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PARIS

Why the Paris périphérique is more than just a ringroad

The traffic-choked road that circles Paris - inaugurated on April 25th 1973 - is more than a simple highway and is often described as a 'social frontier' - here's why.

Why the Paris périphérique is more than just a ringroad
Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP

The Boulevard Périphérique – popularly known simply as le périph – is the 35km ringroad that surrounds Paris – not to be confused with the A86, which is the external ringroad (beltway).

As with many major city ringroads (think London’s M25) it’s not the most fun driving experience as traffic is frequently extremely heavy, especially at peak times like rush hour or the start of the school holidays. The French rule of priorité à droite also applies on the périph, making it a particular challenge for foreign drivers.

The red line denoting the confines of Paris almost exactly follows the route of the périphérique, with two detours to bring the Bois de Vincennes and the Bois de Boulogne into the city. Map: Google

But it’s not the frequent traffic jams, shunts and appalling pollution levels that distinguish the périph from other roads – it is its role as the Paris ‘frontier’.

OPINION Emily and the Olympics reveal some uncomfortable truths about Paris

City boundaries

As well as bringing traffic in and out of the city, the road also acts as a territory marker – anything inside the périphérique is Paris, areas outside are not the city proper but are just part of the greater Paris region of Île de France.

Therefore Paris Charles de Gaulle airport is not in Paris, nor is French national stadium Stade de France, the Paris business district of La Défense or Disneyland Paris (although that last one is fair enough, because it’s actually around 40km outside Paris).

Likewise people who live in the suburbs are technically not Parisians but Franciliens/Franciliennes – or inhabitants of the Île-de-France region.

The relatively small confines of the périph also explain some of the more surprising statistics about Paris – such as the fact that its population is just 2.1 million, compared to London with 8.9 million, Berlin with 3.6 million or Madrid with 3.2 million.

Likewise Paris is 105 km square – and you can walk across the entire city from east to west in just over two hours – while Madrid registers 604 km sq, Berlin at 891 km sq and London at a whopping 1,572 km square.

While London is undoubtedly a larger city, both the area and population of Paris come much more in line with other European capitals once you include the inner suburbs.

The barrier is in place politically too, so that the authority of the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, stretches only as far as the périph, while the départements that make up the suburbs elect their own Préfets and mayors. There is some crossover, however, the public transport network Île de France Mobilities is organised on a region-wide basis, while the Paris police force covers both the city and its suburbs. 

Suburbs

Surrounding Paris are the three départements that make up the inner suburbs – known as the petite couronne (little crown) – Seine-Saint-Denis, Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne.

Between them they have a population a 4.5 million people, so if we add them to Paris we get a population of 6.6 million, much more in line with other European capitals. Likewise their combined area of 657 km sq bring Paris and its suburbs to a total area of 762 km sq.

The 8 départements that make up the greater Paris Île de France region – Paris itself and the 3 départements of the ‘petite couronne’ and the four larger départements that make up the outer suburbs. Map: Regions-et-departements.fr

Suburbs in French are known as banlieues and those live there banlieusards

The inner suburbs, which are largely included in to Metro network, are where a lot of the people who work in Paris actually live – especially those who do the low-paid but vital jobs such as staffing the capital’s transport networks, cleaning the streets and running supermarkets. 

Map showing Paris Metro, tram and RER routes in the city and inner suburbs. Map: RATP

The suburbs are generally more spacious with cheaper property prices so the city has seen a decade-long trend of people moving out of central Paris to the suburbs. Over the past 10 years the population of Paris has fallen by 120,000 – but of every 10 people who moved out of the city, six only went as far as the suburbs. 

PODCAST: Why so many Parisians are quitting Paris and how easy is it to become French?

Moving further out of the city are the four départements that make up the outer suburbs and greater Paris region of Île de France; Essonne, Yvelines, Seine-et-Marne and Val d’Oise. These are larger though much less densely populated.

Social barrier

But this isn’t enough to explain on its own why the périphérique is regarded as a ‘social barrier’ – and that’s to do with wealth and income. 

The priciest property is the Paris area is in the city centre – particularly in the central four arrondissements that run alongside the River Seine through central Paris, where you’re likely to be close to the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe or both.

Even a fairly modest sized apartment in the city centre will set you back over €1 million, and increasingly locals are being priced out of the market – in arrondissements 1-4, 30 percent of housing is not in full-time occupation. Most of them are instead second homes for wealthy foreigners.

