Misplaced Pages

#105894

139-632: The Paris Métro ( French : Métro de Paris , [metʁo d(ə) paʁi] ), short for Métropolitain ( [metʁɔpɔlitɛ̃] ), is a rapid transit system serving the Paris metropolitan area in France. A symbol of the city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform architecture and historical entrances influenced by Art Nouveau . The system is 245.6 kilometres (152.6 mi) long, mostly underground. It has 320 stations of which 61 have transfers between lines. Operated by

278-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process

417-585: A circular line, the ligne circulaire intérieure , to connect the six mainline stations. A section opened in 1923 between Invalides and the Boulevard Saint-Germain before the plan was abandoned. On 31 January 1904, a second concession was granted to the Société du chemin de fer électrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris (Paris North-South underground electrical railway company), abbreviated to

556-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,

695-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and

834-401: A new and independent network and feared national takeover of any system it built. The disagreement lasted from 1856 to 1890. Meanwhile, the population became denser and traffic congestion grew massively. The deadlock put pressure on the authorities and gave the city the green light. Prior to 1845, the urban transport network consisted primarily of a large number of omnibus lines, consolidated by

973-652: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on

1112-558: A premium paid alternative offer proposed for a faster internet connection. As of 2020, the entire RATP network was connected with 4G service, including within tunnels. The automated Line 1 , Line 4 and Line 14 – as well as some congested stations on Line 13 – have platform edge doors ('porte palière') separating the tracks from the platform. The vast majority of Métro stations are not accessible to all. The 20 stations of Line 14 (which first opened in 1998) are fully accessible, and all line extensions since 1992 have included lifts at

1251-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in

1390-587: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and

1529-526: A second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only

SECTION 10

#1732765108106

1668-941: A second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as

1807-460: A seven-stop Lockheed Constellation (1049G model) via India. Air France's ten flights a day to London were almost all Vickers Viscounts ; the only other London flight was Alitalia 's daily Douglas DC-6B (BEA was at Le Bourget). A development project voted in 2012 planned to merge the airport's south and west terminals with the construction of an 80,000-square-metre (860,000 sq ft) building to create one great terminal. On 14 April 2016,

1946-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in

2085-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French

2224-779: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French

2363-564: Is a paper ticket aimed at visitors offering unlimited trips for a duration of one, two, three or five days, for zones 1–3 covering the centre of Paris, or zones 1–5 covering the whole of the network including the RER to the airports, Versailles and Disneyland Paris. A single ticket to or from Orly Airport on Métro line 14 costs €10.30. On 26 June 2012, it was announced that the Métro would get Wi-Fi in most stations. Access provided would be free, with

2502-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English

2641-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given

2780-430: Is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including

2919-462: Is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share

SECTION 20

#1732765108106

3058-408: Is available in paper form, or can be loaded onto a Navigo Easy pass. As of 2024, it costs €2.15 per ticket, and is also available as a pack of ten tickets (a carnet ) for €17.35 on Navigo Easy. Daily, weekly, and monthly passes are available for users of a Navigo card , an RFID -based contactless smart card . Daily tickets are also available as paper tickets until the end of 2024. Paris Visite

3197-652: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in

3336-503: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English

3475-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from

3614-516: Is located on level 1 with more stores and restaurants located here. This central departures area is connected to three gate areas split between Orly 1 (A and B gates) and Orly 2 (C gates). 23 stands at this terminal are equipped with jet-bridges, with several of them also able to handle wide-body aircraft. Inaugurated in April 2019, Terminal 3 is a junction building between Terminals 1, 2 and 4. The terminal allows customers to travel between all areas of

3753-500: Is no longer required. The standard ticket for a single trip is the Ticket t+. It is valid for a multi-transfer journey within 90 minutes from the first validation. It can be used on the Métro (excluding Orly Airport), buses and trams, and in zone 1 of the RER. It allows unlimited transfers between the same mode of transport (i.e. Métro to Métro, bus to bus and tram to tram), between bus and tram, and between Métro and RER zone 1. The ticket

3892-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in

4031-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for

4170-432: Is operated by Groupe ADP under the brand Paris Aéroport . Orly Airport covers 15.3 km (5.9 sq mi) of land. The airport area, including terminals and runways, spans over two départements and seven communes : Management of the airport, however, is solely under the authority of Aéroports de Paris , which also manages Charles de Gaulle Airport , Le Bourget Airport , and several smaller airports in

