What if your daily commute came with a bird’s-eye view?
That’s now a reality in the southeastern suburbs of Paris.
Gondolas began gliding above rooftops this weekend with the launch of the region’s first urban cable car.
Officials unveiled the new C1 line in Limeil-Brevannes, joined by regional president Valérie Pécresse and local mayors.
The 4.5-kilometre route links Créteil to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, stopping at Limeil-Brevannes and Valenton along the way.
So what’s the big deal? Speed, for one.
The full trip takes just 18 minutes — less than half the time of a bus or car journey.
It connects previously isolated neighbourhoods directly to Paris metro line 8.
Urban Cable Cars
In total, 105 gondolas will carry up to 11,000 passengers a day, each cabin seating ten people.
And the price tag? A relatively modest €138 million.
“An underground metro would never have seen the light of day,” explained transport chief Grégoire de Lasteyrie.
A billion-euro budget was simply unrealistic.
Cable cars may once have belonged to mountain resorts, but France is embracing them in cities too.
From Grenoble’s iconic “bubbles” to Paris’s newest skyline commuters, it seems the future of urban travel might just be… up in the air.