Average property prices per square metre in Paris, as of September 2020. Map: WikiCommons

In a very broad generalisation, property prices fall the further away from the city centre you get, and then drop sharply as soon as you cross the peripherique. And this is cited as the main reason for people, especially families with young children, leaving Paris for the ‘burbs.

READ ALSO Is everyone really leaving Paris and could that be a good thing?

Social inequality

The suburbs are generally cheaper places to live, both in terms of property prices and in other everyday items like groceries or having a meal or drinks in a café or bar, but income and other issues vary widely between suburbs.

Some suburbs – such as Levallois-Perret and Neuilly-sur-Seine – are extremely wealthy and have for generations been the home of the well-off and socially select families of Paris, while others – such as Montfermeil and Bondy – are characterised by high levels of poverty, crime and social deprivation.

To very broadly generalise, the western Paris suburbs are well off, while the areas to the east and – particularly – the north are poor (and there’s a historical reason for this – it was originally to do with the way the wind blew smoke from factories, so that the poorer areas were to the east which is downwind).  

The département of Seine-Saint-Denis, home to the inner suburbs to the north-east of Paris, regularly comes top in indicators for poverty, crime and ill-health and also has a high number of immigrants and refugees.

It is among these suburbs that trouble frequently flares, such as the riots of 2005 and 2017 which gives rise to the reputation of the northern suburbs as ‘ghettos’ of crime and poverty. There are definitely places that have severe social deprivation, high crime rates and a very tense relationship between police and locals – films such as La Haine and Les Misérables (directed by Montfermeil local Ladj Ly) explore those issues in more detail.

And their proximity to Paris increases the contrast – it is 22km (about a 1hr 20 minute cycle ride) from the president’s Elysée Palace in the heart of historic Paris to the notoriously tough suburb of Montfermeil, but the two places are worlds apart. 

However, it’s important to remember that not all of Seine-Saint-Denis has these problems and as more families leave Paris, more and more suburban areas are becoming gentrified and/or trendy. The northern suburb of Pantin and the eastern area of Montreuil are among these ‘bobo‘ (hipster) suburbs.

Snobbery

Nonetheless, there remains an attitude among certain Parisians, especially older ones, that to cross the périph means venturing into the ‘wild west’ of drugs, guns and gangs.

This depressing and unimaginative trope can be seen in dozens of French films and TV shows, where characters either never cross the rinrgoad at all, or venture into the suburbs only to buy drugs (FYI drugs are also on sale in Paris).

Meanwhile banlieusard, which simply means a person who lives in the suburbs, has taken on a negative connotation of is is frequently used to describe people who are unemployed and/or involved in low-level criminality. The département number of Seine-Saint-Denis – neuf trois – is also sometimes used in a perjorative way.

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PARIS

Paris unveils sweeping transport price changes for 2025

From introducing a single ticket for the Metro and commuter RER trains, to new advantages with the Liberté + pass, here is how Paris regional transport authorities plan to change prices starting in January 2025.

Paris unveils sweeping transport price changes for 2025

The head of the Paris region and leader of Ile-de-France Mobilités, Valérie Pécresse, announced on Tuesday that there would be wide ranging changes to the prices for public transport tickets, taking effect from January 2nd, 2025. 

The biggest change is introducing a single price for all journeys in the region – in contrast the current system where journeys into Paris from the outer suburbs are more expensive, in effect penalising commuters who live further out.

For example, under the previous system, taking the commuter train from Fontainebleau to Paris could cost up to €5, in contrast to the €2.15 ticket to get around inside Paris.

Pécresse explained to Le Parisien that the main goal is simplification and fairness.

“The aim is to take a ‘single Navigo pass’ to its logical conclusion. The principle that all Ile-de-France residents pay the same transport fair, whether they live in the suburbs or the city.

“[The change] will bring an end to the 50,000 different fares that have become unreadable and are sometimes unfair. It’s a real social project based on fairness and freedom,” Pécresse said.

Many of the capital’s lowest-paid workers live in the less expensive outer suburbs, and they have been effectively penalised by the current pricing structure.

However there are other changes coming down the line too.

Here are the changes;

Credit: Ile-de-France Mobilités

Metro and RER

The Paris Metro system, as well as the commuter RER lines, will be combined onto one single ticket, costing €2.50 for any journey within the greater Paris region.

This means that a transport user could switch from the RER and onto the Metro with the same ticket, regardless of how far they have travelled or how many zones they have crossed.

This change will represent an increase of €0.35 (from the €2.15) from the 2024 price for single Metro tickets inside the city.

However, for people travelling to and from the Paris suburbs, the single ticket will likely save them a significant amount.

