Hector Guimard's Paris Métro entrances, from Porte Dauphine to Abbesses

The Paris Métro opened on July 19, 1900, during the Exposition Universelle, and the entrances that most people photograph were designed by the architect Hector Guimard. The railway company, the Chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris, was created in April 1899, and Guimard received his commission on January 12, 1900, a few months before the first line opened.

What he built

Guimard was born in Lyon on March 10, 1867 and died in New York on May 20, 1942. For the Métro he used cast-iron frames, cream-coloured walls and glass roofs. He built several types. The most common was a simple roofless entrance with balustrades and pylons. The most famous is the rounded glass-roofed pavilion, sometimes compared to a dragonfly's wing, and Guimard himself preferred to call his work the Guimard style rather than Art Nouveau.

How many are left

According to Wikipedia's article on Guimard, 167 entrances were installed between 1900 and 1913, and 88 survive as of July 2025, mostly in different places from where they were first built. The article's own figures differ slightly in places, so treat the numbers as approximate. In 1978 all the surviving Métro entrances were declared to have historic value.

Wikipedia says the restored entrance at Porte Dauphine, on Line 2, is the only one still in its original location. According to its page on Abbesses, the Abbesses entrance is one of only two surviving glass-covered dragonfly entrances.

The one at Abbesses

The entrance at Abbesses, on Line 12 in Montmartre, was moved there in 1974 from Hôtel de Ville. It is anachronistic for the station: Line 12 was built by a rival company, the Nord-Sud, which did not hire Guimard. Abbesses is also the deepest station on the network at 36 metres, according to Wikipedia, until Villejuif-Gustave Roussy surpassed it in 2025. Access to the platforms is by lift or by the decorated stairs.

The station also appears in the film Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. Its working title was Amélie des Abbesses, but the film was actually shot at Porte des Lilas. The square above the station, Place des Abbesses, sits at the foot of the Montmartre hill.

Typing it

Abbesses is on Line 12, and Porte Dauphine is the western end of Line 2. In the game you type each name with its spaces, hyphens and apostrophes, but accents are optional, so Porte Dauphine and Abbesses need no special keys.