FUN STATIONS
Passy and Bir-Hakeim, for the above reasons.
Saint-Jacques—it has a beautiful 1906 Art Nouveau brick and iron entrance, and its platform walls are covered in pierre meulière, the craggy, porous stone used to build Parisian houses in the nineteenth century.
Montparnasse-Bienvenüe (see Ligne 4 above).
Ligne 7: La Courneuve–8 Mai 1945–Mairie d’lvry / Villejuif–Louis Aragon
Another line in need of refurbishment. Although its trains look relatively new and metallic, they groan and clank on metal wheels. Is it too cynical to say that the refit is considered less urgent because the northernmost section, from Gare de l’Est to La Courneuve, carries some of the city’s poorest commuters? The line takes a very circuitous route, meandering its way across town like the Seine, looping along past the Pont Neuf and the Louvre, up to Opéra and through the most anonymous parts of the 9th arrondissement.
FUN STATIONS
Chaussée d’Antin–Lafayette—apart from the fact that it’s the shopaholics’ drop-off point (the Galeries Lafayette are just above), the ceiling of the Line 7 platform is covered in an immense Sistine Chapel-like fresco celebrating the American Revolution (or at least France’s role in it). The Marquis de Lafayette, who joined Washington’s army, ogles Liberty, represented of course by a beautiful woman. The fresco was designed in 1989 by French painter Jean-Paul Chambas.
Pont Neuf, which has decorations on both its ceiling and walls. The station is on the opposite riverbank to the Monnaie de Paris, the Mint, and features a large metal coin press, in front of a tile fresco of the press in use, as well as some gigantic 3D enamel reproductions of old coins that emerge from one of the advertising billboards and cross the ceiling to the other side of the platform, like bubbles in a miser’s nightmare. There are also some glass cases containing small, life-size coins, which are probably replicas because no one has bothered to steal them. Another fun aspect of the station is that if you get off the métro here, you emerge right on the banks of the Seine, a pretty rare occurrence.
Ligne 8: Balard–Créteil Préfecture
A strange line that feels like a back-up for much of its length. On the long stretch between République and Richelieu-Drouot, it shares three stops with Line 9, and then shadows Line 12 at Madeleine and Concorde. At either end the line disappears into the dark depths of the 12th and the 15th arrondissements. This is because it was cobbled together out of other projects—originally it linked Opéra to Porte d’Auteuil in the far west, much of which has now been hijacked by Line 10.
FUN STATIONS
Opéra, simply because of its absurd exits. You hit street level in the middle of traffic islands in front of the opera house. Great views, but it can take ages to get off the traffic islands and on to the boulevard that you’re looking for, and even longer to reach the opera house itself.
Bonne Nouvelle—if you try to read the name of the station written on the platform walls, you might think that the sign-writer was suffering from absinthe poisoning. However, the uneven lettering is deliberate, and is meant to evoke the Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles. (In fact, it was the person who had the idea who was suffering from absinthe poisoning.)
Ligne 9: Pont de Sèvres–Mairie de Montreuil
Another of the crowded lines, it ploughs through the office districts in the west and centre of the city into prime tourist territory (from Trocadéro to Alma-Marceau, the site of Princess Diana’s memorial flame,***** and on to the Champs-Élysées) and along the popular shopping route of the Grands Boulevards. It also goes out to the Parc des Princes (at Porte de Saint-Cloud), the home of Paris’s football team, Paris Saint-Germain, whose fans are so violent that different factions kill each other rather than attacking the opposition. On home-match days, the western end of the line is jammed with blue-and-red scarves and distrustful expressions. The old trains have been done out with new paisley seats that seem unnecessarily hard—not that you’ll get much chance to sit on one.
FUN STATIONS
Bonne Nouvelle, for its lettering (see Ligne 8 above).
Franklin D. Roosevelt—its Line 9 platforms are like a rundown museum of 1950s design. Its aluminium walls and glass advertising display cases were, half a century ago, the height of avant-garde. These days, the dusty relics are boarded up and ignored by the crowds of commuters. Above ground, things are still trendy—the station’s Line 9 exit takes you to Avenue Montaigne, which is lined with haute couture stores.
Porte de Montreuil—at the opposite end of Paris’s social scale, this station is one of the access points for the massive flea market on a Sunday.
Ligne 10: Boulogne–Pont de Saint-Cloud–Gare d’Austerlitz
A posh people’s line that goes through the Latin Quarter and out into the wilds of the 16th arrondissement, where it is used only by nannies, old ladies and rich schoolkids who haven’t yet been given a Vespa. Like Line 9, it also ferries PSG football fans, so is to be avoided on home-match days. The line has one peculiarity—it splits into two after crossing the Seine, and has six one-way stations, three in either direction. It is a bit like a roller coaster—you can look across and see a platform on a lower level, but you can’t get to it because it’s a different station.
FUN STATIONS
Javel-André Citroën, because it takes you to the Parc André Citroën, where you can go up in a hot-air balloon and get a great view of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.
Cluny-La Sorbonne, which is decorated with ceramic facsimiles of the signatures of legendary French writers like Moliere, Victor Hugo and Arthur Rimbaud. It’s also fun
