For our final day in Paris, we planned to take it easy with a stroll along the Coulée verte René-Dumont, otherwise known as the Promenade Plantée. Running along an old railway viaduct in the 12th arrondissement, in recent years this has been dubbed Paris’ High Line, but it predates New York’s High Line by 16 years.

The Coulée Verte is built on the former tracks of the Vincennes railway line, which linked the Gare de la Bastille station to Verneuil-l’Étang, passing through Vincennes. The railway closed in 1969, with the part of the line beyond Vincennes being incorporated into the RER A line, while the Paris-Vincennes section remained abandoned.

In the 1980s, Bastille station was demolished and replaced Opéra Bastille opera house, while work began on the designs for the Coulée Verte, starting with the park sections around Reuilly, where the old goods yards used to be. Work got under way to renovate the route of the railway, with it being inaugurated in 1993.

Riding to the Coulée Verte

As usual, I arranged to ride there on a Vélib bike share bike, while the others took the Métro. Setting off from our Airbnb apartment, I largely followed the usual route into the centre I’d been doing all week, along Avenue de Clichy.

Though at Place de Clichy, I decided to carry on towards the Seine, along a series of quiet streets, mostly incorporating contraflow cycle lanes, which are now quite common across Paris.

I eventually ended up on the famous Rue de Rivoli, which has since become a poster child for the amazing work Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo has done for cycling in the city. It’s a real strong statement of intent giving so much space over to cycling, right in the centre of the city.

While I never got to experience Rue de Rivoli at its busiest, I did get to enjoy riding there a few times. On this occasion, I got to follow a group of the local police riding along there, as I made my way towards Bastille.

Carrying on to Place de la Bastille, I made my way along more high quality bidirectional cycle lanes, which continued as I made my way to the start of the Coulée Verte. At this point, I ended up taking a bit of a detour as I tried to find an available docking station to drop my Vélib bike off at.

Walking along Coulée verte René-Dumont

Before making our way up to the viaduct containing the Coulée Verte, we had a browse of Viaduc des Arts below. Viaduc des Arts features a series of arches that have been converted into workshops for skilled artisans, featuring everything from glass blowers to jewelry makers.

We then made our way up the stairs to the Coulée Verte at the beginning of the Viaduc des Arts, not far from Opéra Bastille. Having picked up some breakfast from a bakery, we first went in search for somewhere to sit and enjoy coffee and some delicious pastries.

After breakfast, we made our way along the Coulée Verte, enjoying the wonderful green space and little details we saw along the way. While it’s not that far from the street, it feels like another world on the viaduct.

There was lots for us to see as we continued, old architectural details of the old railway, as well as of the backs of many buildings, that are located next to the viaduct. There’s also new additions to the viaduct, which were added as part of the renovation, such as new bridges and decks.

We noticed the planting varying as we walked along, from sections feeling quite traditional, to some more modern sections, as well as water features and archways. The planting really does make you feel like you’re in another world and not in the centre of a big city.

Further along, we passed some interesting seating, featuring artworks, a small park Jardin Hector Malot, containing lots of exercise equipment and new buildings built up to the viaduct.

From the viaduct, we also had some fantastic views of the streets that run alongside or under it. It was great to get a different perspective looking down these streets and the building that line them. It was particularly good looking along Avenue Ledru Rollin, and seeing the new cycling infrastructure being installed.

We carried on as far as Jardin de Reuilly – Paul Pernin, where we stopped for a look, then left the Coulée Verte to explore elsewhere.

It would have been nice to continue along the whole of the route, particularly as after the park, it drops into a cutting below street level and includes some interesting tunnels as it makes its way to the Petite Ceinture. Maybe we’ll return to do the full route some day.

Lunch at Station F

After doing the Coulée Verte in the morning, we still had a couple more things we wanted to do on our final day. The first of those was to wander over to Station F for lunch. Station F bills itself as the world’s largest startup campus.

Located in the 13th arrondissement, Station F is housed in what used to be the Halle Freyssinet railway goods depot, hence the name Station F. Opening in 2017, the campus houses thousands of start-ups as well as the likes of Microsoft and Facebook.

Station F is home to La Felicità, which is apparently the largest restaurant in Europe, and more of a food court, than a restaurant. Having looked at the reviews, this looked like a great place to get lunch.

To get there, we wandered along past the Caisse des écoles du 12ème Arrondissement, long name but a very distinctive building. We then made our way under the railway lines bound for Paris Bercy Bourgogne – Pays d’Auvergne and past the Accor Arena.

We were now making our way along one of the railway viaducts, as it made its way towards the Seine. We crossed the river on the Pont de Bercy, just as the rain started again. Oh well, so much for a dry day!

Once over the other side of the river, we made our way to Station F, which wasn’t that far. We were impressed by the vastness of the campus and how much of a distinctive and attractive space it is inside.

This was particularly true of La Felicità, with its planting and lighting, as well as interesting features like the old train carriage. I was a lovely space to spend time in and while it was busy, it still felt quite chilled.

As with our experiences of most food courts, they can be a faff to order food and drinks, especially when there’s four of you ordering from different places. But once we got that sorted, we chilled and enjoyed a beer while we waited for our meals.

We all enjoyed our food at La Felicità, my pizza was tasted really good, with great dough. I make quite a few pizza myself, as well as eat a few, so I reckon I’m a pretty good judge on them!

While we could have spent the whole afternoon there, enjoying more beer, we decided to head back out into the rain and continue to our next destination.

Walking along Boulevard Vincent Auriol

Following lunch, made our way to Boulevard Vincent Auriol, which is famous for its street art. Known as Boulevard Paris 13, the project is led by the Association for the Promotion of Urban and Contemporary Arts and has been in place since 2009.

The many large modernist apartment blocks that line the boulevard make for a great canvas for the artworks and even the rain couldn’t dampen the bold colours. With the viaduct running down the middle of the street, I was reminded of Bülowstraße in Berlin, which we’d visited in 2023.

Making our way along, we really enjoyed wandering along the boulevard and stopping to admire the artwork, with the viaduct providing shelter when the rain came.

Riding back

We had planned to continue our wander back over the other side of the Seine, but once we got there, the weekend crowds and the rain were enough to put us off, so we decided to head back to our Airbnb apartment.

This would end up being my final Vélib ride for this holiday, as I made the most of Paris’ new cycling infrastructure on the ride back, while the others took the Métro.

While we weren’t particularly lucky with the weather, we really enjoyed exploring Paris as a family and would happily return again one day, hopefully with a little less rain!

For me, being able to explore the city on bike, riding on what is becoming an extensive network of safe cycle routes, meant I was able to experience Paris in a different way, than if I’d used the Métro.

Paris is well on its way to becoming a true cycling city, showing that creating bike friendly cities where everybody can cycle isn’t the preserve of the Dutch or Danish. It also shows that it’s never too late to start, you just need political will and politicians with enough guts to make the change.

That’s it for the Paris 24 series, but I’ll be back with a new Netherlands 24 series soon, covering our stay in Amersfoort and Duinrell last summer. Hopefully, I’ll get that under way before our Netherlands 2025 trip, otherwise things are going to get pretty confusing!