It lies hidden deep beneath Paris’s bustling Gare de l’Est railway station, its sprawling subterranean rooms and sparse furniture pristinely preserved if a little dusty.
Originally built a few years before World War II for luggage storage, the underground bunker was repurposed after war broke out.
French railway historian Clive Lamming said its 1939 overhaul was to provide “a place to retreat in case of an air attack” so staff could keep the trains running east towards Germany.
Leading this AFP reporter through a concrete air lock and heavy door to the shelter, he said: “The concern was gas.”
“We remembered World War I — a perfectly airtight place was needed,” he added.
With its three-metre (10-foot) thick concrete ceiling, it was designed for about 70 people to be able to take refuge in the small rooms of the 120-square-metre (1,300-square-foot) shelter.
