Hello and bonjour!
It is early February 2021,
the temperatures have dropped below freezing overnight,
and Paris has woken up to a magical dusting of fresh white snow.
And I think we all know what that means.
RING RING
YOU STAY AT HOME AND WRAP UP WARM
No mum!
it means I rush out and make some content about it
look I can’t talk right now ok love you bye
Now if you’ve been watching my videos for a while
you know one of my favourite things to do is climb a mountain
and this snow is making me dream of winter ascents and alpine adventures.
Unfortunately though, one thing Paris is not famous for is its majestic mountain ranges,
the highest summit within the city is Montmartre which is only 130m above sea level,
as you know,
because you watched my video about it.
But I’ve done some Googling, and I think I’ve found closest thing we’re going to get.
Yes it is time to climb the highest point in the whole of Ile-de-France.
WHAT’S ILE DE FRANCE
Well it’s the region Paris is in.
Paris and Ile de France is a bit like
London and the Home Counties or
New York City and New York State or
wait. How are you still here?!
So here’s the plan.
From Saint Lazare we are getting Line L as far as La Défense
and then changing onto Line U
which will take us all the way out to a place called Trappes
which lies at the foot of the mountain.
Now Trappes…
how can I put this…
Trappes does not have the best reputation right now in France.
Last week the local mayor appeared on a national televised debate called
“is Trappes a dangerous town?”
and defended it by saying
“there are problems in my town, like every town in France,
and here there’s a bit more than in other places”.
But despite high levels of unemployment and poverty,
and all the other issues that tend to come from that,
this small town has produced film stars like Omar Sy and Jamel Debbouze,
footballers like Nicolas Anelka and Patrick Vieira,
and the singer Shy’m
who most of you have probably never heard of
but in France she’s basically Rihanna.
RING
Yes mum?
WHO'S RIHANNA
Oh never mind.
Anyway of course we’re here to climb the highest point in Ile-de-France
and that means getting off the bus right on the edge of Trappes
at the foot of la Colline d’Élancourt:
the Hill of Élancourt.
Right, that is the hill!
Let's do this...
Élancourt is the suburb that neighbours Trappes
and this particular bit of it is home to an enormous bus garage,
an industrial business park,
and the local waste disposal site.
Welcome to Élancourt everyone!
It’s er…
it's so pretty in the snow.
Yes finally I’ve found a place in France that isn’t ridiculously beautiful
and all it took was coming to an actual literal dump.
Because here’s the dirty secret:
before the 1950s there was no hill here.
In fact it was almost the opposite:
the area was pocketed with quarries
and they were extracting sand and stone
to help build the rapidly expanding suburbs;
but then all the new houses and industries started producing waste
and they needed somewhere to put it.
(I think you can all see what happened next.)
Within a decade or so they hadn’t just backfilled the old quarry,
they’d thrown together enough bits and pieces of household junk,
industrial waste,
and excavated earth,
to create the highest hill in the whole Paris region.
Anyway we have now reached base camp for our ascent of the summit.
Right.
For the first time in far too long...
let's climb a mountain!
The peak stands at a mighty 231m above sea level,
that's almost twice as high as Montmartre.
Admittedly the town of Elancourt itself is already at 170m,
which means the total climb of 60m is actually about the same,
but let’s ignore that.
Because make no mistake
what I am taking on here is an Olympic challenge.
I’m not even kidding:
right now, you are looking at the site that will host the Mountain Biking event
at the 2024 Games
so it’s not just me calling this a mountain
it’s the actual Olympics.
You can’t argue with it.
And hopefully by then there will be a few more signposts.
Er...
this way?
I guess...
Who knows. It's all upwards!
Beginning to think the other path would have been a better option
because this one is sort of gradually curving around the base of the mountain
and I would have preferred to just go straight up.
But hey, we'll make it there eventually!
Ahhh, here we go.
Yeah.
This is definitely the kind of path
that I should have been on to start with.
It's quite steep
but I think
we are nearly there...
*MUSIC SWELLS TO THE KIND OF MAGNIFCENT CRESCENDO THAT THIS MEDIOCRE REVEAL SHOT ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT DESERVE*
*THE MUSIC IS STILL GOING I'LL LET YOU KNOW WHEN IT STOPS*
*OK FADING OUT NOW*
There we are: la Colline d’Élancourt!
On a clear day you can see the Eiffel Tower from here,
poking its head above the horizon.
Today it’s not quite clear enough
so here’s a photo I took from the same spot
on a summer ascent a few years ago
(with quite a lot of zoom).
And of course the Eiffel Tower is kind of the elephant in the room:
because although we’re on the highest piece of land in Ile-de-France,
it’s not the highest point you can get to.
Anyone on the Tower’s observation deck would be 85m above us,
but that is currently closed
which means
standing right here on the summit of the Colline d’Elancourt
in February 2021,
you are looking down on every single Parisian.
(And it does make a nice change for it to be that way round.)
If you’d like to climb the Hill of Elancourt
or perhaps you’re competing in the 2024 Olympics,
the closest station is Trappes.
You can take the same route I did from Saint Lazare
or there’s a direct train from Montparnasse.
From Trappes station the number 418 bus
will drop you right at the bottom of the hill.
On the way back to Paris be careful,
your train will go from platform 2b.
The reason I mention this is because these are platforms 1 and 2
and THIS is where they put 2b!
Anyway thank you all for watching,
and I will see you soon.