Friday, July 5, 2013

"...stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty, Oh, very well, then..."

A perk of being in Paris for an entire week was I had time to do some exploring, not as much as I might have...but still enough.
The iconic Metro stations were a mystery I wanted to learn about.
I found out there were two (!) left of 'édicules' style (that's francypants for glass roofed)- of the 141 stations designed by Hector Guimard between 1900-1912, there are 86 left.  Mostly they are the style of cast iron brin de muguet or spig of the lily of the valley- usually with orange or red lights in the center of the flowers.

The photos here are from Porte Dauphine station-and the only true original left as the other édicules station is Abbessess but that one was moved from Hotel de Ville in the 1970s.

As I continually read in the museums, Art Deco is about emulating or alluding to nature.  I think this is my attraction.  This 'idea' of nature in such a dense cityscape.






Here are examples of two others


 Here is the station now at Abbessess

No comments: