Invalides: origin of the name and station history
Served by: metro lines 8 and 13, RER C.
Why this name?
In the 7th arrondissement, the station of lines 8 and 13 lies exactly under the esplanade des Invalides, at rue de l'Université, and owes its name to the nearby hôtel des Invalides. It was first the western terminus of line 10 (Invalides - Croix-Rouge), before becoming a through station after lines 13 and 14 were merged. Nearby are Invalides station (RER C) and the Air France air terminal.
Anecdote
The original half-stations were meant for an inner circle line abandoned in 1922: a « dead » platform built between 1913 and 1922, towards Balard, is not open to the public and bears witness to that circular line that was never built. Two Sprague-Thomson cars were installed there in the 2010s and are sometimes shown during heritage open days. The station also served as a test site for the TRAX, an accelerated moving walkway.
Audio guide
Hôtel des Invalides, A palace founded for those broken by war
In 1670, Louis XIV created the Hôtel des Invalides to house wounded soldiers who had until then been reduced to begging. Libéral Bruant built it in just a few years, and up to 4,000 residents lived there. Jules Hardouin-Mansart added the Dome, completed in 1706. ⛪
On July 14, 1789, the crowd seized around 30,000 muskets here before marching on the Bastille. 🔫
More than 350 years later, its mission continues: the Invalides still houses a hospital and a residence for wounded soldiers, as well as the Musée de l’Armée. 🏥
🙇 The anecdote: in 1840, Napoleon’s remains were laid to rest beneath the Dome. Visconti designed the tomb as an open crypt: to see the quartzite sarcophagus, you have to bow your head, as if before the Emperor himself. His body rests in six nested coffins.
Around Invalides
- Hôtel des Invalides, 700 m away — A monumental complex founded by Louis XIV for wounded soldiers, home to Napoleon's tomb beneath its gilded dome.
- Musée Rodin, 850 m away — A museum devoted to sculptor Auguste Rodin, in an 18th-century mansion surrounded by a sculpture garden.
- Pont Alexandre III, 270 m away — The most ornate bridge in Paris, built for the 1900 World's Fair, famous for its gilded lamp posts and statues.