The Paris Suburbs Public Bus Tour

The peripheral loop is a recurring figure of the discourse on Paris suburbs.

In opposition to the centripetal configuration of Paris, the idea of a circular network which would allow one to get around appears as a miracle solution to solve all the problems of the metropolis. It would provide an alternative to the "black hole" shaped city, where everything is absorbed by the center. It would solve the inequality between the core and the periphery... A simple topologic inversion would suffice.

The invocation of the peripheral loop results from a sort of magical thinking: conjuring the strength of the centripetal networks by the strength of the circular networks: grands boulevards, loop-lines 2 and 6 of the subway, boulevards des Maréchaux, Périphérique, highway A86, Francilienne ring road, projects for subway or bus rings, etc.

Yet, the loop creates a completely different situation. Since it stays, by definition, always at the same distance from the center, it manifests in the territory the remoteness from the center. I know how distant I am according to the ring on which I stand. This only leads to reinforce the centripetal logic, to make it even more visible and to freeze it in the built up space.

Therefore, it is logical that these rings act as surrounding walls: one lives inside or outside the Périphérique, the 2-6 subway loop or the A86.

This travel is an exploration of the distance to the center. It remains almost constant (as much as the public bus networks allow) during eight hours, while the traveller is carried through 34 cities, before to return to his departure point.

Is he far from the center ? The journey stays approximately at half distance between the center of the agglomeration and the limits of the dense suburb : in the middle of an imaginary territory commonly called "first ring". Traveling on this ring lets one visualize what this purely geographical expression stands for. It gives a quick but global view of the urban landscape: residential areas and housing projects; long and monotonous sequences alongside with varied ones; north-south contrast; changes in vegetation, networks, population...

The Public Bus Tour is an impossible route: there is no convenient way to travel along this loop. This itinerary forces it to become real, by modifying the way networks are used and condensate in the course of a day places that would normally be separated.

Eight hours on the road is eight hours seeing what happens in the public space.

Above all, one travels in the bus itself, since one never gets out of it during the whole tour (except at bus stops). The public space explored is very different from the one in the street. Public buses form a mobile and closed microcosmos. A minimal social contract is respected: its users share the same space and accept the presence of others in this space. The alien traveller does not feel misplaced. It is a very convenient way to peek in the everyday life of an area. Since the 13 buses always connect local destinations, they are used mostly by people living nearby. Each bus has its own local atmosphere.