Quai de la Rapée: origin of the name and station history
Served by: metro line 5.
Why this name?
The station was first called Place Mazas, after the former Paris prison, itself named after Colonel Jacques François Marc Mazas (1765-1805), killed at the battle of Austerlitz. It was then called Pont d'Austerlitz, before taking its present name in honour of Monsieur de la Rapée, commissary of war under Louis XV, who owned a property there and gave his name to the district. Line 5 first had its temporary terminus here, with trains reversing towards Gare de Lyon over a service track. Gare de Lyon is about 600 m to the south-east.
Anecdote
The station is a major set in the film La Grosse Caisse (1965), in which Bourvil plays a ticket puncher who is also a writer of detective novels. It stands outdoors, above the Canal Saint-Martin, on the Morland metro bridge, and since the closure of Arsenal station in 1939 it also serves the Arsenal river port.
Around Quai de la Rapée
- Institut médico-légal de Paris, 210 m away — The famous municipal morgue on this quay since 1914, which has inspired numerous crime novels.
- Ministère de l'Économie et des Finances, 600 m away — A huge modern building in Bercy, home to the French Ministry of Finance.
- Berges de Seine, 200 m away — Quays converted into a pedestrian promenade, popular for waterside strolls.