Odéon: origin of the name and station history
Served by: metro lines 4 and 10.
Why this name?
Served by lines 4 and 10, in the 6th arrondissement, the station lies under place Henri-Mondor, at the Odéon crossroads, in front of boulevard Saint-Germain and rue de l'École-de-Médecine. It takes its name from the neighbouring Odéon theatre. Line 10 had its eastern terminus here from Invalides until 15 February 1930, before its extension to the south-east. The line 4 platforms were lengthened in 1966-1967, and the station was flooded during the 1910 flood.
Anecdote
Line 10 crosses line 4 on a metal structure, which explains the difference in level between the two sets of platforms. The line 10 platforms have a yellow « Ouï-dire », and new lighting strips were installed in 2023. Nearby, a statue of Danton at the crossroads recalls the revolutionary deputy. The nearby café Procope is covered in the audio guide.
Audio guide
Le Procope, the oldest café in Paris
Considered the ancestor of Parisian cafés, Le Procope was a success from the moment it opened in 1686 near the Comédie-Française. The actors and intelligentsia of the era flocked there, and it quickly became the "go-to" meeting place for the philosophers of the Enlightenment.
Around Odéon
- Monument à Danton, 60 m away — Statue by Auguste Paris, commissioned in 1887 for the centenary of the Revolution and completed in 1891, on place Henri-Mondor. It stands on the site of the house where Danton lived, in the cour du Commerce.
- Jardin du Luxembourg, 600 m away — A garden begun in 1612 by Marie de' Medici, around a palace she modelled on the Pitti Palace in Florence. It holds a small model of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, dating from 1870.
- Fontaine Médicis, 400 m away — Commissioned around 1630 by Marie de' Medici from Tommaso Francini, the grotto (14 m by 12 m) was dismantled in 1862 for the cutting of rue de Médicis, then rebuilt nearer the palace. The Polyphemus group is by Auguste Ottin.
- Polidor, 230 m away — A former cheese shop founded in 1845, turned into a bistro in 1890, it keeps a Belle Époque interior almost unchanged and long shared tables. Verlaine, Rimbaud, Joyce and Hemingway were among its customers.
- Le Procope, 150 m away — Paris's oldest café, opened in 1686 by a Sicilian, once frequented by Voltaire, Rousseau, Franklin and Napoleon, now a listed historic monument.
- Théâtre de l'Odéon, 230 m away — Neoclassical theatre by Peyre and De Wailly, inaugurated on 9 April 1782 by Marie-Antoinette; The Marriage of Figaro premiered here two years later. The present building, by Baraguay, opened in 1819 after two fires.
- Cour du Commerce Saint-André, 140 m away — An 18th-century paved passage where the first guillotine was tested, today lined with picturesque cafés and bistros.