Argentine () is a station on Line 1 of the Paris Métro, located on the boundary between the 16th arrondissement and the 17th arrondissement, in the western part of the city.
Location
Like most stations on Line 1, Argentine station lies on an east–west route through Paris from Vincennes in the east to La Défense in the west. Specifically, the station is underneath Avenue de la Grande Armée, the extension of the Champs-Élysées west of the Arc de Triomphe, at its intersection with Rue d'Argentine. In relation to the rest of the city, Argentine straddles the border between the 16th and 17th arrondissements of Paris.
History
Argentine station opened on 1 September 1900, six weeks after the opening of the initial segment of Line 1 between Porte de Vincennes and Porte Maillot, as part of the gradual opening of stations on the inaugural line of the Métro.
Upon its opening, the station was known as Obligado, the name of the nearby cross-street at the time, in turn named after the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, a Pyrhic Anglo-French victory over the Argentine Confederation in 1845 commanded by General Lucio Norberto Mansilla, brother-in-law of the governor of Buenos Aires Juan Manuel de Rosas.
In 2019, 3,026,210 travelers entered this station, which places it at the 172nd position of metro stations for its use out of 302.
In 2020, with the COVID-19 crisis, 1,603,572 travelers entered this station, which places it 160th among metro stations in terms of attendance.
On 18 December 2022, the station was temporarily renamed France ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, which was played by France and Argentina.
Passenger services
Access
The station has two entrances made up of fixed stairs:
- access 1 Rue des Acacias, adorned with a Dervaux candelabra, located to the right of no. 36 of the avenue;
- access 2 Avenue de la Grande-Armée located opposite no 37.
Station layout
{| border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;border-top:solid 1px gray;" width=50 valign=top|Street Level
|}
{| border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;border-top:solid 1px gray;" width=50 valign=top|B1
|style="border-top:solid 1px gray;border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=100 valign=top|Mezzanine for platform connection
|}
{| border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;border-top:solid 1px gray;" rowspan=5 width=50 valign=top|B2<br />Platforms
|style="border-top:solid 1px gray;border-right:solid 2px black;border-left:solid 2px black;border-bottom:solid 2px black;text-align:center;" colspan=2|
|-
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=100|Westbound
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=390|← toward La Défense – Grande Arche
|-
|Eastbound
| toward Château de Vincennes →
|-
|style="border-top:solid 2px black;border-right:solid 2px black;border-left:solid 2px black;border-bottom:solid 1px gray;text-align:center;" colspan=2|
|}
Platforms
As the Paris Métro runs inversely to normal railways in the rest of France (save for in Alsace-Moselle), the southern track is used by trains heading east to Château de Vincennes and the northern to La Défense – Grand Arche. Argentine is a station of standard configuration. It has two platforms separated by the metro tracks and the vault is elliptical. A 15-meter-long crypt, whose ceiling rests on pillars very close together has been extended it at its eastern end due to increasing the service to six-car trains in the 1960s.
Since 2008, as part of the automation of line 1, the platforms have been decorated on a theme dedicated to Argentina, mainly composed of eight large backlit panels of different colours each representing a landscape of that country, to which is incorporated the name of the station in Parisine font. The inauguration of these facilities took place on 15 June 2011 in the presence of Pierre Mongin, Chairman and CEO of RATP, Aldo Ferrer, Ambassador of Argentina and Enrique Meyer, Minister Argentine Tourism. The station's Akiko style seats are in the emblematic colour of that country, blue.
The rest of the decoration is classic according to the style used for the majority of the metro stations. The lighting canopies are white and rounded in the Gaudin style of the metro revival of the 2000s, and the bevelled white ceramic tiles cover the wall, the tunnel exits towards La Défense and the outlets of the corridors. The vault and the tunnel exit towards Vincennes are painted white, while the columns of the crypt are covered with small tiles of a dark shade. The advertising frames are in white ceramic and the platforms are equipped with platform screen doors.
Bus connections
The station is served by bus line 73 of the RATP Bus Network and, at night, by lines N11 and N24 of the Noctilien bus network.
References
Sources
- Roland, Gérard (2003). Stations de métro. D’Abbesses à Wagram. Éditions Bonneton.