Balard: station history
Served by: metro line 8.
Did you know?
Western terminus of line 8, in the 15th arrondissement, the station serves the porte de Sèvres but is not called « Porte de… »: it is the only station on the boulevards des Maréchaux in this case, a choice that avoids confusion with Pont de Sèvres, terminus of line 9. Its name is that of rue and place Balard, which honour the chemist Antoine-Jérôme Balard. An entrance on avenue de la Porte-de-Sèvres, created in 2012 and later completed with three lifts, cost about 16.4 million euros; exit no. 6 leads in 140 metres to the T2 tram (Suzanne Lenglen).
Anecdote
During a Royal Air Force bombing of the district, the station's entrances were destroyed: 22 people died, including two CMP employees. Balard also appears in the film « Monsieur Klein » (1976), set in 1942: Alain Delon plays a short scene leaning on the railing at the metro exit.
Around Balard
- Ministère des Armées, 240 m away — A vast complex housing the French military headquarters, informally nicknamed the 'French Pentagon'.
- Parc André-Citroën, 600 m away — A contemporary park on the banks of the Seine, laid out on the site of the former Citroën factories.
- Héliport de Paris, 400 m away — The only heliport within Paris city limits, in operation since the 1950s.