For example, a journey between Paris and Noisy-le-Grand (Zone 4) cost €4.15 under the previous system, but it will cost €2.50 under the new system.

The only exception to this is tickets to and from Paris’ airports (more on that below).

Bus and tram

A new ticket will be created for the bus and tram lines. This will cost be separate to the Metro and RER ticket, and it will cost €2 per journey. 

However, those purchasing a bus ticket on-board (via SMS) will still pay a heightened price of €2.50.

The other change will be ‘long-distance’ bus journeys. Previously, if a journey took longer than one hour and thirty minutes and involved more than one bus, then the user would have had to pay for two separate tickets per bus ride. Moving forward, ‘long’ bus journeys will cost just one €2 ticket.

This change means that transport users will need to think about buying separate Metro/ RER and bus/tram tickets if their journey requires both methods of transport.

For example, if you take the RER and then take a bus, you would need two separate tickets, as Metro/RER tickets are only valid on those lines, and bus/tram tickets are only valid on those lines.

Liberté +

This pay-as-you-go card will be made significantly more attractive under the new system, but it is only available to Paris region residents. 

You have to subscribe online and connect the account to your RIB, for which you will need a French bank account. You can also track your consumption online, and at the end of the month you pay the total amount that you travelled.

The changes for the Liberté + will include a lower price for Metro/RER journeys (€1.99) and a reduced rate for bus/tram journeys (€1.60).

If you take a journey that combines the Metro and the bus, for example, then you would only pay one price (€1.99) for the entire journey, rather than needing to purchase two separate single tickets.

The other change is that the Liberté + will extend to the rest of Ile-de-France – it was previously only available inside of Paris (Zone 1).

And starting in spring 2025, the Liberté + will be available to load directly onto an Android or iOS enabled smartphone.

Generally, the Liberté + will be a more advantageous option for local residents to pay reduced prices and as-they-go.

Packets of 10 tickets

The ‘carnets’, or 10-ticket books, will be phased out entirely starting in January 2025.

The paper version of these booklets was already phased out, but a reduced price for a bundle of 10 tickets will no longer be available in any form starting in January.

If you want to purchase a bundle of tickets at once, you can still do so – and you can still store them on a Navigo Easy pass – but you will have to pay full price (€2.50 each or €25 for 10).

Trips to the airport

Trips to and from Paris’ airports will be the only exception to the new €2.50 flat rate.

Previously, trips to the airport cost a varying amount based on whether you took the Roissy/Charles de Gaulle bus (€16.60), Roissy/Charles de Gaulle RER (€11.80), Orly bus (€11.50), or Orly Line 14 (€10.30).

Moving forward, only one flat price of €13 will be charged for any and all trips to the airport.

Daily pass

Daily Metro passes, popular amongst tourists, allow for unlimited travel. Previously, they were priced based on the zones the visitor selected – so if you selected a two-zone option (Zones 1-2; Zones 2-3; Zones 3-4, etc) then you would pay €8.65 for the day.

A three-zone option (Zones 1-3, Zones 2-4, Zones 3-5) cost €11.60. The four zone option (Zones 1-4, Zones 2-5) cost €14.35, and the full option (Zones 1-5) cost €20.60.

However, the zoning will be scrapped from January, and instead, single day passes will cover all five zones and cost a flat price of €12. This does not include airports, however, so a separate airport ticket would be required.

Visitor pass

As for the visitor pass – this previously allowed two options for unlimited daily travel in the Paris area – either including just Zones 1-3 for €13.95 (per day), or including all five zones (and airports) for €29.95 (per day).

The new version will cost €29.90 and it will include all five zones, plus airports.

What about monthly and yearly Navigo passes?

Pécresse explained to Le Parisien that these will not change, as the focus is primarily on occasional travellers.

“For Navigo subscribers, nothing is changing. We are working within the framework of the agreement signed with the state, so future increases of these passes will always be less than or equal to inflation plus one percent,” Pécresse said.

What will the general impact be?

This will depend on whether you are a resident of the city of Paris (Zone 1), the Paris suburbs, or if you are a visitor. 

For residents of Paris and the inner suburbs travel with single tickets inside the city will get more expensive, but the Liberté + plan is meant to offset these increases.

Meanwhile, outer suburb residents will likely see a significant decrease in their spending.

On the other hand occasional Metro users will see an increase in price while tourists and visitors will also see an increase.

What about my old tickets?

Any old paper tickets or individual electronic tickets (perhaps stored on a Navigo Easy pass) will still be functional until December 31st, 2025.

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