that.
BTW, at the time of the filming of Amelie, the Abbesses station was still clad in the metal shell covering the beautiful ceramic tile walls. In the film, the walls are tile. The scene in Amelie was actually filmed in an abandoned portion of the Porte des Lilas station that the RATP once used to test prototype trains but now rents to movie companies.
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