Arts et Métiers station

The station has five entrances all made up of fixed staircases, the first four being adorned with a Dervaux candelabrum:

• entrance 1 - Rue Conté, rue de Turbigo - odd numbered side leading to the right of 57, rue de Turbigo;
• entrance 2 - Rue Réaumur, rue de Turbigo - even numbers side located opposite 42, rue Réaumur;
• entrance 3 - Rue de Turbigo, rue Beaubourg located at the right of 107, rue de Turbigo and 48, rue Réaumur;
• entrance 4 - Rue Réaumur leading to 31, Rue de Turbigo and 51, Rue Réaumur;
• entrance 5 - Rue des Vertus, only allowing exit from the platforms of line 11, located at the right of 22 Rue Réaumur.

The platforms of the two lines, seventy-five meters long, are of standard configuration. Two in number per stopping point, they are separated by the metro tracks located in the centre and the vault is elliptical.

The station on line 3 is set up in a curve and its decoration is in the Ouï-dire style in a green colour. The lighting frames, of the same shade, are supported by curved supports in the shape of a scythe. The direct lighting is white while the indirect lighting, projected on the vault, is multi-coloured. The white ceramic tiles are flat and cover the walls, the vault (diagonally, a peculiarity that the stopping point only shares with Nation on line 1), the tunnel exit and the outlets of the corridors. The advertising frames are green and cylindrical, and the name of the station is written in capital letters on enamelled plates. The platforms are equipped with Motte style seats and green sit-stand benches.

The station on line 11 has been completely covered since October 1994 with copper plates riveted to each other, and not the usual earthenware tiles. This dressing was put in place during the bicentennial ceremonies of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. It is the work of Benoît Peeters, French screenwriter, and François Schuiten, Belgian designer, authors of the series Les Cités obscures. The traveller is plunged inside a vast machine, a sort of underground Nautilus evoking the atmosphere of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, in steampunk style. On the station's ceiling, a series of large cogs evokes the Musée des Arts et Métiers. Copper, the only material used, evokes the technical and industrial world. On the platforms, a series of portholes open onto small scenographies, centred on the museum's collections. You observe a armillary sphere, the Telstar satellite, or even a water wheel. All the station's furniture suits the decoration style and constitutes a unique case on the network. Name plates, wooden seats, waste bins, flat tunnel exits, alarm post banners and the lighting are brown in the Ouï-dire style. However, the latter do not have multi-coloured lighting and the light is diffused in a semi-subdued way on the track side. The platforms are devoid of advertisements.

The station is served by lines 20, 38, 47 and 75 of the RATP Bus Network and, at night, by lines N12 and N23 of the Noctilien network.