Sèvres-Ville-d'Avray: station history
Served by: Transilien L and U.
Did you know?
A station in the Hauts-de-Seine opened to the public in 1839 by the Société anonyme du chemin de fer de Paris à Saint-Cloud et Versailles, now operated by the SNCF. It was first built in a cutting, then on a slight embankment, at 97 metres above sea level, in the commune of Sèvres, close to Ville-d'Avray. The building of the line profoundly altered the hillside, with a tunnel followed by a deep cutting. At opening, seven to eight trains ran each day in each direction, and the ticket to Paris cost 60 centimes on weekdays and one franc on Sundays.
Anecdote
A 2.4-kilometre aqueduct, which brought the water of the Ville-d'Avray ponds to the Saint-Cloud park, passes just at the exit of the tunnel, and a three-arch masonry structure spans the two tracks: it is now the only visible part of the aqueduct. A metal footbridge, installed around 1839-1840, was replaced in 1962, raised in 1974 for 25 kV electrification, then replaced in 1992 by an underpass. The station and its surroundings appear in the film "Les Dimanches de Ville-d'Avray" (1962) by Serge Bourguignon, notably on the metal footbridge, now gone.
Around Sèvres-Ville-d'Avray
- Étangs de Corot, 1400 m away — Ponds painted by Camille Corot, protected as historic monuments along with the rigole d'État, in the woods of Ville-d'Avray.
- Maison des Jardies, 170 m away — A 'Maison des Illustres' in Sèvres, a former country house where the writer Balzac, then Léon Gambetta, stayed.