Paris prison + Gare de l'Est Nazi style

Last week I posted about the old women's prison torn down in the 1930's. Here's breaking news about the last prison in Paris, La Santé. Update today from the Guardian: 

France is about to turn the page on a shameful chapter of its penal history by renovating its most notorious prison, La Santé.

La Santé, named after a neighbouring hospital in southern Paris, has held some of Frances's most famous prisoners in its colourful 147-year history. They have included poets Paul Verlaine and Guillaume Apollinaire, and the playwright Jean Genet, as well as Carlos the Jackal, war criminal Maurice Papon and the Algerian revolutionary leader who became independent Algeria's first president, Ahmed Ben Bella. Although the prison had a VIP wing, Ben Bella told an interviewer: "The French put me with the prisoners who were being guillotined. I could see the guillotine from my cell."

In 2000, the prison's chief medical officer was so shocked by the brutal conditions in the overcrowded jail that she published a diary about her seven-year experience that sparked a parliamentary inquiry.

"Three inmates fought with knives. I was standing in blood until about midnight. The next day, it starts all over again … multiple injuries. It's the humidity, the sun, the suffocating heat in the cells that makes them go crazy," Véronique Vasseur wrote in the diary. Her description of a jail infested by rats, cockroaches and lice was a vision of hell. Some prisoners in the cramped shared cells drank drain cleaner or rat poison to put an end to their misery and others suffered from skin rashes caused by the lack of hygiene with only two showers allowed each week, she said.

La Santé was built to hold 1,400 prisoners, but at the time of the exposé by Vasseur – who received death threats after publication – it was housing more than 2,300. Since that time the most insalubrious blocks have been closed, and on Sunday, the last 60 prisoners were moved out under reforms ordered by justice minister Christiane Taubira, who has ordered a four-year facelift.

When the prison reopens in 2019, it will contain 800 cells.

I'd meant to post about visiting under Gare de l'Est, the train station where many French soldiers, 'le poilu', left for the front in 1914.  This time to highlight what we saw in the bunkers circa the Second World War, the war the Great War was fought to prevent.  I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

an aerial view of the station and lines leading East

Below Gare de l'Est the hangout room for the train hobby club - all former and present SNCF who love trains big and small

Here's a set up and the club work on this all the time

Going deeper below the station

Ring the bell to enter the shelter/bunker

This is what it looks like on the platform and you can get out through the grill if needed. I used that in a book and was so thrilled to have this photo as proof.

Cara - Tuesday

Below and above Paris

In Paris, under the Gare de l'Est train station used by thousands of people every day still exists this World War II era bunker. What's missing in this photo is the bicycle connecting the ventilation system to leg power fresh air in case of a bombardment raid. Yours truly rode the bike and I got winded in a few minutes - just think if you had to pedal hours for fresh air!
Stepping into the bunker was like stepping back in time. From what I gleaned from my guide - the SNCF history buff who snuck me down there - is that the French railway prepared this for the eventuality of war, constructing this in 1938 or 39 to have a secure location to direct part of the train system. A place to defend and protect themselves in case of invasion.
But from above in the busy station you'd never know. Hidden beneath the platforms 2 and 3 nestles this old underground shelter against bombing. Inside, everything is still in working order; diversion systems, oxygen cylinder in case of attack toxic, cranks attached to a bicycle chain in case of power failure, telephones (unconnected now) and the rail network graphics.
But after the German Occupation in 1940 the German army took over this bunker. I saw graffiti and German notices are on the walls. More than 70 people could live in this building completely sealed in a concrete surface of 120m2. The bunker was composed of three main parts separated by watertight door: a room of machinery, a control station and, of course, a telephone exchange. If you enlarge the phtoe note that the Department of Defense continues to maintain the place and probably other similar places known and unknown

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Here's a view in the Canal Saint Martin where part of the canal goes under the street

Talking about aboveground here's the Pantheon in the Latin Quarter grave of the greats the Parisian mausoleum that holds France’s greatest citizens,
where urban explorers part of les UX broke in and for over a year, at night in secret, restored a 150 year old clock

Les UX with 150 or so members has about ten branches. One group, all-female, specialises in “infiltration” – getting into museums after hours, finding a way through underground electric or gas networks and shutting down alarms.



But the branch called the Untergunther – specialises in restoration. Untergunther, whose members include architects and historians, rebuilt an abandoned 100-year-old French government bunker and renovated a 12th-century crypt, he said. They claim to be motivated by a desire to preserve Paris’s heritage.

Several years ago the Untergunther hid in the Panthéon, to repair a clock that had been left to rust. Slipping in at closing time every evening – French television said that they had their own set of keys – they set up a workshop hidden behind mock wooden crates at the top of the monument. The security guards never found it. The Untergunther used a professional clockmaker, Jean-Baptiste Viot, to mend the 150-year-old mechanism.

When the clock began working again, officials were horrified. The Centre for National Monuments confirmed that the clock had been repaired but said that the authority had begun legal action against the Untergunther. Under official investigation for breaking and entry, its members face a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a €15,000 fine.

The clock runs and now the question...would you prosecute them?

Cara - Tuesday