4309-491: Is operated by the Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP), a public transport authority that also operates part of the RER network, light rail lines and many bus routes. The name Métro was adopted in many languages, making it the most used word for a (generally underground) urban transit system. "Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain" may have been adapted from the name of London's pioneering underground railway company,

Paris Métro - Misplaced Pages Continue

4448-576: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,

4587-476: Is the fifth RER line. It terminates at Haussmann–Saint-Lazare , but a new project, financed by EPAD, the public authority managing the La Défense business district, should extend it west to La Défense–Grande Arche and the suburbs beyond. Between 2007 and November 2011, Line 1 was converted to driverless operation. The line was operated with a combination of driver-operated trains and driverless trains until

4726-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure

4865-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in

5004-534: Is the network's most recent extension. A large expansion programme known as the Grand Paris Express (GPE) is currently under construction with four new orbital Métro lines ( 15 , 16 , 17 and 18 ) around the Île-de-France region, outside the Paris city limits. Further plans exist for Line 1 , Line 7 , Line 10 , a merger of Line 3bis and Line 7bis , Line 12 , as well as a new proposed Line 19 in

5143-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially

5282-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism

5421-417: The voie navette . The first replacements of the older Sprague trains began with experimental articulated trains and then with mainstream rubber-tyred Métro MP 55 and MP 59 , some of the latter still in service (Line 11). Thanks to newer trains and better signalling, trains ran more frequently. The population boomed from 1950 to 1980. Car ownership became more common and suburbs grew further from

5560-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of

5699-462: The Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as

Paris Métro - Misplaced Pages Continue

5838-539: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of

5977-485: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains

6116-559: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,

6255-566: The Groupe ADP rolled out the Connect 2020 corporate strategy and the commercial brand Paris Aéroport was applied to all Parisian airports, including the Orly airport. On 7 November 2015, the failure of a two-decade-old Windows 3.1 system which was responsible for communicating visual range information in foggy weather to pilots caused a temporary cease of operations. Whether the failure

6394-877: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It

6533-529: The Metropolitan Railway , which had been in business for almost 40 years prior to the inauguration of Paris's first line. By 1845, Paris and the railway companies were already thinking about an urban railway system to link inner districts of the city. The railway companies and the French government wanted to extend mainline railways into a new underground network, whereas the Parisians favoured

6672-617: The Nord-Sud (North-South) company. It was responsible for building three proposed lines: Line A was inaugurated on 4 November 1910, after being postponed because of floods in January that year. Line B was inaugurated on 26 February 1911. Because of the high construction costs, the construction of line C was postponed. Nord-Sud and CMP used compatible trains that could be used on both networks, but CMP trains used 600 volts third rail, and NS −600 volts overhead wire and +600 volts third rail. This

6811-626: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It

6950-455: The Régie autonome des transports parisiens ( RATP ), it has sixteen lines (with an additional four under construction ), numbered 1 to 14, with two lines, Line 3bis and Line 7bis , named because they used to be part of Line 3 and Line 7 , respectively. Three lines ( 1 , 4 and 14 ) are automated . Lines are identified on maps by number and colour, with the direction of travel indicated by

7089-1012: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin

SECTION 50

#1732765108106

7228-446: The "balai" (broom) because it sweeps up remaining passengers, arrives at the terminus at 1:15 a.m., except on Fridays (since 7 December 2007), Saturdays and on nights before a holiday, when the service ends at 2:15 a.m. On New Year's Eve , Fête de la Musique , Nuit Blanche and other events, some stations on Lines 1, 4, 6, 9 and 14 remain open all night. Tickets are sold at staffed counters and at automated machines in

7367-650: The 1960s and some closed for good. On 23 March 1948, the CMP (the underground) and the STCRP (bus and tramways) merged to form the RATP , which still operates the Métro. The network grew saturated during the 1950s. Outdated technology limited the number of trains, which led the RATP to stop extending lines and concentrate on modernisation. The MP 51 prototype was built, testing both rubber-tyred metro and basic automatic driving on

7506-506: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;

