Project: 1956 Paris Métro Map Digital Recreation
A digital recreation of one of my absolute favourite vintage transit maps, with a couple of bonus variants at the end of the post!
All posts tagged: Paris Metro
Work in Progress: Vectorization of a 1956 Paris Metro Map
Here’s a sneak peek at a little weekend project… coming along nicely, I must say! I’m particularly pleased with the all-vector halftone dots, which have a lovely organic feeling to them that suit the original source material nicely. More soon!
Historical Map: Old Paris Metro Map at Marcadet Poissonniers Station (pre-1967?)
Great photo of the remnants of an old Metro map. The original poster of this photo on Flickr notes that it’s normally hidden behind advertisements these days. The best I can do with dating is pre-1967, as Line 7 has yet to be split into 7 and 7bis north of Louis Blanc station, instead being branches of the same line. Source: andrew gallix/Flickr
Photo: Tattoo based on H.C. Beck’s First Paris Métro Diagram
The inspiration for this tattoo (which looks real) is really quite obvious when you know what you’re looking for. This is H.C. Beck’s first unsolicited attempt at a Paris Metro diagram from around 1939, and has been reproduced quite faithfully (although without the station names). Source: zachhaschanged/Instagram
Illustration: Walking the Paris Métro by Hwan Lee
This is just beautiful. Artist Hwan Lee has walked (yes, walked!) to 261 Métro stations in Paris, sketching their many and varied entrances, from the spectacular Hector Guimard-designed Art Nouveau édicules at Abbesses and Porte Dauphine to the more prosaic entrances of the modern Ligne 14. The lively sketches of each entrance are arranged nicely onto a stylised Métro map, with Lee’s walking path denoted by a trail of feet all over the city. Delightful! Source: Hwan’s […]
Historical Map: Old Paris Metro Map Uncovered at Les Halles Station
A fantastic photo from Jean-Luc Raymond on Instagram of an old Metro map that’s just been revealed behind multiple layers of billboard advertising at Les Halles station. Definitely looks like it used to have a street grid layer which has faded away with age. I’m not entirely sure of the vintage, although I’d say it can’t be from before 1979, as that’s when the RER C opened. It’s the thicker yellow line across the top […]
Official Map: Île-de-France Regional Transit Map, 2014
Brought to my attention by readers Tony and Guillaume is this striking new regional transit map for the Île-de-France region that surrounds Paris. It shows not only the Paris Métro (lines 1 through 14), but also the tramways (Lines T1 through T7), RER lines (lines A through E) and the Transilien commuter rail network (lines H, J, K, L, N, P, R and U). In addition to all this, it also manages to show a wide array of bus […]
Historical Map: “Blue Guides Short Guide to Paris” Paris Métro Map, 1951
An excellent effort to portray the complexities of the Métro with just two colours. A wide array of different dashed lines allows 15 lines (the 14 Métro lines plus the Ligne de Sceaux) to be differentiated relatively easily. As a guide for tourists, the map wisely concentrates on the central part of Paris, leaving the stations further out to be listed in neat little call out boxes. Source: 217lemurs/Tumblr Paris Metro map from the inside cover […]
Historical Map: Indicateur d’Itinéraires, Paris, c. 2003
An old-school interactive Metro map in Paris. Simply press one of the 360 or so buttons underneath the map, and a path lights up from your current location to your chosen destination. Who needs a fancy touch screen kiosk? I particularly like the way that the furtherest reaches of the RER lines are compressed into diagrammatic form to allow the centre of Paris to be shown as large as possible. This particular example is still […]
Unofficial Interactive Map: Annual Passenger Entries into the Paris Metro (2011)
A nicely executed interactive map of total annual passenger entries into the Paris Metro system. “Entries” are simply defined as a ticket validation at the relevant station. Even in my static screenshot, the enormous quantities of people that enter the Metro at the main railway stations of Paris – the Gare du Nord, Saint-Lazare, Gare de Lyon and Montparnasse-Bienvenue – can be clearly seen. There’s a staggering 48 million entries each year at the Gare […]