Gentilly: station history
Served by: RER B.
Did you know?
A station on the Sceaux line (RER line B), run by the RATP, between Laplace and Cité universitaire, at an altitude of 72 metres. It opened in 1891, when the Sceaux line was converted to standard gauge, run by the Compagnie du Paris-Orléans. Originally it was a simple halt, perhaps an enlarged level-crossing keeper's house.
Anecdote
The present station building was built in 1933 by Louis Brachet, the company's architect, at the exit of the tunnel dug from 1935. Removing the level crossings, notably at boulevard Jourdan, led to a 520-metre tunnel under the Cité universitaire park and the rebuilding of Gentilly and Cité universitaire stations. In 1977 the station was brought into the RER's urban fare zone, today's zone 1.
Around Gentilly
- Église Saint-Saturnin, 650 m away — Built in the 13th century and remodelled in the 16th, on the remains of a 7th-century abbey attributed to Saint Eligius.
- Maison de la photographie Robert-Doisneau, 350 m away — Opened in the 1990s for the 80th birthday of the photographer Robert Doisneau, whose name it bears.
- Parc Picasso, 300 m away — A park whose lawns cover the course of the Bièvre, a river now buried underground.