7645-515: The 2.9-metre or 9-foot-6-inch carriages in Lyon) and trains on Lines 1, 4 and 14 have capacities of 600–700 passengers; this is as compared with 2,600 on the Altéo MI 2N trains of RER A. The City of Paris deliberately chose to build narrow Métro tunnels to prevent the running of mainline trains; the city of Paris and the French state had historically poor relations. In contrast to many other historical metro systems (such as New York, Madrid, London, and Boston), all lines have tunnels and operate trains with

7784-474: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed

7923-510: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French

8062-614: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,

8201-459: The City of Paris. Châtelet–Les Halles , with five Métro and three RER commuter rail lines, is one of the world's largest metro stations. The system generally has poor accessibility since most stations were built underground well before ease of access started being taken into consideration. The first line opened without ceremony on 19 July 1900, during the World's Fair ( Exposition Universelle ). The system expanded quickly until World War I and

8340-599: The Eiffel Society of Gustave Eiffel , and continued until 1892. Eventually the underground option emerged as the preferred solution because of the high cost of buying land for rights-of-way in central Paris required for elevated lines, estimated at 70,000 francs per metre of line for a 20 meters (65 ft 7 in)-wide railroad. The last remaining hurdle was the city's concern about national interference in its urban rail system. The city commissioned renowned engineer Jean-Baptiste Berlier , who designed Paris' postal network of pneumatic tubes, to design and plan its rail system in

8479-408: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of

SECTION 60

#1732765108106

8618-451: The French government into a regulated system with fixed and unconflicting routes and schedules. The first concrete proposal for an urban rail system in Paris was put forward by civil engineer Florence de Kérizouet. This plan called for a surface cable car system. In 1855, civil engineers Edouard Brame and Eugène Flachat proposed an underground freight urban railroad, due to the high rate of accidents on surface rail lines. On 19 November 1871

8757-571: The General Council of the Seine commissioned a team of 40 engineers to plan an urban rail network. This team proposed a network with a pattern of routes "resembling a cross enclosed in a circle" with axial routes following large boulevards. On 11 May 1872 the Council endorsed the plan, but the French government turned down the plan. After this point, a serious debate occurred over whether the new system should consist of elevated lines or of mostly underground lines; this debate involved numerous parties in France, including Victor Hugo , Guy de Maupassant , and

8896-416: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained

9035-524: The Ligne de Vincennes (eastbound) with the intention of joining them and to serve multiple districts of central Paris with new underground stations. The new line created by this merger became Line A. The Ligne de Sceaux, which served the southern suburbs and was bought by the CMP in the 1930s, would be extended north to merge with a line of the SNCF and reach the new Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy. This became Line B . These new lines were inaugurated in 1977 and their wild success outperformed all

9174-449: The Paris Métro mostly uses two-way tunnels. As in most French métro and tramway systems, trains drive on the right ( SNCF trains run on the left track). The tracks are 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) standard gauge . Electric power is supplied by a third rail which carries 750 volts DC . The width of the carriages, 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in), is narrower than that of newer French systems (such as

9313-473: The RER developed by the SNCF would never match the success of the RATP's two RER lines. In 1979, the SNCF developed Line C by joining the suburban lines of the Gare d'Austerlitz and Gare d'Orsay , the latter being converted into a museum dedicated to impressionist paintings. During the 1980s, it developed Line D , which was the second line planned by the initial RER schedule, but serving Châtelet instead of République to reduce costs. A huge Métro-RER hub

9452-443: The airport throughout the occupation. Consequently, Orly was repeatedly attacked by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), destroying much of its infrastructure, and leaving its runways with numerous bomb craters to limit its usefulness to the Germans. After the Battle of Normandy and the retreat of German forces from the Paris area in August 1944, Orly was partially repaired by USAAF combat engineers and

9591-476: The airport under one roof. It includes around 5,000 sqm of duty-free shopping along with several restaurants and lounges. It houses gates D and E, with direct access to Orly 4 departure gates. Formerly known as the South Terminal this innovative 1961 steel-and-glass terminal building consists of six floors. While the smaller basement level −1 as well as the upper levels 2, 3 and 4 contain only some service facilities, restaurants and office space, level 0 features

9730-454: The already-built portion between Duroc and Odéon for the creation of a new east–west line that became Line 10 , extended west to Porte de Saint-Cloud and the inner suburbs of Boulogne . The line C planned by Nord-Sud between Montparnasse station and Porte de Vanves was built as Line 14 (different from present Line 14 ). It extended north in encompassing the already-built portion between Invalides and Duroc, initially planned as part of

