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Weird and wonderful facts about the Paris Metro

The Paris Metro is a key network that binds the city together, running for miles from East to West, North to South. Although it’s not the oldest in the world – that would be London’s underground – it certainly is one of the most established. We wanted to unearth some weird and wonderful facts, so read on to learn more...

  • The Paris Metro is the second busiest metro system in Europe
  • Thanks to careful planning each station can be found 550 yards away from another – making Paris also has the most comprehensive underground rail system in the world
  • The Paris metro runs more than 600,000 miles per day – that works out as 10 times around the world each day!
  • The first metro line was opened in 1900 just after the Paris World Exposition making it the forth oldest metro in Europe after London, Glasgow and Budapest
  • During WWII, the metro was too shallow to be used as bomb shelters, so they became a meeting place for the French Resistance - allowing them to conduct swift assaults on the Germans throughout Paris
  • The Paris metro is famous for its art and décor, each with its own theme, for example the Arts et Métiers station is designed to look like a submarine and Bastille station walls depict the historic French Revolution
  • Since 1997, the Espace Metro Accords (EMA) began holding auditions to decide which musicians could showcase their music in the metro – now 100 lucky candidates are selected each year and given permission to play music on the metro
  • All around Paris you’ll find ghost stations; stations which haven’t been used for years and are now closed to the public. Some of these include Arsenal, Haxo, or Porte Molitor.

With the Paris Pass you can enjoy free travel around the Paris underground as a Paris Visite Travelcard is included in the package. This will allow you to explore central Paris at your leisure. Learn more about how the Paris Pass and travelcard works.

Here are some useful Paris Metro Tips.

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