Transportation
Could Paris End Up With a Metro Station Named After Serge Gainsbourg?
The system's expansion means plenty of jockeying to name the city's newest points of reference.
If you’re trying to give directions to someplace in Paris, noting the relevant Métro stop is the preferred level of specification. Indicating the arrondissement – Paris has 20 – can be imprecise; specifying the street – Paris has over 6,000 – is a shot in the dark.
Métro stations, on the other hand, divide the city into perfectly sized partitions – chief engineer Fulgence Bienvenüe intended that no place inside the city limits be farther than 500 yards from a station. The station names are the language of Parisian psychogeography.