Ménilmontant () is a station on

Paris Métro Line 2 Paris Métro Line 2 ( French: ''Ligne 2 du métro de Paris'') is one of the sixteen lines of the Paris Métro. Situated almost entirely above the former customs barrier around the capital (''Boulevards extérieurs''), it runs in a semicircle in ...

, on the border of the 11th and 20th arrondissements.

Location

The station is established at the start of Boulevard de Ménilmontant at its junction with Boulevard de Belleville, at the intersection with

Rue de Ménilmontant Rue de Ménilmontant is a street which runs through the 20e arrondissement of Paris, France. History The street, formerly a (path), took its name from the hamlet of , that it led to, in the thirteen century. In 1732 the street was altered t ...

and

Rue Oberkampf Rue Oberkampf (''Oberkampf Street'') is a street in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. It is named for Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf (11 June 1738 – 6 October 1815) was a French naturalized German industrialist. He ...

. Oriented approximately along a north-west / south-east axis, it is located between the Couronnes and

Père Lachaise A name suffix, in the Western English-language naming tradition, follows a person's full name and provides additional information about the person. Post-nominal letters indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accredit ...

stations.

History

The station was opened on 31 January 1903 as part of the extension of line 2 (known at the time as "2 Nord") from Anvers to ''Bagnolet'' (now called

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...

). It is named after the ''Boulevard de Ménilmontant'', which was named after a hamlet, annexed by Belleville before the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and in turn by Paris in 1860. It was the location of the ''Barrière de Ménilmontant'', a gate built for the collection of taxation as part of the

Wall of the Farmers-General A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including: * Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the supe ...

; the gate was built between 1784 and 1788 and demolished during the 19th century. On 10 August 1903, the station was one of the locations of the most serious accident on the Paris metro. A fire in a wooden train, empty of passengers, killed seven people in the station, but the spread of toxic fumes and heat to the neighboring station at Couronnes would claim the lives of 77 others. As part of the RATP's ''Metro Renewal'' program, the entire station was renovated around the year 2000. On 9 October 2019, half of the nameplates on the station's platforms are temporarily replaced by the RATP in order to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Astérix and Obélix, as in eleven other stations. Taking up in particular the typography characteristic of the comics of

René Goscinny René Goscinny (, ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the ''Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Raised largely in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended French schoo ...

and

Albert Uderzo Alberto Aleandro Uderzo (; ; 25 April 1927 – 24 March 2020), better known as Albert Uderzo, was a French comic book artist and scriptwriter. He is best known as the co-creator and illustrator of the ''Astérix'' series in collaboration with Re ...

, Ménilmontant is humorously renamed ''Menhirmontant'' in reference to the animated film ''

Asterix and the Big Fight ''Asterix and the Big Fight'' is a French comic book, the seventh in the Asterix comic book series. It was written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. Its original French title is ''Le Combat des chefs'' ("The Battle of the Chief ...

'' (''Astérix et le coup du menhir'') . In 2019, 3,943,809 travelers entered the station which placed it at the 120th position of the metro stations for its usage.

Passenger services

Access

The station has a single access entitled ''Boulevard de Ménilmontant'', leading to the central reservation of this boulevard facing no. 137. Consisting of a fixed staircase, it is adorned with a Guimard entrance, which was subject to a registration as historic monument by the decree of 12 February 2016.

Platforms

Ménilmontant is a metro station with a slight curve with a standard configuration. It has two platforms separated by the metro tracks and the vault is elliptical. The decoration is of the style used for the majority of metro stations with bevelled white ceramic tiles covering the walls, the vault, the tympans and the end of the corridors, while the lighting is provided by two tube strips. The advertising frames are metallic and the name of the station is written in

Parisine Parisine is a typeface created by Jean-François Porchez. Distributed by Typofonderie. It is used in Paris Métro, tramways, buses and RER parts operated by the RATP Group in Île-de-France. Starting in 2015, the Osaka City Subway in Japan a ...

font on enameled plates. The seats are in the blue ''Motte'' style. Access is via the northwest end.

Station layout

Bus connection

The station is served by lines 20, 71 and 96 of the

RATP Bus Network The RATP bus network covers the entire territory of the city of Paris and the vast majority of its near suburbs. Operated by the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), this constitutes a dense bus network complementary to other public ...

and, at night, by lines N12 and N23 of the

Noctilien Noctilien is the night bus service in Paris and its agglomeration. It is managed by the Île-de-France Mobilités (formerly the STIF), the Île-de-France regional public transit authority, and operated by RATP (with 32 lines) and Transilien SNC ...

bus network.

Gallery

File:Paris Métro Guimard Ménilmontant 2013.jpg, Street-level entrance at Ménilmontant File:Ménilmontant-quai-rame.jpg,

MF 2000 The MF 2000 (officially called the MF 01) is a model of steel-wheeled electrical multiple units used on Paris's Metro system. The cars first arrived in December 2007 and delivery was completed in 2015. RATP ordered 160 trains or 800 cars in 20 ...

rolling stock on Line 2 at Ménilmontant File:Insegna Metro Menilmontant.JPG, Subway entrance

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menilmontant (Paris Metro) Paris Métro stations in the 11th arrondissement of Paris Paris Métro stations in the 20th arrondissement of Paris Railway stations in France opened in 1903