9869-576: The arrivals facilities as well as several shops and service counters. The airside area and departure gates are located on the upper level 1. The waiting area, which features several shops as well, houses gates E and F. 15 of the terminal's departure gates are equipped with jet-bridges, some of which are able to handle wide-body aircraft. The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Orly Airport: AOM French Airlines had its head office in Orly Airport Building 363 in Paray-Vieille-Poste . After AOM and Air Liberté merged in 2001,

10008-743: The centre of Paris. The main railway stations, termini of the suburban rail lines, were overcrowded during rush hour. The short distance between Métro stations slowed the network and made it unprofitable to build extensions. The solution in the 1960s was to revive a project abandoned at the end of the 19th century: joining suburban lines to new underground portions in the city centre as the Réseau Express Régional (regional express network; RER). The RER plan initially included one east–west line and two north–south lines. RATP bought two unprofitable SNCF lines—the Ligne de Saint-Germain (westbound) and

10147-709: The city would build most of the permanent way, while a private concessionaire company would supply the trains and power stations, and lease the system (each line separately, for initially 39-year leases). In July 1897, six bidders competed, and The Compagnie Generale de Traction, owned by the Belgian Baron Édouard Empain , won the contract; this company was then immediately reorganized as the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain . Construction began in November 1898. The first line, Porte Maillot – Porte de Vincennes ,

10286-407: The city's outer suburbs. Besides the Métro, central Paris and its urban area are served by five RER lines (602 km or 374 mi with 257 stations), fourteen tramway lines (186.6 km or 115.9 mi with 278 stations), nine Transilien suburban trains (1,299 km or 807 mi with 392 stations), in addition to three VAL lines at Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport , making Paris one of the cities in

10425-487: The city's right to build a local system on 22 November 1895, and by the city's secret designing of the trains and tunnels to be too narrow for mainline trains, while adopting standard gauge as a compromise with the state. On 20 April 1896, Paris adopted the Fulgence Bienvenüe project, which was to serve only the city proper of Paris. Many Parisians worried that extending lines to industrial suburbs would reduce

10564-498: The closing doors. Métro is the abbreviated name of the company that originally operated most of the network: the Empain group subsidiary Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris S.A. ("Paris Metropolitan Railway Company Ltd."), shortened to "Le Métropolitain". It was quickly abbreviated to Métro , which became a common designation and brand name for rapid transit systems in France and in many cities elsewhere. The Métro

10703-415: The core was complete by the 1920s; extensions into suburbs were built in the 1930s. The network reached saturation after World War II with new trains to allow higher traffic, but further improvements have been limited by the design of the network and, in particular, the short distances between stations. In 1998, Line 14 was put into service to relieve RER A . Line 11 reaching Rosny–Bois-Perrier in 2024

10842-538: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Orly Airport Before the opening of CDG in 1974, Orly was the main airport of Paris. Even with the shift of most international traffic to CDG, Orly remains the busiest French airport for domestic traffic and the second busiest French airport overall in passenger traffic, with 33,120,685 passengers in 2018. The airport

10981-466: The delivery of the last of its driverless MP 05 trains in February 2013. The same conversion for Line 4 was completed on 13 January 2022, with the last non-automatic train removed from that line on 17 December 2023, and RATP would now like to automate Line 13. Line 14 was automated from Day 1, as will the lines 15 to 18 which are being built as part of the Grand Paris Express . Several extensions to

11120-519: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French

11259-458: The early 1890s. Berlier recommended a special track gauge of 1,300 mm ( 4 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 16  in ) (versus the standard gauge of 1,435 mm or 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) to protect the system from national takeover, which inflamed the issue substantially. The issue was finally settled when the Minister of Public Works begrudgingly recognized

11398-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French

11537-594: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as

11676-465: The extension of Line 4 and Line 12 to the northern suburbs. By 1949, eight lines had been extended: Line 1 to Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vincennes , Line 3 to Levallois-Perret , Line 5 to Pantin , Line 7 to Ivry-sur-Seine , Line 8 to Charenton , Line 9 to Boulogne-Billancourt, Line 11 to Les Lilas and Line 12 to Issy-les-Moulineaux . World War II had a massive impact on the Métro. Services were limited and many stations closed. The risk of bombing meant

