Arts et Métiers Station, Line 11 Platform
The Line 11 platform at Arts et Métiers station on the Paris Métro, renovated in 1994 to mark the 200th anniversary of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, the institution behind the neighboring museum of arts and crafts. Its walls and ceiling are covered in copper plates studded with countless rivets, and round portholes line the side walls at regular intervals. Overhead, huge gears of unclear purpose are fixed in place, never turning. The design imitates the interior of Jules Verne's Nautilus; the lighting is dimmed to a yellow glow, and the copper surfaces give back a dull reflection. Left alone in this tube after a train departs, you feel less like you are on a metro platform than like you have slipped aboard a ship diving somewhere. For a few minutes, a place meant for everyday transfers is replaced by an entirely different era and medium.
See photos and posts for this place on the LIMap map
Nearby liminal spaces
- Les Espaces d'Abraxas (14 km)
- Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal 1 (21 km)
LIMap is a map for finding and sharing liminal spaces: places emptied of people that feel eerie and nostalgic at the same time. Many of these places are private or off-limits, so please follow the notes above and view them only from where you are allowed.