“Pigoaball”
for Pigalle,
“Trocanoë”
for Trocadéro,
“Bercyclisme”
for Bercy or even
“Basket-Rochechouart”
for Barbès-Rochechouart... This year for April 1, the RATP did not skimp on the puns and put the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the spotlight. In total, around fifteen Parisian metro stations were renamed for several days during Olympic and Paralympic week at school, from April 2 to 6.
A strategic choice in the year 2024, as RATP prepares to be one of the strategic links in the transport chain for athletes and supporters during the Games this summer. These new names were chosen to highlight
“the Olympic but also the Paralympic disciplines”
of which
“some are less known to the general public such as “Boccia” or “Goalball””
, explains the RATP.
The first being a ball sport of Greco-Roman origin related to pétanque, played by wheelchair athletes, and the other a ball sport reserved for visually impaired players. Enough to introduce new Paralympic disciplines to the general public, but there is no question of losing users and tourists: only
“one plaque in two is modified to allow the station to be easily identified and not to disturb travelers”
.
And this is not the first time that the RATP has changed the name of its stations to surprise users.
“A Bastille for the throat?”
,
“Gentilly on your strawberries?”
,
“If I would have known, Jaurès would not have come”
,
“Who extinguished Laumière?”
... Thus, in 2017, eleven station names were misappropriated in connection with film replicas. The previous year, the Parisian management had already made some colorful puns: the
“Monceau”
station had then been renamed
“Mapelle”
and
“Opéra”
as
“Apéro”
.