The Porte de Vincennes is one of the city gates of Paris (France) situated in the Bel Air neighborhood of the 12th arrondissement.

Location

The Porte de Vincennes is located where the northeast corner of the 12th arrondissement meets the southeast corner of the 20th arrondissement of Paris. The site is, more or less, delimited in the west by the Rue des Pyrénées and the Avenue du Docteur-Arnold-Netter; on the east, it is abutted by the Boulevard Davout and the Boulevard Soult. The road that actually passes through the 'porte' is the Cours de Vincennes, a major road that separates the two arrondissements.

The Porte de Vincennes is one of the principal breaches in the eastern section of the Thiers wall

Thiers wall

The Thiers wall was the last of the defensive walls of Paris. It was an enclosure constructed between 1841 and 1844 under a law enacted by the government of the French prime minister, Adolphe Thiers. It covered , along the 'boulevards des Maréchaux' of today...

. It permits access to the neighboring suburbs of Saint-Mandé

Saint-Mandé

Saint-Mandé is a commune of the Val-de-Marne department in Île-de-France in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe.-History:...

 and Vincennes

Vincennes

Vincennes is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe.-History:...

.

The neighborhood

The Porte de Vincennes is the site of one of the largest outdoor markets in Paris, a market which is held on Wednesday mornings and Saturday mornings along the Cours de Vincennes.

Two of the most important lycées (high schools or preparatory schools) in the east of Paris are here. They are called the Lycée Hélène-Boucher and the Lycée Maurice-Ravel.

Also nearby is the Saint Gabriel church constructed during the 1920s and run, ever since, by the fathers of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary

The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is a Roman Catholic religious order of brothers, priests, and nuns...

.

In the popular culture

The Porte de Vincennes is the place where the character, Valmont

Valmont

Valmont may refer to various incarnations of the character in the story Les Liaisons dangereuses .*Vicomte Sébastien de Valmont, a character in the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos....

, dies in the epistolary novel

Epistolary novel

An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use...

, Les Liaisons dangereuses

Les Liaisons dangereuses

Les Liaisons dangereuses is a French epistolary novel by Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu from March 23, 1782....

('Dangerous Liaisons') by Choderlos de Laclos. He is invited there by his adversary, Danceny, for a duel. .

Transportation

Since it is at the crossroads of the Cours de Vincennes and the boulevards of the marshals, with direct access to the Boulevard Périphérique, the principal beltway encircling Paris, and, since it is the origin of National Route 34 (RN 34), the Porte de Vincennes is in the center of an area of high-density automobile traffic.

As for public transportation, this place is served by Line 1 of the Paris metro at its Porte de Vincennes

Porte de Vincennes (Paris Metro)

Porte de Vincennes is a station on Paris Métro Line 1. The station opened as part of the first stage of the line between Porte de Vincennes and Porte Maillot on 19 July 1900 and was the original eastern terminus of line 1 until the extension to Château de Vincennes opened in 1934...

station, as well as several RATP bus lines. Here also is the terminus of Line 3 of the Île-de-France tramway system, which serves the eastern suburbs and connecting service for the Porte de la Chapelle.