Nothing should strike more fear into a lover of the Paris Metro than the announcement that the RATP is "beautifying" its stations. Lest one forget, it was a similar beautification project that almost led to the loss of all of Hector Guimard's iconic art nouveau station exteriors. As the RATP tore out Guimard's stations, they were approached by a U.S. museum that wanted to buy one of the stations in complete form. This prompted a rethinking of that beautification project. The picture I've included here announces a currently ongoing beautification of 250 stations. While there are many that did need sprucing up (and sometimes the new stations are pretty stunning), I worry that they'll cover over what makes the Metro stations so damn wonderful and unique in the world. Like Paris itself, there's a sense of deshabille about the stations, an elegant state of tatters that is lovely and charming and authentic. Ok, they can paint over the blood stains and wash out the homeless piss, add a few historical signs such as the moving tribute to the roundup of Jews at Vel' d'Hiv now at the Bir-Hakeim station, but for god's sake, leave the rest reasonably intact.
