Bel-Air: station history
Served by: metro line 6.
Did you know?
Opened in 1909 on boulevard de Picpus, between the Picpus and Bel-Air districts, the station closed in 1939 during the war and did not reopen at the Liberation, before reopening later. It is elevated, although the tracks are underground before and after it: trains climb to the surface to reach it, then go down again. This layout aimed to preserve the Vincennes railway line, which took Parisian workers to the riverside dance halls of the Marne valley. The Rothschild hospital and the Armand-Trousseau hospital are nearby.
Anecdote
The station straddles the cutting of this old Vincennes line, west of the former Bel-Air station. Since the 1990s its route has been turned into a green space: the coulée verte René-Dumont.
Around Bel-Air
- Coulée verte René-Dumont, 550 m away — A 4.7-km linear park inaugurated in 1993 on the former railway line from Bastille to Verneuil-l'Étang, closed in 1969. It is presented as the first project in the world to turn old elevated railway lines into an urban garden.
- Bois de Vincennes, 1300 m away — Paris's largest green space, with a lake, zoo and racecourse, a former royal hunting ground.
- Place Édouard-Renard, 900 m away — A small neighbourhood square in a peaceful residential area of the 12th arrondissement.