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Comment by kweks | Hacker News Reader

From 2008 to 2012 a friend and I spent at least 2 - 3 times per week obsessively 'running track' in the Paris metro.

It's definitely one of the most interesting systems in the world, with a lot of hidden secrets. Despite years of systematic exploration, and having walked the length of the entire system, we were still finding artefacts.

For the interested, in my opinion the most complete writeups of the system was written by my exploring partner.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844/http://www.sleepyc...

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I like how some of the photos show the same place years apart.

These two images [1][2] show the same junction near St Martin station.

Note the patch in the ceiling in these two pictures: [3][4]

The pink graffito on the back wall in this [5] picture can still be seen years later if you zoom into this [6] picture.

A red graffito can be seen on the back wall here [7] (very small) and here [8].

[1]http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844im_/http://sleepyci... [2]https://www.urbextour.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/21.jpg [3]http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844im_/http://sleepyci... [4]https://www.urbextour.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/8-1.jpg [5]http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844im_/http://sleepyci... [6]https://www.urbextour.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/58.jpg [7]http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844im_/http://sleepyci... [8]https://www.urbextour.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/59.jpg

Even looking back at those photos today takes me on a huge nostalgia trip. The article very accurately outlines our trepidation of first plunges into the system, and our original photos shot on film, and finally progressing to a more polished style as we got more experience.

There are very interesting stories in the graffiti, representing generations of visits, and 'following' certain people, noticing where they'd been and not been.

For those who don't want to read the entire article, here's one part which you shouldn't skip: F3 the page for "getting caught by security and police".

Excellent writeup, thank you!

Does anyone know if the system is still as accessible as it was in 2012? I know that at least in northern France and Belgium this type of exploration has become a lot more difficult due to more cameras and more police/security awareness.

Probably not. They tightened security all sorts of public infrastructure stuff since then because terrorism.

No, they did nothing special beyond the usual security theatre.

Nothing has changed.

Good read, thanks for the link! What was the most weird thing you encountered?

One of the weirdest was shooting photos when a track side door opened, a man in a nice suit walked up to us, didn't say a word, smiled and shook our hands, each in turn, in total silence. He then revealed himself to be the chief engineer of the line 1, was happy to let us hang out and watch the trains with him, and said in parting.. oh, I really should get around to fixing that ingress point of yours..

Or a worker we bumped into who said he knew we weren't painters because we didn't throw rocks at him, and thanked us kindly.

The most surprisingly was stumbling upon a 1930s train, the Sprague Thompson in mint condition, hiding in a section of metro that we'd overlooked for years...

> stumbling upon a 1930s train

Truly fantastic. Did you enter it ? I would die for such moments if I was an urbexplorer.

Multiple times, it stayed 'unknown' and pristine for a long time

http://ninjito.com/_2012-04-07

When we turned the corner and saw it, I guess we nearly passed out, we'd been looking for it for years :)

Thanks for the link. I can't believe that it hasn't been touched for a long time, it's almost way to clean.

And the site itself, wow.

http://ninjito.com/2020-02-05-Baikonour

Damn... Please don't tell me it got graffited.

Thinking of the million souls, early morning workers and late night lovers this venerable workhorse has carried is vertiginous.

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