Meaux: station history
Served by: Transilien P.
Did you know?
A station opened on 5 July 1849, at the commercial opening of the section between Paris-Est and Meaux by the Paris to Strasbourg railway company. The current symmetrical neoclassical building replaced a temporary wooden station: a central block with a mansard roof topped by a clock, with five bays on the second floor above five arcades, two of them blind, and two low wings. The official inauguration brought together Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, then President of the Republic.
Anecdote
A 21-gun salute was fired outside the station at the inauguration, then a second after Mass at Saint-Étienne cathedral. The first test train was hauled by locomotive no. 55 "Ville de Meaux". Between 1910 and 1938, the metre-gauge Meaux to Dammartin tramway served the station under the name "Meaux-Est". The station building was renovated in 2011, for about 1.7 million euros. In 1996, a scene from the "Marie Gare" episode of the series Quai n° 1 was shot there.
Around Meaux
- Cathédrale Saint-Étienne, 70 m away — A Gothic cathedral 85 metres long and 48 high, built of Varreddes stone, listed in 1840.
- Musée Bossuet et jardin Bossuet, 100 m away — A 'Musée de France' in the former episcopal palace where Bossuet was bishop from 1681 to 1704, with its freely accessible formal garden.
- Musée de la Grande Guerre, 2400 m away — A museum opened in November 2011, with one of Europe's largest collections on 1914-1918 (over 50,000 objects).