There seems to be a bit of a hullaballo going on right now about the metro renovations in Paris. I'm still wondering why the addition of escalators and elevator always seems to get put aside for the asthetics underground, but nonetheless, some renovations are better than none, n'est-ce pas? It seems that 240 stations are to be renovated between now and 2015, adding new futuristic chairs, white tiles, new lighting, GSM for cell phones, and other stuff to control the 'fluids' underground. That said, the metro is a handy dandy way to get around Paris, and isn't it great when you come out into a new station and find that *surprise* it is one the cool, decorated ones? Some of my faves are Varenne (line 13, with its Rodin statues), Hotel de Ville (line 1, with its giant history lesson), and FDR (line 1, with its retro 50s orange decor). Any other favorites out there? And what about the metro you are blogging from?

Some of the metro fun facts to know and tell, from the Figaroscope (12-18 April): number of kilometeres covered by metro= 212; number of stations = 297; shortest line = the 3 bis, with 1.3km; longest line = 13, with 22.5km; most frequented line = 1 (with 141 million passengers a year)