Paris Metro Closures, Line 7bis and 13 Feb 21 to Mar 1
Paris, France travelers planning late February and early March itineraries have two overlapping Paris Metro closures that can quietly break plans in the city's north and northeast. Metro Line 7bis is fully closed from February 21 through March 8, 2026, and Metro Line 13 will suspend service on its northwest branch between La Fourche and Asnières, Gennevilliers Les Courtilles from February 28 through March 1, 2026, with replacement buses scheduled.
The practical consequence is not just a longer ride, it is a higher chance of missed timed entry tickets, late dinner reservations, and fragile transfers when weekend crowds compress onto fewer reliable corridors. If a plan depends on Line 13's northwestern stations, or on the short Line 7bis shuttle style hop through the 19th arrondissement, build in extra time and assume more platform crowding on parallel lines during the February 28 to March 1 weekend.
Which Travelers Are Most Exposed to the Disruption
The Metro Line 7bis closure mainly affects local movement in northeast Paris because the line is short and does not provide cross city coverage. It still matters for tourists who are staying near the 19th arrondissement, or who are using the area as a base for neighborhoods that are often visited for parks, canals, and nearby venues. The disruption becomes more noticeable when a traveler is using 7bis as the quick link that avoids a longer set of interchanges on busier lines.
The Metro Line 13 closure is the bigger weekend risk because Line 13 is a high demand trunk line, and La Fourche is a branch junction that already concentrates decision points. From February 28 through March 1, the closure segment removes rail service to the Asnières, Gennevilliers Les Courtilles branch stations north of La Fourche, pushing riders onto replacement buses, taxis, and parallel rail lines. That extra surface traffic can also slow road based trips in the same corridor at exactly the time many visitors are moving between hotels, dinner districts, and weekend events.
Travelers who are most exposed are the ones with tight arrival windows and fixed commitments. Think timed museum entry, prebooked tours, a hard start show, or a reservation that penalizes late arrival. Visitors with luggage are also exposed because a rail segment turning into a bus segment creates extra boarding friction, plus less predictable travel times. For broader trip planning context and neighborhood strategy, travelers can anchor their itinerary planning with Paris Travel Guide: The Ultimate 7-10 Day First-Timer's Itinerary.
How To Plan Around the Closures This Weekend
The simplest rule is to stop treating the February 28 to March 1 weekend like a normal Metro weekend if you need Line 13's northwest branch. Replacement buses are helpful, but they behave like road traffic, not rail, so plan for variability. A conservative buffer for plans that must start on time is 20 to 30 minutes extra if your route would normally use the La Fourche to Asnières, Gennevilliers Les Courtilles segment, and more if you are also moving at typical peak periods.
For alternate routing, the goal is to avoid brittle junction decisions at La Fourche, and to minimize the number of transfers you add to compensate. If your route requires reaching the closed Line 13 stations north of La Fourche, treat the replacement bus as the last mile connector rather than your entire trunk, and consider building your trunk leg around a more stable north Paris axis, then transferring once to reach your endpoint. That approach usually reduces the number of times you re enter crowded platforms and reduces the odds that one missed train compounds into a full itinerary slip.
If you are affected by the Line 7bis closure between February 21 and March 8, assume you will be substituting with other Metro lines and buses that already carry higher baseline demand. The decision threshold is whether your schedule can absorb variability. If you have timed entry, or if a late arrival breaks the point of the outing, re route earlier in the day and aim to arrive near your destination ahead of plan, then take a short walk or a short surface hop to your final stop.
Why These Closures Cascade Beyond One Line
RATP describes the Line 7bis closure as a full shutdown to support track equipment renewal, with replacement buses serving the affected stations. For travelers, the mechanism is straightforward, rail capacity disappears, and the replacement mode shifts riders onto roads and onto parallel lines that were not built to absorb every diverted trip at the same time. The first order effect is longer travel times and more crowded alternatives.
The second order ripple shows up as road congestion and reduced predictability for transfers, especially when visitors are combining Metro rides with taxis, ride hail, or airport transfers that depend on stable surface travel times. Even if a traveler never rides Line 7bis, the closure can still matter if it nudges more riders onto nearby bus corridors or onto parallel Metro routes that a tourist is using for a completely different purpose.
For Line 13, the closure between La Fourche and Asnières, Gennevilliers Les Courtilles is explicitly paired with replacement buses, and the traffic advisory for the line also flags the same segment suspension window. Because La Fourche is a branch point, the disruption is not evenly distributed. The branch riders concentrate into fewer options, and that concentrates platform dwell time, bus boarding queues, and car traffic on the surface. The result is that a closure that looks geographically narrow can still produce system wide friction in north Paris during a busy weekend.