The Paris Metro

The Metro in 2020: official map from the RATP.

The Paris Metro was built at the turn of the 20th century, and became a major factor in the way that Paris grew and developed. The original plan was to have one metro line that encircled the city, with other lines crossing the center. Transfer points between the lines were conveniently located, thus enabling access to most neighborhoods. Each line was numbered, and also named for the stations at the two ends. As the city grew larger and larger in the second half of the 20th century, the lines were extended further and further into the suburbs, and were merged with inter-urban railroad lines that were for a long time a separate transport system. The Paris metro, along with other public transport, is managed by the RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens), which publishes maps and offers up-to-the-minute online information about transport at https://www.ratp.fr/.

Every metro station has a long and interesting history. Station names often reflect the location, using old neighborhood names, like Grenelle or Passy, or street names, such as St.Michel-Notre-Dame near the site of the cathedral and Boulevard St.Michel. Many station names honor a particular person, such as the  station named for Fulgence Bienvenüe (1852-1936), the engineer who designed and managed the construction of the metro, or the station named Frankln D. Roosevelt. Station names can also commemorate a historic event, such as the Bir Hakiem battle of 1942.

Paris Metro stations are built in a variety of styles. The best known exterior style is that of the Art Nouveau stations, which were designed at the start of the construction of the system by the architect Hector Guimard (1867-1942). Inside the stations, the styles also vary enormously. On the platforms, the stairways, and the long passages between trains, enormous advertising posters are often the most memorable detail, along with the buskers, who must audition for a license to sing or play music in the metro.

The system includes over 300 stations with miles of underground or elevated lines connecting them, and entire books have been written to document all the details. I thought I had other books, but I could only find the following two on my shelves:

Stations of the Metro: Dictionary of the 366 Stations

My copy of this book, published by the RATP, is from the 1980s, so new stations have since been added. It's a complete list of all the stations with the history of their names. The cover echoes the signature white tile of metro walls.

Paris Underground

This is a fascinating account of how the metro was built. The engineering challenges were totally impressive, as underground Paris was full of unexpected quarries, watercourses, and many other obstacles. The technology for tunneling under the river was amazing!

Inventing the Metro Map

Paris Metro Map, 1936 (Source: "Paris Metro Map – The Redesign")

Creating maps of the Paris Metro for the benefit of riders was an interesting challenge in itself. Simplifying the images of the lines and connections while maintaining some relationship to the streets and contours of the city isn't all that easy. This 1936 map came from a very interesting article about how the current map was conceived and created from past versions, and how this can help one to visualize the system and find one's way.

Me and the Metro

Now that I've given you some information about Paris metro history and maps, I'd like to share a few of my Metro memories:

Classic Art Nouveau Metro entrance designed by Hector Guimard.
This is me during our 1976 stay in Paris.

A paper map of the metro from our stay in 1976.

The view from our balcony in 1976: the elevated metro line on Boulevard de Grenelle.
Yes, it was VERY noisy! 

During our stay in Paris in 1976, we had no car so we always took the metro. (Actually we have never had a car in Paris -- it's totally impractical.) The closest station to our apartment was Bir-Hakeim-Grenelle, named for the battle of Bir Hakeim, which took place in 1942 in the Libyan Desert during World War II and for the Grenelle neighborhood where we lived. The station has been extended to include exits closer to the Eiffel Tower, so it is now called Bir-Hakeim-Champs de Mars-Tour Eiffel.

In a station on the platform of the elevated metro near our 1976 apartment.
Photo taken on our visit in 2018.

Under the elevated line: we lived in the huge building in
the photo. A service station/garage was on the ground floor.
Sadly, our photos from that year have faded badly.

The current Bir-Hakeim-Tour Eiffel station, RATP map.

Riding the Metro in 2013

If you go to Paris, you'll surely take the metro. Sometimes it's the only way to get from one place to another! There's definitely a lot of practical information you'll need that I didn't offer today. If you read books or watch movies about Paris, you might also come across lots of references to the metro; the metro in popular culture is another subject I didn't touch here. The metro has been a rich part of Parisian life for over a century -- too much for a short post like this!

This post is designed as a contribution to Paris in July at Thyme for Tea, Tamara's blog. The post and original photos are copyright © 2020 by mae sander.