The Extraordinary Story of the Paris Metro, Past and Future

Metro! That’s the title of the exhibition currently running at the Cité de l’Architecture (Palais de Chaillot) until June 2nd. It takes you on two fascinating journeys: back through the history of the Paris metro and forward into the way the Grand Paris Express project is transforming the city. The project’s motto is “Grand Paris on the Move” and not for nothing has it been dubbed “the construction site of the century.” 

As you enter the exhibition’s small opening room, you are surrounded by film footage of Place de la Concorde in 1897. It shows horse-drawn carriages alongside flickering pictures of workmen digging up the streets to create tunnels for the new-fangled marvel that was soon to open in the city: le métro. It’s the first of many touches which enliven the exhibition. The seating for later film clips includes an old wooden carriage which if – like me – you are “d’un certain âge” you will actually remember! One clip shows an elderly passenger recalling his nervous excitement at traveling on the metro as a six-year-old. His nose was pressed to the window as he thought of the worries of his neighbors that traveling underground was dangerous because “it might all collapse.”   

There’s a section on the metro as depicted in films. To watch the clips, you sit in a seat just like those in today’s stations – brightly-colored scoops of plastic, tilted at a comfortable angle. The comic short from 1984 called Barres by Luc Moullet is a quick-fire series of the ruses people used to avoid paying for their ticket. In Diva by Jean-Jacques Beineix (1981), the camera follows a character riding his moped into the Concorde metro station, down the stairs and on to the train! Nouvelle Vague directors took advantage of the new lightweight cameras to film characters out and about on the metro and clips are shown from Jean-Luc Godard’s Bande à Part (1964) and Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket (1959) where thieves operate in a crowded carriage. 

The first half of the exhibition tells the story of the metro from its beginnings.  A modern transport system was desperately needed by the end of the 19th century, when the population of Paris was five times greater than it had been a century earlier. The solution was masterminded by Chief Engineer Fulgence Bienvenüe, whose name lives on in the Montparnasse-Bienvenüe station. His motto for the project was the grandiose statement: “By the lightening stolen from Jupiter, the offspring of Prometheus are driven through the underworld.”   

The first station, Vincennes-Porte-Maillot, opened in July 1900 and by 1908 one writer underlined the metro’s popularity by describing ‘the unceasing stream of travellers that at certain times pours out of Paris’s underground’.   

What a feat of engineering it was. Some 850,000 cubic meters of soil had to be dug out for Line 1 alone, and stations like Abbesses proved particularly difficult because of the terrain. The workers had to dig over 30 meters below the surface, then install the lift shaft and the long spiral staircase which you will surely remember if you have ever had to negotiate its 176 steps. From the beginning, modernity was the approach, seen in the electric light bulbs installed underground and the commissioning of Hector Guimard to design the station entrances in the fashionable Art Nouveau style. The elegant, curved shapes he copied from nature would, it was hoped, be reassuring for passengers who might be anxious about traveling underground.     

Throughout the 20th century the network was extended and the train speeds gradually increased. Planning for the RER (Regional Express Network) began in the 1960s to serve areas outside of central Paris. This forward-thinking scheme included the building of huge new hub stations like Châtelet-Les Halles and Charles de Gaulle-Étoile. It was revolutionary, leading to rapid development in the suburbs and to the creation of satellite towns around Paris. But it is dwarfed by the current re-think, the Grand Paris Express project, under which four new lines and 68 new stations are being built. The second half of this exhibition explains what is planned and how it will change Paris. 

Over 36 billion euros is being spent to turn the current “spoked” model, where most journeys go through central Paris, into a “double-looped” network which will mean passengers can travel more easily between the outer areas. An extension to Line 14 and 4 new lines, numbered 15-18, will mean that an estimated 98% of the inhabitants of Greater Paris will be within 2 kilometers of a metro, tram or train. From there they’ll be able to access the integrated network and travel easily all over the whole area.  

Much of the work to dig out the new tunnels may go largely unnoticed, but the construction of 68 new stations will certainly make a splash. Each has been designed by a different duo of architect plus artist and the exhibition’s models, cross-section drawings and artwork samples give a good idea of what we can expect. An overall system of multi-lingual signage and modular furnishings which can be added or replaced quickly will give some unity, but the key theme is individuality. Each new station should fit into and enhance its surrounding area and also have what the exhibition literature calls “an emphasis on singularity.” The 68 different architects, each teamed with a different artist, will certainly see to that. 

The Villejuif-Gustave station will be an ambitious take on underground architecture, built some 50 meters underground and designed around a central multi-level cylinder of open-air space bathed in natural light. It will be further lit by a system of light boxes. Futuristic! Others will be “City-Nature” stations where designers will bring together “mineral and vegetal worlds,” while some will function as “places to meet, public piazzas, accessible to all.” Each station will be unique.   

In each case, the artist – involved from the very beginning – will have a major impact. Station buildings will incorporate a whole variety of design features such as sculptures, light installations, murals and digital works. At Villejuif-Gustave station 60 illuminated boxes will be integrated into the ceilings above the platforms to form a “starry sky.” At Saint-Aubin, textiles, paintings and prints will cover the ceilings and walls all over the station to create an immersive work of art. Its creator, artist Ulla von Brandenburg, says her aim is to “recapture the sensation of the fragmented visual experience of the moving landscape as perceived through the metro window.” 

Large-scale murals will be painted onto the platform walls at each station. For the new station at Orly airport, the Portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto will use 11,000 ceramic pieces to depict faces blending into the fabric of the city. A cheerful “urban frieze,” showing locals out and about is planned for the new station at Châtillon-Montrouge, while at the Bourget RER station, a colorful mural featuring the birds of the area will create a “garden of color” to greet passengers stepping off the train. For a sense of the variety which will emerge, look at the pictures of other planned murals on show here, for Issy, Villejuif-Louis Aragon and Champigny Centre.  

The scope of Grand Paris Express compares to the transformation of the city by Baron Haussmann in the 1850s and 60s. Its aims, though, are very 21st century. The first is a major update of the transport system which brings connectivity between central Paris and Grand Paris, the surrounding region where 10 million people live. A second is the reduction of social inequality, achieved by making the outer areas more attractive to business, and giving their residents much better access to the employment, social and cultural opportunities in the center. And it’s a huge contribution to the city’s green agenda, cutting carbon emissions by prioritizing public transport over cars. Around the new stations, new housing will be built, all with an emphasis on eco-design, natural materials and energy efficiency. 

The timetable is tight. Some stations will open this summer and the aim is for the whole project to be completed by 2030, just 130 years after Paris was transformed by the arrival of the first metro. The Cite de l’Architecture’s exhibition will take you on an enjoyable metro trip down memory lane, then zoom you forward to the radical changes coming very soon. The Parisian flair for grand new designs is well documented and this exhibition suggests that its latest and most ambitious project won’t disappoint.

DETAILS

Metro! Grand Paris in Motion 
Cité de l’Architecture
Palais de Chaillot 1, place du Trocadéro
Nearest Metro: Trocadéro (Line 9) 
Open every day except Tuesday
11 am – 7 pm (on Thursdays until 9 pm)
Closes on June 2nd, 2024 
Entry 9€
Concessions 6€