Lunch by the Seine Outside Paris, Return by Cable Car

You can now combine the traditional pleasures of Sunday lunch and dancing by the river, 14 minutes by train from Paris, with a spectacular sky-borne return to the city for the price of a bus ticket. 

The pioneering, 3-mile cable car service from the terminus of métro Line 8 at Créteil Pointe du Lac to Villeneuve Saint Georges opened in December 2025. But as it merely connects one southeastern Paris suburb to another, it is used mainly by locals. It is called C1 (Câble 1) on the public transport map of the Ile de France but you would have to know it was there if you wanted to find it. 

I first tried it out alone on a freezing wet and windy day in January 2026 and was predictably thrilled by it. I am a sucker for all new forms of public transport but I did realize that most Parisians would want a reason for taking an urban ski lift, no matter how glamorous, to travel between two suburbs that they had probably never set foot in before. 

So, based on my long experience of little-known daytrips from Paris by train, here is a carefully tested itinerary to help you make the most of a very unusual day out from Paris.  

As the area is well-served by trains from Paris, you could easily shorten the suggested route to include just lunch by the river, then a short stroll and bus ride to the cable car station which connects with the Paris métro, a half-day trip. Or you could decide to work up an appetite for lunch by doing the pretty walk along the Seine to the restaurant first (recommended).  

And if you want to make a full day of it you could get off the métro two stops later on the way back and do the rural walk along the little-known islands of Créteil on the Marne, returning to Paris by train. These options are described in more detail below.  

Optional 3 km (2 mile) walk from Choisy-le-Roi station to the Guinguette Auvergnate restaurant 

Take any RER C train from St Michel-Notre Dame going to Massy-Palaiseau, St Martin d’Etampes or Dourdan-la-Forêt. They all stop at Choisy-le-Roi 13-18 minutes later and run every 10 minutes. 

Get off at Choisy-le-Roi and walk to the end of the platform in the direction from which the train has come, ignoring the steps in the middle which lead up to the main station exit. Instead, take the steps down at the end, turn right and go up steps to the exit “Sortie Av Louis Luc, Côté Seine.” Follow the footpath beside the railway tracks on your left, with the Seine on your right, which leads to a ramp up to a busy road bridge. Turn right along the bridge, go down steps at the end on your right to the river and follow the riverside footpath for 3 km.  

The path has been turned into a walkway in some places, so you are in no danger of getting your feet wet, but it still has swans, ducks, cormorants, wild flowers and tiny shingle beaches. It is a favorite place for locals to fish or picnic. The silence is only broken by the occasional barge sliding past and perhaps a water-skier towards the end of the walk. After passing a church and a boules pitch, the path ends in a little road which leads to the busier Avenue de Choisy. Stay on the righthand side of the road and the restaurant is a few meters away on your right, just before the blue and green sign for the RER station at Villeneuve Triage on the other side of the road. 

Alternative route from Châtelet-Les Halles to Villeneuve Triage station opposite the restaurant 

If you decide to travel from Paris straight to the restaurant, take the RER D Sud from Châtelet-Les Halles or Gare de Lyon to Malesherbes or Melun and get off at  Villeneuve Triage 14 minutes later. Trains run every 15-20 minutes.  

The Guinguette Auvergnate restaurant is so called because its owner is from the Auvergne and it is a guinguette, a traditional French restaurant by the river where working people went to dance to the accordion at weekends. The heyday of the guinguettes was c. 1900 but this one has survived into the 21st century partly because it is ensconced between the river and the huge freight sorting station (triage) opposite which has blocked urban development and partly because its delightful owner, Jean-Pierre Vic, can’t quite bring himself to retire. I first wrote about it for Bonjour Paris in 2011 and it has hardly changed since then. 

You will find yourself effectively in a 1950s time-warp, perfect for dépaysement,  (change of scene). The long building feels like a boat moored in the Seine and has terraces outside and upstairs. The menu offers traditional Auvergnat cooking, varying with the season. The plats du jour such as souris d’agneau au thym (roast knuckle of lamb with thyme) and the saucisse d’Auvergne aligot (Auvergne sausage with a purée of potatoes and melted cheese flavored with garlic) are good value. I recommend the little-known kir Birlou, an Auvergnat apéritif made with white wine and delicately flavored with apple and chestnut. 

