Bordeaux and Palmiers

It’s funny how you sometimes don’t see things until you’re ready to see them.

I walk down rue Monge most days… nearly every day. I’ve gotten to know the stores and the market days by heart. I know what to expect: nothing surprises me on rue Monge.

Just a little bit down rue Monge is a turnoff for rue de Navarre, which leads to the back entrance of the Roman arena I featured on here a while back. Other than that, there’s nothing of real interest down this street, so I usually walk right past it.

But one recent afternoon, when my headphones had run out of batteries, I ended up paying much more attention to my usual walk than I do on a normal day, and I actually noticed rue de Navarre.

And I noticed this. A hidden metro station.

I suppose it’s not really all that hidden. It’s not even an unfamiliar station: just another entrance to one that I never use at Place Monge. It’s close enough to home that I would never ride the metro to get there, but far enough away that I would never get off and walk home. I don’t think I’ve ever even been inside the stop, though God knows how many times I’ve walked past the other entrance, which is right next to the Place Monge market.

There was something about this station that struck me, and it wasn’t just the fact that I’d never noticed it before. I love the sign, which seems so old-fashioned to me: I’ve never seen one like it anywhere in the city. I’d like to know who uses this exit, which seems so useless to me, when the other is right in the middle of a bustling marketplace.

It’s nice to know sometimes that even my most familiar haunts in Paris still hold surprises for me.

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