The ticket to the wanderings of Parisians for over 100 years, the metro ticket is much more than just a piece of cardboard ... In this bonus episode of "At the heart of history", Jean Des Cars reveals his secrets to you.
By listening to the story devoted to the Paris metro, you may have wanted to know more about the ticket that gives access to it. In this bonus episode of "At the heart of history", Jean des Cars tells you the secrets of a little piece of very informed cardboard…
Did you know that the Metro ticket will probably disappear soon, like "the punch of the Lilacs" and the Orange Card? With the widespread use of Navigo Passes, magnetic cards, payment by mobile phone and subscriptions, honest travelers are changing their habits. Did you also know that the Metro ticket contains a lot of secret information? Everyone considers him an ordinary little piece of cardboard, rather fragile.
Today it is 66 millimeters long and 30 millimeters wide. He has been white since 2007 but he has seen many colors! He was born commercially on July 19, 1900, when the first Maillot-Vincennes line was inaugurated. It was then orange for the first class, orange and green for the second. It weighed less than a gram and measured 57 millimeters.
He was a witness to dark hours, especially between 1940 and 1945. The Vichy government forbade the Jews to buy a 1st class ticket and forced them to get into the last car.
600 million tickets sold each year
Today, around 15,000 tickets are still sold per minute, or more than 600 million per year. Discreet, purple-colored numbers and a magnetic stripe tell us in different ways about its validity.
First, the time of your passage in the gate. It is indicated by a number from 1 to 12. The period of the day is divided into two: 1 for the slot from 0 hours to 12 hours, 2 for that from 12 hours to 24 hours. The week is numbered from 1 to 52. The transit station is identified by a specific code.
The day is summarized by the letters L, M, M, J, V, S, D. And the device that controls your passage is codified by a letter. Better to be in good standing: the ticket does not lie!
Several artists considered that the Metro ticket could be a work of art. They drew portraits of passers-by here and there, they made planes of them, paper mini-casseroles. And these tickets were very handy for quickly writing down a phone number ...
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"At the heart of history" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast
Author and presentation: Jean des Cars
Project manager: Adèle Ponticelli
Realization: Laurent Sirguy and Guillaume Vasseau
Diffusion and edition: Clémence Olivier
Graphics: Europe 1 Studio
Bibliography: "Le Journal de la France", tome IX, edited by Christian Melchior-Bonnet (Tallandier, 1978). "Chronicle of Paris". Editor in Chief: Jean des Cars (Editions Chronique, 2003).