PalQ

Veteran Parisian travelers looking for an off-the-beaten tourist path part of Paris can hop RER a to the Joinville-le-Pont station and do a lovely walk from there along the tranquil and barge-ful Marne River. Walking paths go pretty much on both sides of the river but from the station go along the north/west side of the river and soon you'll be in an area of old quaint stone houses - some of the most unique houses i've seen in Paris, in a kind of gingerbread style - fanciful, whimsical dating from the turn of the centry when this part of the Marne was a favorite with artists who flocked here to eat in its guignettes (?) river side restaurants, few of which exist today. But you can walk along the Marne for about two miles until you oome to another RER statio, line E station at Nogent, to return to Paris. Joinville itself is known for its canal tunnel where barges avoid a large loop in the Marne and use a lengthy tunnel to cut over towards the junction with the Seine. Joinville is a pleasant suburb with the usual coterie of cafes, etc. Sunday market sprawls over many streets.

JulieVikmanis

Thanks. Always looking for more places to explore in and around Paris.
Sounds very worthy.

PalQ

Another intriguing aspect to Joinville is that it has a horce-racing training track and you can watch the jockeys strutting the horses.

Adelle

Thanks for this info. We have been to Paris twice and are heading there for a third time in April. This walk sounds wonderful for an afternoon. How long does it take the RER to get there from central Paris?

PalQ

RER ride about 20 minutes from Gare de Lyon.

ira

Thanks for the post, Pal

Beatchick

Now THAT'S an off-the-beaten-path tip! Thanks, PalQ!

sandypaws3

Thanks, Pal... that's a good one

Sandy

sfowler

This is a WONDERFUL tip indeed!

PalQ

If you're only been to Paris a few times there will be better things to do with your time. I only mention this because i discovered the area only because i once led European bike trips and our groups stayed at the TCF campsite on the Marne at Joinville-le-Pont. An avid jogger who did several miles each morning i got to discover the area well and this neighbordhood of gingerbread houses seemed exceptional. And the whole area's individual brick and stucco houses are so typical of what you see throughout FRance but not in Paris. It's a very quiet area unlike ones i've seen elsewhere in Paris. But i don't want to oversell it either - I just find the area tres quaint. There's not much of interest as soon as you exit the Joinville station but just keep following the Marne upstream on north-west bank and soon as the river takes a turn right this area of quaint houses begins. You'll also see a fading relic of French like - wherever there is a body of water there are old plump fisherman, clad in their ubiquitous 'bleue de travail" or blue work overalls 'angling' with their cascet (sp) - a beret-like hat so typical of older French men (These are not berets as my ex-wife once corrected me but are cascettes - slightly different - it seems the true beret fell from fashion years ago. And you'll also see peniches - freight barges chugging away on this still busy waterway. If i had a choice to live somehwere in Paris area Joinville would be on top of my list. But again i don't want to oversell it; i'm not sure everyone will think it worthwhile. Salut!

Christina

Joinville is the location of a major canoe club, I think. I believe you can rent canoes there.

It's also a hotbed of guingettes, for something different. Here is the web site of one well-known one:

http://www.le-petit-robinson.com/histoir.htm

Here is a listing of several of them with addresses in Joinville

http://www.paris-touristoffice.com/c...ype=Guinguette

PalQ

Guingettes - Christina i didn't realize these fin-de-siecle popular water holes that attracted artists-type still existed. Apparently it was the fashion for intellectuals and artists to come to these places overlooking the Marne River. 'Robinson' is a rather famous restaurant adjacent to the camping - at least it was very popular when i camped there - but then as a thriving nightclub - they also had a restaurant and maybe something on the river that could be a guingette - i'll have to go into the website. Thanks for the note!

Christina

well, I haven't been there but have seen their advertising and they think they are a guingette. I know they have live accordion music sometimes.

I thought there was a guingette revival in the last couple of years, actually -- and while Joinville may be the epicenter of them, there is one in Paris along the Seine, as I recall (to the east of Bercy).

Beatchick

PalQ, I've been to Paris 3 times and I've seen a lot, and there's plenty more to see, but this is the sort of off-the-beaten-path thing that appeals to me. I've saved this thread to my favorites because it sounds fascinating especially with Christina's mention of guingettes!

ira

Hi guys,

Thanks for the info on Joinville.

