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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2014 20:55:19 GMT
In the late 1950's, the RATP (Paris Metro Authority) decided that all of those white ceramic bricks were completely outdated and did not need to be seen anymore. So they covered about a hundred stations with yellow aluminium panelling, which was much more appropriate for the wonderfully modern 1960's. In the 1970's they went through a phase of remodelling stations with warm orange tiles because, yes, the 1970's were flashier. I should confess that I was happy with every change along the way, because the styles really did correspond to the decade. As it turned out, the orange tiles were the ones they decided to get rid of first. Out of maybe 20 or 30 stations that had been redone with these tiles, I can only think of one that still has them. Around the end of the 1990's, they didn't much like the yellow panels on the originally renovated stations anymore, so they painted them white. I never understood that, because I have to admit that I preferred the yellow version, but it is not a big deal. In this century, they are eliminating the stations with panels little by little because it was a "cheap" renovation that is no longer accepted aesthetically. All they had done back then was to cover the old tiles with a framework to hold the panels, while the original walls remained untouched. So every now and then when they decide to redo a station with the panels, the original walls are revealed. This is currently the case at the Marcadet-Poissonniers station, just one stop from where I live. The current style is to redo the stations to the original style from the beginning of the 20th century, so I will be curious to see if that is what they do to this station.
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Post by htmb on Dec 23, 2014 21:01:32 GMT
Wonderful to have this information, Kerouac. Thank you for documenting the changes, as well as providing the history. I knew what to expect at several of the stops on the new (for me) line I rode a lot last summer even before I got to them because of this terrific thread.
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Post by fumobici on Dec 23, 2014 21:57:52 GMT
Could you get out at the station under renovation? It looks like it. When I was in Paris this year Oberkampf station was being renovated when I arrived, but you couldn't stop there. All you could see of it was through the window as the train sped through. You could see similar peeling back of accreted layers of decor in the work area. I did get a quick peek walking through as it had opened by the time I left, but the intersting stuff had mostly been cleaned and covered up by then and besides I was in a hurry to catch my early train to Schiphol from GdN.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2014 22:04:23 GMT
Yes, some stations remain open during renovation but others are closed for 2 or 3 months. I suppose that it depends on how essential the station is considered to be -- i.e. whether or not alternative routes are viable or if it will be total shit if you close the station. Already, all of the old posters that I photographed have disappeared, even though the renovation has not yet begun. I imagine there must be scavengers for this type of item.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2015 5:25:39 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2015 19:05:22 GMT
They have finally started chipping away at my local Marcadet-Poissonniers metro station, but I have no idea what the plans are for the finished product. They are not supposed to finish until at least November.
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Post by bjd on Jul 18, 2015 19:11:55 GMT
I'm surprised they redid Louvre-Rivoli so soon. I doesn't seem that long ago that it was redone to look like a museum.
You do know that you can buy kitchen/bathroom tiles that are shiny white rectangles called "metro"?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2015 19:24:39 GMT
I'm surprised they redid Louvre-Rivoli so soon. It has been more than 50 years since the last makeover, so perhaps we have a different concept of "soon." Lots of other stations have been changed since the 1970's renovations with the orange tiles. In fact, I think there is only one "orange" station left out of at least 30 or 40 that were done in that style. The original white tiles are most definitely now the ones in favour and yes, there are lots of non-metro places that use those tiles as well. I expect that Marcadet-Poissonniers is going to be done in the original "Nord-Sud" style, which was the competing company to the "Métropolitain." It looks almost the same but uses green tiles instead of brown ones, and the corner tiles for the "frames" have the NS logo.
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Post by bjd on Jul 18, 2015 19:45:49 GMT
I'm getting on but I wasn't in Paris 50 years ago! I do remember first and second class carriages though.
