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Ride Paris' ghost train
From the loudspeakers, a comfortable banter soon emerges from the night's hosts, veritable tomes of history on the Paris Metro. Whenever the train is moving, for the next five hours, it's nonstop Metro trivia.
"We started off as a small group of friends," Pepinster explained, adding that the association includes Metro employees and retirees, police officers, insurance salesmen and research scientists.
The train travels through the city center in between the last two passenger trains, called the Sleeve and the Sweeper.
Bewildered late-night Metro riders watch from the platform as the 1930s train rumbles through the station without stopping. Many step back and wave at the tour passengers, who enthusiastically reciprocate.
After changing Metro lines via a shortcut normally only used by repair cars, the Sprague heads to its first stop: Croix-Rouge in southwestern Paris, one of the Metro's "phantom stations."
The economic stresses of World War II forced Paris to close many Metro stops. Much of the population had been moved to the front lines, and the city needed to conserve energy.
Four of the stations that closed in 1939 - Arsenal, Champ de Mars, Saint-Martin and Croix-Rouge - never reopened. After the war, the two Metro companies combined to form the RATP (the agency that handles local public transportation, Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens). The RATP decided those four stations were unnecessary because of other stations nearby.
Everything is oddly familiar as the train pulls into the grime-and dust-covered platform of the abandoned station at Croix-Rouge. Like other, still-operating stations designed in the early 20th century, Croix-Rouge has tile-covered vaulted ceilings and large frames for advertisements. A rectangular space announces the station's name in white on blue.
Only this station is covered from top to bottom in filth and graffiti.
If the defacing of an important piece of Paris' history is reason to mourn, tonight's passengers are oblivious. The doors open, spilling almost 200 people onto the platform, and the 20-minute party begins.
The organ grinder wakes up from his cushy spot on board and begins cranking out music and singing along. People rush the bar in the first-class car for coffee or beer. Some dance. Others explore the station's fenced-off stairwells and hallways.
Soon the guides usher the crowd back on board, and the group is off to other phantom stations. At a stop around 3:30 a.m. at a training station for Metro drivers, the group gets champagne and pastries.
The evening that started out so jovial is winding down to a quiet halt in western Paris. The guides provide a breakfast of hot chocolate and croissants before the weary crowd heads home, via the first Metro of the new day.
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