Do you know the Paris metro signposts?

From 1910 onwards, the Compagnie du métropolitain de Paris (CMP) opted for more understated entrance surrounds for its new metro stations.

These surrounds were topped with a lamp post made by the Val d’Osne foundry (Haute-Marne), crowned with a luminous globe. Beneath it was a backlit sign featuring the word “METRO” in white letters cut out against a red background. Designed to make metro entrances easier to spot and illuminate, this signpost is particularly ornate: the “METRO” panel is framed by delicate wrought-iron tracery, while its base is sculpted.

In the early 1920s, architect Adolphe Dervaux was commissioned by the CMP to design a new signpost, inspired by the Val d’Osne lamp post. In 1924, the City of Paris approved the choice of the 4-metre-high Dervaux signpost, which, like the Val d’Osne model, bears the word “METRO,” internally illuminated and topped with a luminous globe.

The Dervaux signpost is more streamlined, reflecting the Art Deco style. It has the particular distinction of having been developed for Sèvres–Babylone station, so that it could accommodate the dual CMP and Nord-Sud entrances.

Introduced in 1937, this was the metro’s first true logo: a red M surrounded by a blue circle, crossed by the word “METRO” in white on a blue background and illuminated at night. It was very loosely inspired by its contemporary counterpart in London!

It marked only a few station entrances, but was used more widely in the metro’s documentation, particularly on maps. You may already have come across it at Sentier station, where the last surviving example of this iconic Paris Metro signpost can still be found.

From 1963 onwards, the “antenna” signpost began appearing to mark new exits or replace older lamp posts. The word “METRO,” written in blue on a white background and surrounded by two circles symbolizing a radio antenna, evoked the concept of a network for the first time. It was rolled out until 1967.

The famous illuminated yellow M first appeared in 1955 at Saint-Michel and in 1956 at Sully–Morland, before being rolled out across the network in the early 1960s. More legible, it adopted the colours of the metro ticket.

Although it was installed at new stations, it was initially used mainly when existing entrances were expanded or modified. From 1974 onwards, it was systematically installed at the entrances to all new stations. It was also used to mark the first stations of the “regional metro” before the system was renamed the RER in 1977.

With the opening of Metro Line 14 in 1998, a new signpost was designed: a totem, shaped like an urban tree with two cast-iron branches.

Each of the glass panels supported by the branches displays the modern M logo, three-quarters encircled, along with the station name, the lines serving it, and the RATP logo.

The rounded totem intuitively identifies new Metro entrances through its “point of interest” shape. It will be used for future entrances, continuing the tradition established by bus and Metro totems while strengthening the consistency of urban signage associated with public transport modes across the Île-de-France region.