11815-516: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of

11954-915: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,

12093-829: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being

12232-450: The greater Paris area. The Métro is mostly underground (225.2 km or 139.9 mi of 245.6 km or 152.6 mi). Above-ground sections consist of elevated railway viaducts within Paris (on Lines 1, 2, 5 and 6) and the at-level suburban ends of Lines 1, 5, 8, and 13. The tunnels are relatively close to the surface due to the variable nature of the terrain, which complicates deep digging; exceptions include parts of Line 12 under

12371-542: The hill of Montmartre and line 2 under Ménilmontant . The tunnels mostly follow the twists and turns of the streets above. During construction in 1900, a minimum radius of curvature of just 75 metres (246 ft) was imposed, but even this low standard was not adhered to at Bastille and Notre-Dame-de-Lorette . Like the New York City Subway , and in contrast with the London Underground ,

12510-441: The inner circular. The over-busy Belleville funicular tramway would be replaced by a new line, Line 11 , extended to Châtelet . Lines 10, 11 and 14 were thus the three new lines envisaged under this plan. Most lines would be extended to the inner suburbs. The first to leave the city proper was Line 9, extended in 1934 to Boulogne-Billancourt ; more followed in the 1930s. World War II forced authorities to abandon projects such as

12649-454: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French

12788-479: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon

12927-612: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,

13066-479: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what

13205-468: The most optimistic forecasts to the extent that line A is the most used urban rail line in Europe with nearly 300 million journeys a year. Because of the enormous cost of these two lines, the third planned line was abandoned and the authorities decided that later developments of the RER network would be more cheaply developed by the SNCF, alongside its continued management of other suburban lines. However,

13344-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by

13483-461: The network would cost between 4 and 6 billion euros, and that certain stations would remain impossible to retrofit. As of 2022, there were no plans to retrofit existing stations with lifts. RATP notes that buses and trams in Paris are fully accessible, and many RER & Transilien stations are accessible. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

13622-402: The new airline, Air Lib, occupied building 363. Orly Airport is directly served by one metro line, a tram line and a people mover, which offer connections to the larger Paris transportation network: As part of the Grand Paris Express project, Aéroport d'Orly station on the metro opened on 24 June 2024. It is by a new extension of Line 14 , linking the airport directly to Paris. From 2027,

13761-420: The new stations. By 2025, 23 stations on the Métro will be accessible, following extensions to existing lines. The four new lines of the Grand Paris Express will also be fully accessible from day 1. The Law on Equal Rights and Opportunities, Participation and Citizenship of Persons with Disabilities of 2005  [ fr ] does not require the Métro to be made accessible. RATP estimates that retrofitting

13900-652: The official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco;

14039-463: The only two on the network to be split in branches. The RATP would like to get rid of those saturated branches in order to improve the network's efficiency. A project existed to attribute to line 14 one branch of each line, and to extend them further into the suburbs. This project was abandoned. In 1999, the RER Line E was inaugurated. Known during its conception as Eole (Est-Ouest Liaison Express), it

14178-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of

14317-471: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French

14456-471: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in

14595-411: The safety of the city. Paris forbade lines to the inner suburbs and, as a guarantee, Métro trains were to run on the right, as opposed to existing suburban lines, which ran on the left. Unlike many other subway systems (such as that of London), this system was designed from the outset as a system of (initially) nine lines. Such a large project required a private-public arrangement right from the outset –

14734-481: The same dimensions. Five Paris Métro Lines (1, 4, 6, 11 and 14) run on a rubber tire system developed by the RATP in the 1950s, exported to the Montreal , Santiago , Mexico City and Lausanne metro. The number of cars in each train varies line by line. The shortest are lines 3bis and 7bis with three-car trains. Line 11 ran with four until the summer 2023 when four-car MP 59 trains, the oldest type in service at

14873-448: The service between Place d'Italie and Étoile was transferred from Line 5 to Line 6, so that most of the elevated portions of the Métro would be on Line 6. As a result, Lines 2 and 6 now form a circle. Most stations were too shallow to be used as bomb shelters. The French Resistance used the tunnels to conduct swift assaults throughout Paris. It took a long time to recover after liberation in 1944. Many stations had not reopened by

15012-405: The station foyer. Entrance to platforms is by automated gate, opened by smart cards and paper tickets. Gates return tickets for passengers to retain for the duration of the journey. There is normally no system to collect or check tickets at the end of the journey, and tickets can be inspected at any point. The exit from all stations is clearly marked as to the point beyond which possession of a ticket

15151-602: The station will also be served by Line 18 , connecting the airport to Massy-Palaiseau and Paris-Saclay . Orly Airport is connected to the A106 autoroute ( spur of the A6 autoroute ). Paris Aéroport reported in 2023 that a tree-planting project in the vicinity of the airport, along the route of the route nationale 7 , was being undertaken. The scheme involved planting 900 tree species and 14,000 forest seedlings. Paris Aéroport anticipates capturing 329 tonnes of carbon per year through

15290-523: The stations are very close: 548 metres (1,798 ft) apart on average, from 424 metres (1,391 ft) on Line 4 to 1,158 metres (3,799 ft) on the newer line 14, meaning Paris is densely networked with stations. The surrounding suburbs are served by later line extensions, thus traffic from one suburb to another must pass through the city (the circular line 15 , now under construction, will enable some journeys that do not need to pass through Paris). The slow average speed effectively prohibits service to

15429-514: The suburbs of Paris. Originally known as Villeneuve-Orly Airport , the facility was opened in the southern suburbs of Paris in 1932 as a secondary airport to Le Bourget . Before this two huge airship hangars had been built there by the engineer Eugène Freyssinet from 1923 on. As a result of the Battle of France in 1940, Orly Airport was used by the occupying German Luftwaffe as a combat airfield, stationing various fighter and bomber units at

15568-470: The suburbs opened in the last years. Line 8 was extended to Pointe du Lac in 2011, line 12 was extended to Aubervilliers in 2012, line 4 was extended to Mairie de Montrouge in 2013, Line 14 was extended by 5.8 km (3.6 mi) to Mairie de Saint-Ouen in December 2020, and Line 4 was extended to Bagneux in January 2022. Since the Métro was built to comprehensively serve the city inside its walls,

15707-424: The suburbs. The new Line 13 was inaugurated on 9 November 1976. In October 1998, Line 14 was inaugurated. It was the first fully new Métro line in 63 years. Known during its conception as Météor (Métro Est-Ouest Rapide), it was the first of the now three fully automatic lines within the network, along with Line 1 and Line 4. It was the first with platform screen doors to prevent suicides and accidents. It

15846-515: The terminus. It is the second-busiest metro system in Europe , after the Moscow Metro , as well as the tenth-busiest in the world. It carried 1.498 billion passengers in 2019, roughly 4.1 million passengers a day, which makes it the most used public transport system in Paris. It is one of the densest metro systems in the world, with 244 stations within the 105.4 km (41 sq mi) of

15985-616: The time, were gradually replaced by new five-car MP 14 trains (at a pace of 3 to 5 new MP 14 every Monday). Lines 1 and 4 run six-car trains. Line 14 currently runs a mix of six and 8-car trains; in the future it will only run 8 cars. All other lines run with five. Two lines, 7 and 13, have branches at the end, and Line 10 has a one-way loop. Trains serve every station on each line except when they are closed for renovations. [REDACTED] The first train leaves each terminus at 5:30 a.m. On some lines additional trains start from an intermediate station. The last train, often called

16124-466: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In

16263-679: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French

16402-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by

16541-485: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of

16680-536: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of

16819-465: The world best served by public transportation. Despite the network's uniform architecture, several of its stations stand out at the hand of their unique design. The Métro itself has become an icon in popular culture, being frequently featured in cinema and mentioned in music. In 2021, the RATP started offering an umbrella lending service at several Métro and RER stations, highlighting the Métro's own rabbit mascot , which advises children on staying away from

16958-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as

17097-417: Was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French

17236-538: Was announced that Air France will largely cease using Orly Airport by summer 2026, with only one public service obligation flight to Corsica to remain. Known as the West Terminal until March 2019, these two terminals consist of two floors and a gate area of four "fingers" rather than a brick-style layout. The ground level 0 features the arrivals facilities including eight baggage reclaim belts as well as several service facilities and shops. The departures area

17375-442: Was conceived with extensions to the suburbs in mind, similar to the extensions of the line 13 built during the 1970s. As a result, most of the stations are at least a kilometre apart. Like the RER lines designed by the RATP, nearly all stations offer connections with multiple Métro lines. The line initially ran between Saint-Lazare and Olympiades and was subsequently extended north to Mairie de St.Ouen in 2020. Lines 13 and 7 are

