Kerouac, congratulations for all these beautiful images. I love Paris and you make me to want again and again to visit it and to see with my eyes all the corner you show us.

Thank you.

You're performing a public service here. Many thanks for reminding me others of these sights and the creativity of the metro designers.

K,

I really enjoyed this!

All your photo essays are fun but this was so informative and showed me so much I haven't seen. Due to a bad knee, steps are difficult, so I use buses now, rarely the Metro.

Question, I recently learned that more than 80 Guimard entances still exist. Are there any other distinctive entrances?

Once again, thank you so much.

I did a report on standard metro entrances long ago, but I hope to get back with a report on the non-standard entrances one of these days.

But here is the old report: http://tinyurl.com/3k77ctv

ah, kerouac, once again your visuals and accompanying narrative feed my soul! Just spent my lunch break paging through your essay while munching a home made approximation of a crepe de jambon et fromage and feel like I have had a brief visit to Paris. Merci bien!

Thanks for another interesting visit to Paris, K.

Some canny book publisher should be drawing up a contract for a Kerouac photographic essay on Paris, drawn from the intriguing work he has posted here so often. Just on Fodor forum alone such a volume would sell by the case.
Usually I am so intent on making my connection that I don't look around me in the Metro stations. Next trip, which will be soon, I'll be tracking down what I have seen here.
I don't know if Kerouac follows the history of underground railroads, ie. subways. He might know the Montreal Metro offers an interesting coda to Paris. Begun in the mid-1960s, it took its Paris elder as the blueprint, right down to rubber wheels on the carriages. And every station was given over to a separate architect. The results, being the mid-60s, today can look mundane but at the time were bracing.
However not much has been done recently to emphasize the geographic identities of the stations such as Kerouac's photos show. Unfortunately Montreal has infrastructure challenges, punctuated by the occasional falling chunk of concrete. Stations now boast video advertising as their only contemporary update.
But Montreal has copied the bike-rental system for commuters, so maybe exposure to Kerouac's documentation here could raise the horizon for its new-world niece.

I'd buy a Kerouac essay book, for sure. Pick a publisher, luv. You've already got a ready market base. Advertising would be easy-peasy.

But be sure to dedicate it to your feisty mum.

Loved your pictures! Thanks for all the interesting tidbits of info as well--such as the note about potatoes,etc.

Loved your pictures! Thanks for all the interesting tidbits of info as well--such as the note about potatoes,etc.

Fab pictures, it took me back to the Paris Metros!

Delightful, thank you! Bookmarking

Wow, impressive display. Now when we return, we should devote a day underground! Thank you, kerouac.

Wonderful thread!

Thanks for a great report

Fantastic photos...thanks for sharing them

Love your report. We're in Paris now and took a long ride on Line 1 the other day. Our local line is 9, and one of the stations is Bonne Nouvelle. Do you know why they display the station name in capital letters arranged in a wavy pattern? Just curious.

Thank you! I know what I'm going to do if my next trip to Paris is rainy!

Over the years I have learned that many cities have interesting underground stations -- Athens, Budapest, and Frankfurt are some that come to mind.

<i>Love your report. We're in Paris now and took a long ride on Line 1 the other day. Our local line is 9, and one of the stations is Bonne Nouvelle. Do you know why they display the station name in capital letters arranged in a wavy pattern? Just curious.</i>

In fact, I do. Bonne Nouvelle was one of the most ambitious decorative ideas they ever did. The Bonne Nouvelles stations (there are two -- lines 8 and 9) were decorated like a Hollywood movie set, with movie spotlights and video screens showing silent films of tap dancers and Charlie Chaplin hanging over the platforms. One of the most remarkable details was that some of the white tiles were replaced by little screens show film clips. All of this is because Bonne Nouvelle is situated directly under the biggest cinema in Europe, the Grand Rex (2800 seats). The wavy letters were a tribute to the Hollywood sign.

I presume that the upkeep was too expensive, and there may even have been a lawsuit about illicitly advertising a private enterprise (the Grand Rex).

In any case, after a few years, all of these amazing details disappeared and all that is left is the wavy presentation of the station's name.