The guinguette has survived by running special events, usually with music, but it is possible to book a table by phoning in advance, even if the website gives the impression that the place has been privatized. Sunday is the best day to experience the guinguette at its most traditional. It is standard etiquette to nod at fellow-diners, murmuring “Bonjour/Au revoir messieurs-dames” as you arrive or leave. My niece in the picture below was greeted with great enthusiasm when she joined in the dancing on a recent visit. 

2 km walk (1.2 miles) from the Guinguette Auvergnate to Villeneuve St Georges station 

Turn right from the restaurant and walk along the road for 10 minutes, then take the first right at a sign for “Haropa Port” and follow a little road to the Seine and along an alley of lime trees until you reach a sign for a GR right turn. Go down the slope and follow it for a few minutes until you come to an underpass leading to the station entrance on your left. You will need a métro ticket to pass through the barrier. Walk through the underpass to the main exit on the other side of the station.  

2 km bus ride from Villeneuve Saint Georges station to Villa Nova cable car terminus 

The first bus stop on your right, opposite the Pharmacie de la Gare, is for the 427. It runs every 15 minutes, 20 minutes on Sunday. It is only 4 stops to Villa Nova but it is worth waiting for the bus as the uphill walk along a main road is not recommended.  

4.5 km (3 mile) cable car ride from Villa Nova to Créteil Pointe du Lac terminus 

You will need a Paris bus ticket to enter the futuristic new station where the individual cars holding up to six people, known as gondolas, automatically arrive every 30 seconds. You step into your gondola, just like taking a fairground ride, nod and say “Bonjour” to your fellow-passengers, or wait a few seconds for the next one if you prefer a car to yourself. The gondolas stop at three stations en route and take just 18 magic minutes from one terminus to the other.   

The ride feels like something out of Jules Verne as you sway and swoop in godlike silence above Villeneuve Saint Georges, which is one of the most industrialized and socially disadvantaged suburbs in the Paris region. A lot of the urban infrastructure Paris needs but doesn’t want to see is sited here: the huge freight sorting station at Villeneuve Triage, no longer in use, a water purification plant, a power plant which will be linked to a future data center, and car and furniture warehouses. It is also a major rail and road intersection, which is why the cable car was the cheapest option for improving local transport.  

On my first ride in January there was only one fellow-passenger, a young woman in deep communication with her phone. When we abruptly stopped at maximum height between stations (40 meters) and the gondola swayed alarmingly, lashed by wind and rain, she did look up. The gondolas passing us in the opposite direction had also stopped. I caught her eye and she smiled reassuringly and explained that the stop was for “une raison technique.” I discovered later that these stops are caused by automatic regulation of the traffic as varying numbers of people get on and off at the stations below and are nothing to worry about. Good to know.  

During my second ride with a friend on a sunny day in April we shared a gondola with a young man taking his family out for a Sunday spin on the new line for the first time. He joked that his wife had never been so silent during a journey. She was clearly nervous but he and their children found it a thrilling experience, and the excitement hadn’t worn off for me either. My London friend was quietly impressed. 

At Créteil Pointe du Lac the cable car terminus connects directly with the terminus for métro line 8, approximately 20 minutes from central Paris.  

Optional 5 km (3 mile) walk from métro Créteil Université to the islands of Créteil and St Maur Créteil station 

If you get off Line 8 two stops later at Créteil Université you could end the day with a surprisingly rural walk along the four little islands of Créteil in the Marne, returning from the RER A station at St Maur Créteil. Trains every 15 minutes taking around 18 minutes to Châtelet-Les Halles.  

We did actually do the entire itinerary described here and the whole trip took around eight hours, including a two-hour pause for lunch at the Guinguette Auvergnate. It was one of my most memorable and rewarding days out from Paris.  

The fourth enlarged and revised edition of An Hour From Paris will be published in August 2026