17514-417: Was created at Châtelet–Les Halles , becoming one of the world's largest underground stations. The same project of the 1960s also decided to merge Line 13 and Line 14 to create a quick connection between Saint-Lazare and Montparnasse as a new north–south line. Distances between stations on the lengthened line 13 differ from that on other lines in order to make it more "express" and hence to extend it farther in

17653-819: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but

17792-400: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul

17931-547: Was hardware- or software-based is not specified, though the highlighting of the operating system suggests a software failure. As part of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on aviation , the airport was closed to all commercial traffic from 1 April 2020 to 25 June 2020. During this period, commercial traffic and flights were relocated to Charles de Gaulle Airport , while Orly was still used for State flights, emergency diversions, and medical evacuations. In October 2023, it

18070-550: Was inaugurated on 19 July 1900 during the Paris World's Fair . Entrances to stations were designed in Art Nouveau style by Hector Guimard . Eighty-six of his entrances are still in existence. Bienvenüe's project consisted of 10 lines, which correspond to current Lines 1 to 9. Construction was so intense that by 1920, despite a few changes from schedule, most lines had been completed. The shield method of construction

18209-652: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates

18348-466: Was merged with Line 5 in 1906. Line 3 was an additional east–west line to the north of line 1 and line 5 an additional north to south line to the east of Line 4. Line 6 would run from Nation to Place d'Italie . Lines  7 , 8 and 9 would connect commercial and office districts around the Opéra to residential areas in the north-east and the south-west. Bienvenüe also planned

18487-419: Was necessary because of steep gradients on NS lines. NS distinguished itself from its competitor with the high-quality decoration of its stations, the trains' extreme comfort and pretty lighting. Nord-Sud did not become profitable and bankruptcy became unavoidable. By the end of 1930, the CMP bought Nord-Sud. Line A became Line 12 and Line B Line 13 . Line C was built and renamed Line 14 ; that line

18626-532: Was rejected in favor of the cut-and-cover method in order to speed up work. Bienvenüe, a highly regarded engineer, designed a special procedure of building the tunnels to allow the swift repaving of roads, and is credited with a largely swift and relatively uneventful construction through the difficult and heterogeneous soils and rocks. Line 1 and Line 4 were conceived as central east–west and north–south lines. Two lines, ligne 2 Nord (Line 2 North) and ligne 2 Sud (Line 2 South), were also planned but Line 2 South

18765-400: Was reorganised in 1937 with Lines 8 and 10. This partial line is now the south part of Line 13. The last Nord-Sud train set was decommissioned on 15 May 1972. Bienvenüe's project was nearly completed during the 1920s. Paris planned three new lines and extensions of most lines to the inner suburbs, despite the reluctance of Parisians. Bienvenüe's inner circular line having been abandoned,

18904-594: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of

19043-570: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,

19182-791: Was the primary operator at Orly Field until March 1947 when control was returned to the French Government. (The United States Air Force leased a small portion of the Airport to support Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) at Rocquencourt ). The Americans left in 1967 as a result of France's withdrawal from NATO's integrated military command, and all non-French NATO forces were asked to leave France. In May 1958, Pan Am Douglas DC-7Cs flew to Los Angeles in 21 hr 56 min; Trans World Airlines , Air France and Pan Am flew nonstop to New York in 14 hrs 10–15 min. Air France flew to Tokyo in 31 hr 5 min via Anchorage or 44 hr 45 min on

19321-742: Was used by Ninth Air Force as tactical airfield A-47. The 50th Fighter Group flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber aircraft from the airport until September, then liaison squadrons used the airfield until October 1945. The USAAF diagram from March 1947 shows the 6,140-foot (1,870 m) 27/207 (degrees magnetic) runway (later 03R) with 5,170-foot (1,580 m) 81/261 runway (later 08L) crossing it at its north end. The November 1953 Aeradio diagram shows four concrete runways, all 197 feet (60 m) wide: 03L 7,874 ft (2,400 m), 03R 6,069 ft (1,850 m), 08L 5,118 ft (1,560 m) and 08R 6,627 ft (2,020 m). The American United States Army Air Forces 1408th Army Air Force Base Unit

#105894