Aimé Césaire () is a station on line 12 of the Paris Métro. The station is located at Place Henri-Rol-Tanguy in

Aubervilliers Aubervilliers () is a commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, Île-de-France region, northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Albertivillariens'' or ''Albertivillariennes''. Geography Localisatio ...

. It is named in honour of the French

Martinican Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in the ...

poet

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He founded the P ...

. It is the 307th station to open.

History

After the death of Aimé Césaire in 2008, officials wanted to name a métro station after him.

Jean-Christophe Lagarde Jean-Christophe Lagarde (born 24 October 1967) is a French politician serving as president of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) since 2014. He succeeded Jean-Louis Borloo after a short interim by Yves Jégo. Lagarde has been the memb ...

, then the mayor of

Drancy Drancy () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department in northern France. It is located 10.8 km (6.7 mi) from the center of Paris. History Toponymy The name Drancy comes from Medieval La ...

, proposed the name ''Proudhon-Gardinoux,'' although it was turned down by the RATP due to odonymic requirements for the naming of métro stations. STIF then decided to name it ''Front Populaire'' in 2011. On the other hand, the station that was temporarily named ''Pont de Stains'', after a nearby bridge, was then given the name ''Aimé Césaire'', with reference to the nearby square Aimé Césaire that was inaugurated on 6 July 2008. The station opened as part of the 2.8km second phase of the extension of line 12 from Porte de la Chapelle to Mairie d’Aubervilliers on 31 May 2022..

Front Populaire The Popular Front (french: Front populaire) was an alliance of French left-wing movements, including the communist French Communist Party (PCF), the socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and the progressive Radical-S ...

had already opened as part of the first phase on 18 December 2012, although the tunnels had already been completed until Mairie d’Aubervilliers. Construction of the stations in the second phase began in the fall of 2014 with its opening initially being scheduled for 2017, although it was eventually pushed back to mid-2019 then again to spring 2022 due to various administrative and technical problems as well as the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. It is expected to handle around 15,000 passengers a day. The exterior façade of the station features a frescos on glass panels, featuring excerpts from Césaire's work, such as illustrations, motifs, and quotes from his poems or past interviews, reflecting his favourite themes in his work: Martinique,

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and nature. It was produced by graphic designers Hermine Poitou and Catherine Félix. The station's accesses and surroundings were designed by Marc Aurel, with fine curves made of brass.

Passenger services

Access

The station has 3 accesses: * Access 1: Canal Saint-Denis * Access 2: Pont de Stains * Access 3: Boulevard Félix Faure

Station layout

Platforms

The station has a standard configuration with 2 tracks surrounded by 2 side platforms.

Other connections

The station is also served by lines 35, 45, and 139 of the RATP bus network.

Gallery

File:Accès Station Métro Aimé Césaire Rue Commune Paris - Aubervilliers (FR93) - 2022-06-01 - 4.jpg, Frescoes along the façade File:Accès Station Métro Aimé Césaire Place Henri Rol Tanguy - Aubervilliers (FR93) - 2022-06-01 - 1.jpg, Access 3 File:Station Métro Aimé Césaire - Aubervilliers (FR93) - 2022-06-01 - 6.jpg, Mezzanine

References

Paris Métro line 12 Paris Métro stations in Aubervilliers Railway stations in France opened in 2022 Accessible Paris Métro stations {{Paris-metro-stub