Paris has six main train stations, including Gare du Nord (the busiest station in Europe), Gare d’Austerlitz and Gare Montparnasse, and you probably know that the Musée d’Orsay used to be one too, but some of the city’s stations have been demolished (the Opera Bastille took the place of one) and some are still standing but no longer in use. The Gare des Invalides is the latter, and its history is pretty extraordinary.

After being the biggest station in Paris in its day, it was later transformed into the headquarters of Air France for 70 years, with shuttle coaches instead of trains, ferrying people to and from Paris’ main airports. Currently empty, but soon to be used as offices for the 2024 Olympic Games, an exciting new use is planned in the years to come…

If you’ve ever been down to Invalides to go to the Army Museum or to see Napoleon’s tomb, you’ll probably have seen the huge grassy esplanade that runs down from there to the Seine. However, you may not know that beneath this used to be a large mainline train station, and that the remnants of it remain.

The station building is still visible, although seemingly in poor repair, and after having been used by Air France, it now sits empty. What a lot of people do not know (we certainly didn’t) is that where the tracks and platforms used to be there is now a restaurant, a police station, a gymnasium and a recycling centre!

We decided to take part in a guided visit of this orphaned building, hear about its past and learn more about its future use.

Our visit with Explore Paris started at the entrance to the station building, where it was explained that the building was constructed in 1900 just before that year’s Exposition Universelle. Designed by architect Juste Lisch, the station was originally destined to take some of the pressure off Gare Saint Lazare and Gare Montparnasse, the city’s only two stations at the time.

It’s a half-hidden building partly below ground level, with only a couple of stories, and reminiscent of an orangery – trains for Versailles used to leave form here – and on the ground floor level you can still see what used to be the Air France areas (from the mid-20th century, you could check into your Air France flight here before being ferried to the airport by coach).

However, after a number of decades as a busy train station, with the other Paris stations expanding, the Gare des Invalides found itself redundant after barely fifty years of service. Air France set up shop here in 1946 and departed in 2022, leaving the main building empty.

Despite this, the station still has a surprising amount of activity!

The most obvious is the RER station (the suburban metro system) which was built here but nearer the Sein, specifically as to not get in the way of the mainline train station. If you go down into the RER station you see photos of what the site used to look back in the day.

From the RER there’s also one of the most impressive exits you’ll find in the entire city, with stone arches, wrought ironwork and a jaw-dropping view of the Alexandre III bridge.

The other thing you may see from outside is signs for a restaurant called Chez Françoise, which has a very discreet terrace popular with members of the government (the National Assembly is only a few minutes away, and other embassies and ministries are close by).

The restaurant is quite the oddity – you can even have your leather shoes repaired here by Daniel Vallera (known as la Conciergerie du Cuir) hwo is present every Tuesdays from 10am-3pm! We’re sure that many a secret deal has been struck here. There’s even access for taxis to pass discreetly under the esplanade and deposit their important passengers directly at the restaurant.

Looking at the terrace now, it’s wild to think that for decades, dozens of trains and coaches use to leave from this exact spot.

But more astonishing are the other activities still happening underground where the train tracks used to be. The platforms have all gon of course, and a central space previously used by Air France is now empty, but behind it is a sorting centre for recycling, a gym for sport and even the main police station of the 7th arrondissement.

A long street is on either side, running across and underneath the esplanade of Les Invalides, and this explains why there are no trees planted above – there’s not enough depth of soil.

Part of this underground space is shared with national train operator SNCF, and closed to the public. The old columns of the station are still very much visible, but cars have taken the place of trains and padlocks stop further exploration.

By going down the road (it even has a name – rue Paul et Jean Lerolle, because the site belongs to the Paris city council), you eventually arrive at a ramp that goes past the police station and give access to the other side of the esplanade. Most people on the grass above have no idea of all the activity below their feet!

So the question now is – what does the future hold for the Gare des Invalides? Well, surprisingly, the answer only came a few months ago.

A project for a museum of artisans – L’Aérog’art seemed destined to fill the empty spaces, but is now not going to happen. Instead, the main building will be used as offices for the organisers of the 2024 Olympic Games in 2024, and after that the building will become the new Giacometti Foundation, as the current one has run out of space at its current space in the 14th arrondissement (we visited it for you here).

The fine details have yet to be decided, but work is due to start in 2025, marking a new chapter for this lovely but slightly neglected building.

In the meantime, all the areas you have seen above are open to the public, and nearby are many other wonders to see (as an antidote to the slightly grim underground spaces…)

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The Gare des Invalides (here) is open every day, but for more informations, 2-hour guided visits are available from Explore Paris

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To check out all our photos of the Gare des Invalides, simply click here.