Hmmm - I just had a look and saw that the Louvre-Rivoli was decorated with old things in 1968, when I wasn't in Paris yet either. It was renamed in 1989 though. I guess I just don't remember it.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2015 20:54:05 GMT
I am sorry for the imprecision of my history. It was indeed only 47 years ago that the station was decorated. I remember the photo spread in Paris Match to which my mother subscribed back then. We would receive each issue about one month late.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2015 17:40:47 GMT
Anybody following this topic knows that I started it with my frustration of the delay in the renovation of "Louvre-Rivoli" in 2011. Well, here we are at the end of 2015 and it is still not finished. I will admit that they have now done all of the walls, the signage, the lighting and the seating, but the most important things are still missing -- the artwork. No specific date has been given for completion, but it is supposed to be "soon."
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2016 17:56:38 GMT
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Post by bjd on Apr 15, 2016 18:17:43 GMT
It looks great. I wonder if there will be any disapproval of the nude statues.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2016 18:20:37 GMT
Not from the French in any case. I'm just happy that Photobucket did not inform me that I was trying to upload pornography like they did when I uploaded a photo of a sculpture of a 5-breasted demon at Pierrefonds.
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Neil Andrews
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Post by Neil Andrews on Aug 9, 2016 12:47:09 GMT
Excellent! Thank you. I am going to Paris soon and hopefully will post some Metro shots on my instagram @mumhad1ofthose
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2016 12:53:59 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 3, 2021 13:37:42 GMT
I visited the new metro extension on line 14 recently. Clearly they are seeing things on a grander scale for the future.
Unfortunately the décor seems quite austere for the moment.
Everything is neat and tidy, which is always a plus.
Various posters vaunted the improvements.
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Post by htmb on Jan 3, 2021 15:50:14 GMT
Sure looks different from other metro stations in Paris. Nice and clean! Reminds me a bit of the new Q line in NYC, especially the deep escalator/stairs section.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2021 17:12:31 GMT
I particularly like the austere picture of the two people on the escalator. The plywood construction paneling making the waiting area more shallow makes me nervous.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 3, 2021 18:00:45 GMT
Since the new metro lines have double protestive doors like elevators, there is not really any risk.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2021 18:45:06 GMT
Does that mean that even when the train is not there, the terrifying opening to the tracks is blocked off?
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Post by bjd on Jan 3, 2021 18:52:37 GMT
Does that mean that even when the train is not there, the terrifying opening to the tracks is blocked off? Yes. You can't get onto the tracks in the automated stations. However, it would be good if the escalators worked -- I see that couple climbing stairs carrying bags.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2021 19:10:48 GMT
Now THAT is civilized!
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 3, 2021 21:02:13 GMT
However, it would be good if the escalators worked -- I see that couple climbing stairs carrying bags. It was the very first day that those stations opened. I was just about to start following that couple up the stairs when the escalators suddenly started.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 4, 2021 7:49:49 GMT
Lovely to see the birth of a new metro station before the vandals do their worst. It looks so clean you could operate on someones brain down there...
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 1, 2021 15:07:17 GMT
They are continuing to go big with the new metro stations (line 14 is the new one -- line 13 was alredy there). I assume that a building is going to grow over this entrance soon. Advertising in the corridors is a major source of revenue, so I am perplexed by the lack of anything so far.
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Post by mossie on Feb 1, 2021 15:43:43 GMT
That looks far too antiseptic and barren to be a Metro station.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 15, 2021 5:19:10 GMT
It's been a few years already, but at Bir-Hakeim near the Eiffel Tower, they added some information panels explaining the mysterious name. It is also explained that the infamous Vel d'Hiv was here, where the French police confined the Jews they arrested until they could be deported to the death camps.
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Post by tod2 on Jun 15, 2021 16:03:23 GMT
I'm grateful for those explanatory panels Kerouac. Long have I wondered about the name. I wish now that my mother was here to tell me what news - If any- was reported here in South Africa. I am ashamed to say I do not know my mother and fathers marriage date unless I look it up through family papers, but I was born 2years later in Kenya. Those were dark days and glorious days in Paris.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 4, 2021 14:57:24 GMT
The new Pont Cardinet station has artwork at one of the entrances. I knew it was planned, but it had not yet been installed when the station first opened in the spring.
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