Paris (France)
Sep 2006
RemovedChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), removal happened as late as that date or before
as of Jun 2014
Much of Paris these days seems to be HPS, certainly the limited parts I visited last year seemed to be so, most of the main streets were lit by HPS Eclatec Orastar luminaires (the globe ones), but is was good to see some newish mercury stuff being installed- open bottom too. The lit one I think was on Rue de Tilsitt near to Avenue de Friedland. Notice also that one (see fullsize pic) has lamp markings from 125W to 700W- presumably the position you have to adjust the holder to to get the light centre where the mark is.
Update Oct 2007: These open bottom fixtures are probably made by Girardin.
Update Jul 2024: Most of this mercury stuff was gone by the mid 2010s, replaced with HPS, much of which at time of writing, stil seems to be there. The helicopter shots from the Olympics opening ceremony TV coverage (26 Jul 2024) showed that most of the main roads in central Paris are indeed either still HPS lit, or a mixture of HPS and low CT (1900k) LED.
Update Jul 2024: Most of this mercury stuff was gone by the mid 2010s, replaced with HPS, much of which at time of writing, stil seems to be there. The helicopter shots from the Olympics opening ceremony TV coverage (26 Jul 2024) showed that most of the main roads in central Paris are indeed either still HPS lit, or a mixture of HPS and low CT (1900k) LED.
SurvivingChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), so can be assumed to be surviving at least as far as that date
as of Mar 2023
This is on Rue de Courcelles (8th arr.) and looking towards Rue de Monceau. These Orastar HPS fixtures are still there as of 2023.
SurvivingChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), so can be assumed to be surviving at least as far as that date
as of Mar 2023
Rue de Courcelles (8th arr.)
This one is probably by Saunier Duval.
Suspect removal by 2019
In the Eiffel Tower Gardens, there are lots of these odd things- open bottom, with what looks like a 400W and 250W lamp, both seemingly positioned to throw light different ways. I don't know if one lamp is meant to be on at once, or they are both lit together. As they are remote ballast fixtures, it's not possible to tell from the wiring which is visible in one of the pics here. I didn't see them at night but presume they are mercury - I've seen an old (1980s) TV programme that featured this location which seems to confirm this.
In the Eiffel Tower Gardens, there are lots of these odd things- open bottom, with what looks like a 400W and 250W lamp, both seemingly positioned to throw light different ways. I don't know if one lamp is meant to be on at once, or they are both lit together. As they are remote ballast fixtures, it's not possible to tell from the wiring which is visible in one of the pics here. I didn't see them at night but presume they are mercury - I've seen an old (1980s) TV programme that featured this location which seems to confirm this.
Update
10-2007:Looking at the Phozagora site, fixtures similar to these are shown - also Girardin, and apparently almost unique to Paris.
Update May 2018: It's possible some of these fixtures are still there, however GSV views suggest they have semicircular bowls now. The two lamps can definitely be seen through the bowls on some of them though. Looking at my pics here, if these fixtures had these bowls, they have been removed for some time- look at the corrosion and the birds nest. There look to have been some spot replacements, and those have more conventional horizontal lamp arrangements.
Update May 2018: It's possible some of these fixtures are still there, however GSV views suggest they have semicircular bowls now. The two lamps can definitely be seen through the bowls on some of them though. Looking at my pics here, if these fixtures had these bowls, they have been removed for some time- look at the corrosion and the birds nest. There look to have been some spot replacements, and those have more conventional horizontal lamp arrangements.
Another look at these fixtures and the 2 lamp setup.
Update Jul 2024: GSV for these areas has not been updated in a while - odd for such a popular location. Piecing
together what I can find, it looks like as early as 2009 some of these fixtures had their bowls replaced, still with the original 2 lamp mercury setup and some of them had been retrofitted to
horizontal lamped HPS. This spot replacement went on, until around 2016 some LED retrofits started to appear. By 2019, instead of retrofits, the complete fixtures had been replaced by similar but
flatter styled LED ones. The Phozagora website confirms these are Schreder Citea LED. According to the Eiffel Tower official website, this whole area was relandscaped starting March 2018 so
reasonable to expect the lighting was redone at that point.
Some of this sort of luminaire look incomplete, the design is so different to other countries. As far as I can tell though, this is how they're meant to be.
Finally, an oddity from the Metro. There are twin incandescent lamps like these two all over the Metro system, they don't seem to be part of the signalling, and aren't bright enough to be working lights in the tunnel. They do look extremely old, but they are maintained- we saw hundreds of them, all working. Any idea what they're for?