Here you go the mighty BP oh well doing my road warrior driving in the city of lights ,this was a must, However, after several trips into Paris learned to avoid it as possible, Mentioned briefly in previous posts on driving/transports in Paris, feels needs a post of its own, Therefore, here is my take on the Boulevard Périphérique of Paris ! Just good timing watching on TV the work of police nights on the BP!! Hope you enjoy the ride as I.
The Boulevard Périphérique of Paris, is a circular road, 35 km long, which goes around the city of Paris. Its name is often shortened to the Périphérique and even the Périph by regular users; it is indicated by the acronym “BP” on road signs. It usually has four lanes of traffic in each direction with two or three lanes between the Porte d’Italie and the Porte d’Orléans, five lanes between the Porte de Montreuil and the Porte de Bagnolet, three lanes between the Porte d’ Orleans and Porte de Sèvres. The speed limit there is now 70 km/h with intentions by the Olympic Games to reduce it to 50 kph ! Even thus users drive even slower !!!
The Boulevard Périphérique comprises fifty interchanges, including six motorway interchanges and forty-four interchanges, for 156 ramps. Three interchanges are distinguished by their complexity: the Porte de Bagnolet at two levels, is extremely complex because at its center is a shopping mall, a bus station and a multi-story car park, and the Porte de la Chapelle and Porte de Bercy interchanges which are on three levels. The Porte Maillot interchange has the particularity of being restructured in connection with the coverage of the RN 13 in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts de Seine 92). The ring road has 148 overpasses , that is bridges that cross over the ring road, and 105 underpasses that is bridges supporting the ring road and crossing other roads or railways, The ring road has 23 tunnels over 100 meters in length and seven over 300 meters long. Two tunnels are over 500 meters long, the Parc des Princes tunnel at 580 meters and the Lake Superior tunnel at 580 meters . The five others are the Courcelles cover (17éme, 422 meters), the Porte de Vanves tunnel (14éme, 410 meters), the Butte Mortemart tunnels (368 meters and 362 meters) and the tunnels of the Place du Maquis du Vercors (19éme, 360 meters) and the neighborhood of rue des Fougères (20éme, 320 meters) which constitute the cover of the Porte des Lilas , Gradually, service stations became rarer ,and now there is only two left , a Total service station at Porte d’Aubervilliers, one on the inner ring and one on the outer ring. You have emergency call terminals , 166 in number, are regularly installed at the rate of one terminal every 500 meters , and every 250 meters underground, Eight police vehicles during the day and four at night constantly patrol the the ring road. 750 electromagnetic loops or sensors embedded in the road surface record each passing vehicle. These sensors make it possible to measure the flow, the occupancy rate and the speed of traffic on a given portion. In the Périphérique or ring road there are 99 cameras capturing on 750 devices with as much as 80 frames at the same time to see what you all do on the 35 km of the ring road: yes big brother is watching you . Of course, some locals do not even know of this, too bad, I do ,I am on the road and do keep tracks of these devices. Mind you these are not speed radars but rather surveillance cameras,,,,
Although the Boulevard Périphérique is the busiest urban highway/motorway in Europe, it only handles 2% of Parisian journeys ,whether internal to Paris or between Paris and its suburbs. The average traffic speed was speed of 35.5 km/h, and according to a 2019 report on the possible prospects for the ring road in the long term, this is considered to be a low accident prone axis in view of the importance of the traffic it receives. 11% of bodily traffic accidents are counted on the ring road, even though this represents 30% of Parisian trafic, The Boulevard Périphérique is one of the four major ring roads surrounding Paris. Inside Paris itself, the Boulevards des Maréchaux surround Paris about a hundred meters from the ring road. Outside Paris, the A86 highway/motorway, located between 2 and 7 km from the Boulevard Périphérique, completes, with the completion of the Duplex A86 tunnel, a loop around Paris. About 20 km from the ring road, the Francilienne, (A/N 104) a set of national roads and highways, allow an almost complete bypass of Paris. Even further, there is the project of the great bypass of Paris. a set of roads and highways which make it possible to avoid Paris at a distance varying between 80 and 200 km.
Of course, could not do this post without my historical sense ,so here is a bit condense history of the Boulevard Périphérique or BP of Paris !
