Sounds of Paris

A repository of audio landmarks from the City of Lights.

About

Sounds of Paris is a collection of recordings from places around the French capital. We try to cover landmarks of everyday Parisian life, such as the metro or popular meeting places. We focus on soundscapes and avoid recording any discernible conversation.

In the future, we aim to provide live audio streams from around the city. If you've got a street-facing window and some internet bandwidth to spare, please contact us, and we will provide instructions and/or hardware for you.

All sounds are recorded using the Zoom H4n Pro, and are freely available for download and reuse. Streamed audio is 44.1kHz, 96kbps MP3 or VBR 7. Downloadable audio is 192kbps or VBR 2. This website was based on the Grayscale theme for Jekyll and hosted using Netlify.

Railway Terminals

Gare d'Austerlitz - Paris-Cahors 17h37 (34')
The bulk of this recording features ambient sounds around the Austerlitz train station. The middle part captures passengers boarding for a Paris-Cahors train on platform 2. Although this sound is not endangered, the station was under extensive refurbishment at the time of the recording, which will likely cause the soundscape to change quite a bit in the future.

Places

Châtelet - Saint-Eustache (61')
Having been described as both the centre and the belly of Paris, the Halles-Saint-Eustache quarter and its successive renovations have been divisive among locals. It serves both a meeting point, a shopping mall, and a place of transit. It is also home to Europe's largest underground metro interchange, connecting eight metro and regional lines over 4 levels.

Cafés

Le P'tit Bistrot (19')
A smaller establishment near Tour Saint-Jacques.

Metro

endangered sound Ⓜ10 (Gare d'Austerlitz - Boulogne) (46')
Line 10 is one of the few lines whose route almost never leaves Rive Gauche, the left bank of the Seine. It is a quiet East-West line that mostly links residential or upscale neigbourhoods. It is one of the few remaining lines that still uses MP-67 coaches (1967), which RATP has been phasing out since 2008. Of particular architectural interest is the beautiful Mirabeau station, where one of the platforms is raised 2 meters above the other.

Markets

Aligre (26')
Located between Bastille and Nation in a heavily gentrified neighbourhood, Aligre is one of Paris' tamer open markets.