Champs-Élysées-Clemenceau: station history
Served by: metro lines 1 and 13.
Did you know?
A station of lines 1 and 13, in the 8th arrondissement, under place Clemenceau, which honours Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), statesman and prime minister. Opened with line 1, it was first called « Champs-Élysées » and took its present name after place Clemenceau was created in 1930. Its subtitle, « Grand Palais », points to the nearby monument. A second entrance, on avenue du Général-Eisenhower, opened in October 2019 and was officially inaugurated on 25 November 2019; before that, the station had only one entrance.
Anecdote
In the interchange corridor, an azulejo decoration by the Portuguese artist Manuel Cargaleiro has been in place since 1995, the result of an exchange with the Lisbon metro: Paris gave Lisbon a Guimard edicule, installed at Picoas. On line 1, the small vaults are covered with pale blue glass blocks, unique on the network. In 2018, after the French team's World Cup victory, the station was renamed « Deschamps - Élysées - Clemenceau ».
Audio guide
Grand Palais, a nave under a glass sky
240 meters long, 45 high: under the nave of the Grand Palais, we walk under a glass sky.
Built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, it hides a feat: a huge canopy of iron and steel, the largest in Europe, hidden behind a stone facade adorned with columns and mosaics.
Since then, he has played every role: military hospital in 1914-1918, the first motor shows, horse shows, fashion shows. In August 1944, the fighting of the Liberation even started a fire there.
After three years of work, it reopened in 2024 and hosted Olympic fencing and taekwondo.
The Ledoyen Pavilion, at the firmament of French gastronomy
On the Champs-Élysées, it is first and foremost a modest inn run by the Desmazure family. In 1792, Antoine Nicolas Doyen, known as Ledoyen, took over and inaugurated the first à la carte service. Convention deputies flock to it… until Terror and the Thermidorian reaction turn everything upside down.
Around 1850, under the impetus of the architect Jacques Hittorff, the establishment moved to its current location, in a neo-classical pavilion. With Arthur Millon at the helm, he became the rendezvous of good society. Duez painted at Restaurant Le Doyen, Birger brought together Scandinavian Artists on a day of opening, and Tissot attached the painters and their wives.
Fun fact: Ledoyen settled in the Géorama square, a popular attraction: a sphere 32 m in circumference that allowed you to discover the terrestrial globe from the inside. The Parisians shunned her and she disappeared very quickly. The table, however, remained!
The cinema also sat down: in Le Grand Restaurant (1966), Louis de Funès plays a gourmet restaurant manager. Only the exteriors were shot here! Its current chef, Yannick Alléno, has been awarded 6 Michelin stars for his three establishments now gathered in the Pavillon Ledoyen. A first in the very closed circle of large independent houses.
Around Champs-Élysées-Clemenceau
- Statue de Winston Churchill, 150 m away — Statue by Jean Cardot on the pavement of avenue Winston-Churchill, in the Jardin des Abords-du-Petit-Palais, facing the Petit Palais. It was inaugurated in the presence of Elizabeth II and Jacques Chirac.
- Statue du général de Gaulle, 50 m away — Statue by Jean Cardot, installed in 2000 on place Clemenceau at the initiative of the Association des Français libres. It stands close to the statue of Clemenceau.
- Statue de Georges Clemenceau, 50 m away — Statue by François Cogné, installed in 1932 on place Clemenceau, at the foot of the Champs-Élysées. The square bears the name of the man nicknamed "the Tiger".
- Grand Palais, 180 m away — Built from 1897 for the 1900 Universal Exposition, it houses a 13,500 m² nave under a 17,500 m² glass roof, described as the largest in Europe. It reopened in October 2024 after four years of restoration.
- Avenue des Champs-Élysées, 120 m away — 1,910 m long, the avenue grew from the axis laid out by Le Nôtre, completed in 1724. Its name recalls the Elysian Fields of Greek mythology. Every year it hosts the 14 July parade and the finish of the Tour de France.
- Petit Palais, 220 m away — The City of Paris's fine arts museum, also built for the 1900 World's Fair, with free entry.