I looked up the addresses for the guignettes. They are all on the East bank of the Marne.

The train stations are on the West bank.

Are there any bridges other than the Pont de Joinville?

PalQ

There's only the one bridge over the marne - right by the RER station, but if you go down the stairs to the left (just after one of those Parisian plaques marking the scene of resistance fighters being 'fussilade' (shot) by the Germans in WWII, you can take a path along the Marne and then further along there are quaint 'passerelles' - old iron pedestrian bridges over a canal that runs by the backs of houses - the willow-draped canal has boathouses and is an unusual area. Anyway about a mile down the east bank of the Marne is Robinson - at least the large restaurant of this name. Paths continue along the Marne for a few miles to the next bridge over the river, to reach the RER station on the river's west bank. From Robinson you can walk along the river, seeing the tents and campers in the campground (fenced off) and then (a bothersome autoroute viaduct disrupts the river tranquility here) you'll come to the vast grounds of the former Le Tremblay horse track, now a vast Le Tremblay park and golf course. Like several new Parisian parks i've visited it's fun to see how they design these parks - always a novel touch but not always so nice. Anyway the guingettes i don't know if still are popular or existance but apparently are and may be a very Parisian type of dinging experience that probably sees few foreigners. Please let me know is anything is found out about the guingettes. A toute a 'l'heure.

Beatchick

Wow, PalQ, you really know the area & the passarelles sound really charming!

Christina

oh, the guinguettes are definitely in existence. That list Ira mentions is on the Paris Tourist Office web site, and they advertise in Pariscope and places like that. The Petit Robinson citation in the Pariscope I have (from last summer, translated quickly) says:

"Le Petit Robinson (cuisine traditionnelle) Closed Tuesdays. Welcome until 11 pm. A guinguette on the banks of the Marne, with tea-dancing, Fri, Sat, Sun afternoons and dinner-dancing with orchestra Fridays and Saturdays. The-dansant from 11-16 euro and diner-dansant from 33 to 37.5 euro."

Here's an article in Parisvoice about them which describes them pretty well:
http://parisvoice.com/03/june/html/tips/tips2.cfm

Here is another article on them, also, and talks about their revival--it may be even a little better descriptions:

http://www.thiscityparis.com/guinguettes.html

Apparently Gegene is the most popular one out there, here is it's web site which gives some photos to give an idea. This is really retro stuff.
http://www.chez-gegene.fr/

Chez Gegene must be right next to le Petit Robinson, it has a similar address.

ira

Thanks for the info, Christina

PalQ

Incroyable! Thru my own post i have discovered something in Paris that i didn't realize existed - the gingettes at Joinville, thanks to Christina. After going to one of sites she mentioned i read a fascinating account of gingettes, which i erroneously assumed had become extint. Au contraire it turns out - though i was correct in the original post that i thought they had died out, i was basing this on my 1980s experience where i stayed many weeks at the nearby camping - and there were no guingettes that i saw even though i had read of their history, and thus related it in this posting. What i didn't know is that they have been revived, thanks to Christina and how neat they sound - outdoor cafes with dancing to what i gather is a low-brow ('popular')perhaps ribald type of music - folks line dancing around the cafe sounds neat. I'll seek one out on a nice weekend in Paris. Actually the Robinson in the 80s when i was camping next to it was a bowling alley but did have popular dancing at night, attracting huge crowds of younger folk. Then they had a fire and the place was in ruins for some years, but Phoenix-like has been reincarted. The address for Chez Gigene is Quai Polangis, the same as the camping so this is the road along the quai, or bank of the western/southern side of the Marne - from the RER gare cross the bridge, go down the stairs to the left on the left side of the bridge and follow the Marne. Or detour over to follow the small canal to come out at Robinson - this area has intriguing quaint houses. I camped here with my young French son several years back and he was captivated by the passerelles, or footbridges over the canal, especially at night when, dimly lit, surrounded by trees, they took on a mystical quality that he fodnly remembers to this day. The gingette at Champigny, on the island reachable only by crude ferry, sound great - that would be on the western bank of the Marne and to the right off the bridge. If anyone goes gignetting please let us know.