The girl on the train would have liked that stint of trainspotting in Paris. There is a hillside west of the city where you can behold radishes that grow or gardeners who sigh contentedly under the low winter sun. As it happens, there weren’t any on that day; it was a little bit too early. I took this series of shots in late February 2025. I jumped on my Brompton at the crack of dawn on a very bright and cold day, crossed the Bois de Boulogne, and reached my favourite spot in Saint-Cloud. And no, it has nothing to do with cloud computing, and there weren’t any clouds at all in the sky on that day either. My hands quickly froze as I was taking pictures of the allotments in Saint-Cloud, but the beautiful morning sun was well worth the ordeal.
Trainspotting in Paris
The name Saint-Cloud derives from Clodoald, the grandson of Clovis I, the first Merovingian King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes. For those who would wonder, the Franks weren’t “French”, they were a Germanic tribe. Clodoald, after renouncing his royal claim, became a hermit and later a monk in the area that now bears his name. Over time, Clodoald evolved into Cloud in French pronunciation, hence Saint-Cloud.
Situated to the west of Paris, the town of Saint-Cloud has around 30,000 inhabitants. Saint-Cloud was a notable royal residence, especially during the time of Napoleon, who often stayed at the Château de Saint-Cloud, which was unfortunately destroyed during the Franco-Prussian War. The town boasts the expansive Parc de Saint-Cloud, a national domain covering over 460 hectares, offering stunning views of Paris and beautifully landscaped gardens designed by André Le Nôtre. I often cycle in the area and the views of Paris are stunningly beautiful.
Below the hill and its fiendish 20 grade uphill slope, the T2 tram races past the greenery between the Seine and the ridge. Its electric hum, like that of Philip Glass’s refrigerator, slicing through the silence every few minutes. In those speeding carriages, weary commuters may take a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower…
Or the office buildings of La Défense, depending on where they are headed south or north.
Above their heads, an oasis of garden plots is clinging to the tracks in the midst of the urban jungle.
Founded as part of the early “jardins ouvriers” (allotments for the working class) movement, these gardens were once a necessity. A post-war response to urban poverty, they offered workers a patch of soil to grow their own food. Today, they persist—less from need, more from a desire to reconnect with something slower, simpler, and more gentle with the environment.
Trainspotting, Courtesy of the National Federation of Family Gardens
These gardens, managed by the “Fédération Nationale des Jardins Familiaux et Collectifs“, are protected, but not frozen in time. They change hands, evolve, sprout new ambitions.
You don’t just walk in and start digging—plots are assigned through the mairie (town hall), often after a long wait.
In Saint-Cloud, trainspotting isn’t just about machines in motion, it’s about moments of stillness, glimpsed from the windows of a tram.
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Je suis photographe et aquarelliste. Je pratique la photographie depuis l'enfance et la photographie numérique depuis 1995. J'en ai fait mon activité principale en 2021. Je possède un studio photo dans le 15e arrondissement de Paris
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