Porte Dauphine: origin of the name and station history
Served by: metro line 2.
Why this name?
Western terminus of line 2, in the 16th arrondissement, the station lies under place du Maréchal-de-Lattre-de-Tassigny, whose name forms its subtitle, in honour of Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (1889-1952), a marshal of France posthumously. It owes its name to the porte Dauphine, at the end of Marie-Antoinette's Belle Faisanderie, when she was the dauphin's wife; the name later gave its name to the district, then to the Paris-Dauphine university, opened in 1968. Four entrances serve it, and avenue Foch station, on the RER C, is 170 metres away.
Anecdote
It is the only station on the network to have fully kept its original « tennis racket » layout, with a turning loop of 30 metres radius and two half-stations under elliptical vaults. Its walls keep the flat cream tiling from the 1900 trials, as at Porte de Vincennes, and its platforms have no advertising, with benches of wooden slats painted red. The T3b tram has had its western terminus here since its extension of April 2024.
Audio guide
The entrance to the Guimard metro station, an open-air work of art
The entrance to Porte Dauphine metro station (line 2) is the only Type B Art Nouveau building designed by architect Hector Guimard to have retained its original glass roof. Inaugurated in 1902 and nicknamed the "dragonfly" because of the shape of its inverted double slope canopy supported by three pillars, it is the only intact survivor of this period model in Paris. It is listed as a Historical Monument.
Guimard's choice was not self-evident. The president of the Compagnie du Métropolitain, Adrien Bénard, had initially preferred the municipal architect Jean-Camille Formigé, before proposing Guimard, which the City accepted. The company wanted to avoid criticism of industrial-style architectures, such as the Eiffel Tower. Charles Garnier had written in 1886: "Paris must not be transformed into a factory, it must remain a museum".
Guimard draws entrances with or without a glass roof: the edicule, with a glazed fan canopy, and the surrounding area, framed by a "Metropolitan" sign between two curved streetlights. In cast iron, with plant-inspired decor, 141 entrances were made between 1900 and 1912, 86 of which remain. Porte Dauphine is one of the two preserved edicules, along with that of Abbesses.
Around Porte Dauphine
- Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, 450 m away — The designer's former couture house, opened as a museum in 2017, tracing thirty years of creations at 5 Avenue Marceau.
- Bois de Boulogne, 40 m away — A vast 850-hectare wood west of Paris, laid out in the 19th century in the style of London's parks.
- Fondation Louis Vuitton, 1050 m away — A contemporary art museum with a spectacular architecture by Frank Gehry, nestled in the Bois de Boulogne.