Paris Metro Map

Click on the image above to use an interactive version of the Paris Metro Map

Like many similar maps, the Paris Metro Map may look confusing when you first see it:

However, it is actually one of the easier systems to follow (and a great way to find Paris tourist sites), as we hope this short overview of the RATP Metro will show.

Paris Metro Lines

There are 14 main lines on the Paris Metro, with two supplementary lines, and each of these lines is known by its number.

They are also all colour-coded, to help you follow the map more easily.

Here's the list of all the Metro lines, with their respective terminus stations:

	La Défense	Château de Vincennes
	Porte Dauphine	Nation
	Pont de Levallois Bécon	Gallieni
	Gambetta	Porte des Lilas
	Porte de Clignancourt	Porte d'Orléans
	Place d'Italie	Bobigny Pablo Picasso
	Charles de Gaulle Etoile	Nation
	La Courneuve 8 Mai 1945	Villejuif-Louis Aragon or Mairie d'Ivry
	Louis Blanc	Pré St-Gervais
	Balard	Créteil-Préfecture
	Pont de Sèvres	Mairie de Montreuil
	Boulogne Pont de St-Cloud	Gare d'Austerlitz
	Châtelet	Mairie des Lilas
	Mairie d'Issy	Porte de la Chapelle
	Châtillon-Montrouge	Saint-Denis-Université
	Saint-Lazare	Olympiades

Paris RER Lines

There are also five RER lines, which are more like a local commuter network, and each RER line is labeled A through E:

	Cergy or Poissy or St-Germain en-Laye	Marne-la-Vallée or Boissy-Saint-Léger
	Robinson or Saint-Rémy lès-Chevreuse	Aéroport Charles de Gaulle or Mitry-Claye
	Versailles-Rive Gauche or Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines	Pontoise or Massy-Palaiseau Versailles-Chantier or Dourdan Saint-Martin-d'Etampes
	Orry-la-Ville-Coye	Malesherbes or Melun
	Haussmann Saint-Lazare	Chelles Gournay or Tournan

Knowing Which Direction To Take

In addition, when deciding which platform you should use, then you will need to look for both the number of the line, and the station at the end of the line.

For example, if you need to head north on Line 12, you'd look for a sign that said "12 Porte de la Chapelle", which looks like this on the map:

Whereas if you were heading south, you'd look for a sign that said "12 Mairie d'Issy", which looks like this on the map:

Metro Station Map Symbols

When reading the Metro Map, you'll notice there are three main symbols you will see when looking at station names.

Firstly, there is the regular station, which will look like this on the map:

The solid dot (green, in this case), indicates that Solférino does not connect to any other Metro lines.

The second type of symbol represents stations that do connect to one or more other Metro lines, and that would look like this:

Note that you may see either an empty circle, as is the case here with Champs Elysées Clemenceau, or an empty oval, like Concorde.

They both mean the same thing - i.e. that they connect to one or more other lines, but sometimes an empty circle simply isn't large enough to join up all the different lines involved.

Finally, there is the line terminus, which looks like this:

The numbered circle, such as the 3 in the case of Gallieni, indicates that this is one of the terminus points of the no. 3 line.

(Note that some lines, especially RER lines, may have multiple termini at each end of the line.)

Where To Get A Paris Metro Map

The Paris Metro is run by RATP, and their website will always contain: the most up-to-date Paris Metro map, which is a full-sized and interactive version of the one shown above (and which includes the RER lines too) a printable Paris Metro map PDF, which you can download to your computer. However, we suggest that you take a good Paris guide book with you, and the one that we use and recommend is Michelin's Paris Par Arrondissements Plan Atlas. This not only contains a copy of the Paris Metro Map, but also RATP Bus routes, a full A - Z street plan as well as loads of other useful information (e.g. a Paris bicycle map).

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