Louis-Philippe, proclaimed King of the French in 1830, was convinced that the key to the defense of the territory consisted in preventing Paris from falling too easily into the hands of foreign armies as in 1814. He therefore conceived the project of building around the capital an enclosure of fortifications which would make the city impregnable, Later, Adolphe Thiers, considering that the Treaty of London of July 15, 1840 bears the seeds of a new threat of invasion, seized the opportunity to have the construction of the new enclosure. the creation of the fortified enclosure which will be called the enclosure of Thiers, after the name of the President of the Council. The construction of the actual enclosure of Thiers, a continuous enclosure wall embracing both banks of the Seine, and sixteen detached forts were completed in 1844. When they were built, the fortifications encompassed not only Paris, but also all or part of a ring of towns located around the city such as Montmartre, La Villette, Belleville, Charonne, Bercy, Montrouge, Vaugirard, Auteuil, Passy and Batignolles-Monceau. . With their annexation in 1860, Paris extends its limits directly to the enclosure of Thiers.
Almost thirty years after the construction of the enclosure of Thiers, the siege of the Prussian army in 1871 will transform Paris into a gigantic prison and will show the vulnerability of this “holy wall”, according to the expression of Victor Hugo ! Its dismantling is planned from 1882 , and finally destroyed from 1919, A decree on the zone of military servitude of March 19, 1925 provided for the attachment to Paris of the territories of the former zone . This annexation was carried out in three stages: sector of Boulogne, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Malakoff, Vanves, Montrouge and Gentilly in 1925, sector of Ivry-sur-Seine, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Kremlin-Bicêtre, Charenton-le-Pont and Saint-Mandé in 1929, and sector of Levallois-Perret, Clichy, Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis, Aubervilliers, Pantin, Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, Les Lilas, Bagnolet and Montreuil in 1930. The ring road will be built on these lands. In 1953, the politicians think again about the ring road. The intramural inner ring road, 20 km long, would be made up of sections of the Pont de Grenelle bridge, based on the Île aux Cygnes, will be rebuilt in 1968. The open parts of the Saint-Martin canal will not be not covered.
The second ring road, 35 km long, doubles on the outside the so-called military boulevards (boulevards des Maréchaux) and it is proposed that it be treated as a highway/motorway, The construction of three sections is included in the 1956-1961 program of major works roads in Paris In 1959, the Périphérique was definitively included in the master urban plan. The section between Porte de la Plaine and Porte d’Italie is the first section to be completed; it was inaugurated on April 12, 1960 , The section from Porte de Châtillon to Porte de Vanves was completed in September 1962, from Porte de Vanves to Porte de la Plaine in November 1963, from Porte de la Plaine to Porte de Sèvres, in September 1964, and Porte de Sèvres at Porte du Point-du-Jour in September 1965, Porte d’Italie at Porte d’Ivry in January then June 1968 and that of Porte from Point-du-Jour to Porte de Saint-Cloud in April 1970, For the northern part, work began with the section from Porte de Saint-Ouen to Porte de la Chapelle. Work began in October 1964 and the section was commissioned in October 1966. It was followed by the section from Porte de la Villette to Porte du Pré-Saint-Gervais in December 1966. On February 10, 1967, the section between the Porte de Saint-Ouen and the Porte des Lilas was inaugurated , In 1969, the sections from the Porte de Saint-Ouen to the Porte d’Asnières in September-October and the Porte du Pré-Saint-Gervais were inaugurated at the Porte de Montreuil in December. In March 1970, that of the Porte d’Ivry at the Porte de Montreuil and, in January 1971, that of the Porte de Saint-Cloud at the Porte Molitor. In 1972, four sections were inaugurated: from Porte Molitor to Porte de la Muette on the one hand and from Porte de la Muette to Porte Dauphine (outer road) on the other , In January 1972, the inner road of this last section in July and finally from Porte Dauphine to Porte Maillot (outer road) in October. The last two sections, the outer roadway from Porte Dauphine to Porte Maillot and the complete section from Porte Maillot to Porte d’Asnières were inaugurated in April 1973. The inauguration of the last section took place on April 25, 1973.
The city of Paris and its BP: https://www.paris.fr/pages/le-peripherique-3213/
The private maps of Paris on the BP : https://fr.map-of-paris.com/plans-rues—places/plan-p%C3%A9riph%C3%A9rique-paris
The trafic information in IDF systadin : http://www.sytadin.fr/
The official Total service station in the BP : https://store.totalenergies.fr/fr_FR/NF078061
The viewsurf webcam on the BP : https://www.viewsurf.com/univers/trafic/vue/7480-france-ile-de-france-paris-pte-daubervilliers-vers-pte-de-la-villette
There you go folks, a very popular and used road around Paris. Many says it cuts the distance to go into Paris ,but you need to check, to me not always in fact most of the times to the west of Paris I go right in without the BP. On the east of Paris, the BP could be useful. Anyway you have choices, and if in doubt ask me…. Hope the post helps and do use it as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
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