Gambetta: station history
Served by: metro lines 3 and 3 bis.
Did you know?
A station of lines 3 and 3 bis, in the 20th arrondissement, around place Gambetta, it honours Léon Gambetta (1838-1882), member of the Government of National Defence in 1870, prime minister and member of parliament for the 20th. Its line 3 platform, 196 metres long, is far from standard: its west end takes in the former platforms of the neighbouring station Martin Nadaud, 250 metres away and absorbed in 1969, whose entrances became Gambetta's western entrances. Entrance no. 4, place Martin-Nadaud, is decorated with a Guimard edicule listed as a historic monument.
Anecdote
Gambetta was the terminus of line 3 on a balloon loop, before the extension to Porte des Lilas; in the 1960s, the branch towards Bagnolet turned the old section into line 3 bis. The link between the two lines uses a former single-track tunnel converted into a corridor. A scene of the film « Flic Story » (Jacques Deray, 1975) was shot in the station.
Around Gambetta
- Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, 550 m away — Paris's largest cemetery, the final resting place of Chopin, Édith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde.
- Église Notre-Dame-des-Otages, 1050 m away — A church commemorating the hostages shot by the Communards on this site in 1871.
- Square Édouard-Vaillant, 160 m away — A small, peaceful square in the 20th arrondissement, a pleasant green break in a lively district.