Paris Address Question
 

Hi--

What does "bis" mean as part of a street address? For example, "45 bis rue XYZ"?

I believe it means ground level.

I was once told when it was used with an address that it meant very near, or to that effect.

Had no trouble finding it....

In my experience it refers to a second dwelling or store at the same address. IF #45 is/was subdivided and the new entity given its own entrance, then it is given the "bis" address.

"Bis" means 1/2 -- it is a number added between two existing consecutive numbers.

33, 33bis, 35.

You should also learn "Ter" -- it is 1/3 and comes after bis.

12, 12bis, 12ter, 14.

I have no knowledge of what another addition would be called, but 'bis' and 'ter' are actually quite common.

no, it's just a word that means an addition to something but they are inserting it between other numbers, it doesn't have its own number.

For example, if you have a building number 40 and 42, 40bis would be right in-between those two.

This isn't just an address thing, it's used in other situations, such as opus numbers in the musical ouevre of a composer, when two numbers have been used, and they need to insert something chronologically in-between the others.

BTW "bis" does not really mean half. It's from Latin and means again or twice or encore, etc.

Thank you all. Most of the answers converge on the same practical meaning: A building or entrance located between two adjacent street numbers. We can surely find the place we will be looking for.

I know that it doesn't really mean 1/2, but I was thinking about Los Angeles street numbers and all of their 1/2 and 3/4....

Buildings are numbered starting at the end of the street closest to the Seine. As you progress from lowest to highest numbers, the evens are on your right and the odds are on your left. But #24 may not be exactly across from #25.

If you will indulge another "bis" question: When a Metro route is 7 bis or 3 bis, is it a separate line (covering just the start-to-end of the "bis" section) or is it a "spur" off off the 7 (or 3) line, such that some 7 (or 3) trains divert to that segment and others do not--and, in reverse, trains that start on a "bis" segment continue along the non-bis line?

Just trying to learn more about how things work!

To learn about Metro routes look at
http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan...eur&fm=pdf

jmgocan--

I am familiar with that route map, but it doesn't answer my question about whether some 7 trains divert to 7 bis, etc.

Don´t know either, sorry.

When French opera fans want an encore, they shout "Bis!"

Just today I was looking for a "bis" -- Dome du Marais, 53 bis, rue des Francs-Bourgeois.

RE: Bis routes:

I am no expert on the Metro but as its lines are, indeed, known by their destinations, I should have thought that "bis" lines are unheard-of.

NYC subway lines and Rome suburban train lines are a "bis"-lover's paradise, by contrast.

The equivalent to "bis" in house numbering in the UK is "a" - so the equivalent to 45 bis would be "45a".

The same is true of paragraph numbering in contracts, etc. - a paragraph added to a document and numbered 3 bis would be translated as 3a in English.

(Kerouac, after ter comes quater, followed by quinquies, sexies, septies...)

All of this is interesting, but does anyone know the answer to my metro question?

To be more concrete--if I get on the 3 line headed in the direction of Gambetta, will some of the trains go to Gallieni (the 3 terminus) and others go to Porte des Lilas (the 3 bis terminus) instead? Or, to get to Porte des Lilas would I need to change trains at Gambetta from the 3 to the 3 bis?

Why don't you do a route search on www.ratp.fr? They have an English version. Their's is the definitive advice.

d_claude_bear, the 3bis and 7bis lines are separate, which means you need to get out and change trains (and platforms).

There are other lines which split, such as the 13 and the 7, but both branches of the line still bear the same number.

Lines 3bis and 7bis are completely separate lines. You change to go on those lines just like you change to any other line.

The only reason that they don't have their own numbers is because they are too short, and they were cut off from those other lines at some time in the past.

What infuriates me is that they could be connected to make another metro line, and there is even a tunnel already connecting them, as well as a station that was built without any exits (Its name is 'Haxo' because it is under rue Haxo.). The problem is that it would start from somewhere where nobody wants to go and end up where nobody wants to go, so it wouldn't get much more traffic.