Paris region inaugurates its first cable car

The idea took shape one summer in the mid-2000s, on the shores of the Black Sea. Joseph Rossignol, then the left-wing mayor of the south-eastern Paris suburb of Limeil-Brévannes, was traveling around with his pick-up truck and tent when he stopped in Constanta, a Romanian seaside resort town. There, an unusual public transport line had been established to take tourists to the beach since 2004: a cable car. That was the solution!

The elected official had been wondering how to open up his town, which, though just 15 kilometers from Paris, felt much farther, as it…