NAZI BUNKER IN PARIS
G'day folks,
Yes, here is another discovery beneath Paris. Unbeknown to the thousands of passengers that
pass through the station each day, right under their feet, between platforms 2
and 3 at the Gare de l’Est lies an old concrete World War II bomb shelter.
One
of the busiest stations in the heart of Paris, the 19th century terminal is
hiding a 120m² wartime bunker that was half-built by the French as an air raid
shelter and taken over by the Germans during the four-year Nazi occupation,
evidenced by inscriptions on the walls.
We’re lucky enough to see these photos thanks to a (bad
ass) French urban explorer and photographer known as Diane of Neverends.net. How Diane gained
permission to access the underground bunker, ‘only seen by a few’ and
privately owned by SNCF (the French national rail company), shall remain her
secret, but I suppose that’s all part of the mysterious charm of urban
explorers.
The old bunker is very much intact and has obviously been
quite well-maintained by the SNCF, even though they have never decided to share
it with the general public. The space that could inhabit up to 70 people in an
emergency, is made up of a machinery room, a telephone control station and even
the old furniture and objects still remain, including a folding bed and oxygen
cylinders in case of a gas attack.
In a dimly-lit office with wiring and fuse boxes decorating
the walls, on the desks Diane found old sheets of paper with graphs of the rail
network. “One can almost imagine that traffic control officers are going to
burst into the office at any moment to ensure the trains are running properly,”
says Diane on her French urban exploration website.
Is it a shame the SNCF has to keep this secret time
capsule under lock and key– or does the challenge of finding a way in make it
more exciting? Diane isn’t giving out any maps so it’s up to you to embark on
this subterranean adventure on your own, under the Gare de l’Est, right in the
heart of Paris. Sounds more enticing than climbing up the Eiffel Tower with
thousands of tourists.
Clancy's comment: Amazing, and certainly built to last.
I'm ...
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