The secrets behind the Paris Metro station names

Visitors who plan to see the Arc de Triomphe up close should get off the metro at the Charles de Gaulle – Etoile stop. De Gaulle was the first president of the 5th French Republic, in office from 1959 to 1969. The Arc de Triomphe stands in a traffic circle that has 12 streets radiating outward in the shape of a star. That's why the word "etoile," French for star, was added to the station name.

Singers Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison and composer Frederic Chopin — they all found a final resting place in the city's most famous cemetery, Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise. Father "Pere" Lachaise was, among other things, the confessor of King Louis XIV. He gave his name not only to the cemetery but also to the Metro station next to it.

The name of the Blanche station dates back to the 17th century. During that era, carts carried plaster from the quarries near Montmartre, which was still a village outside Paris, across the "white square." The white dust settled on the houses and facades and gave the square, as well as the eventual Metro station, its name.

Paris is a city of many museums, and the significance of the arts is apparent in the city's Metro stations, too. The Arts et Metiers station is located in the third arrondissement under the museum and college of the same name. The walls are covered in copper plates and faux portholes in an attempt to recall Jules Verne's Nautilus submarine from his novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea."

On July 14, 1789, the French Revolution began on Place de la Bastille with the storming of the prison of the same name. To this day, the French celebrate their national holiday on this date with a parade and fireworks. In 1905, remains of the foundations of one of the Bastille prison's eight towers were discovered. Today, a yellow line on the platform of Line 5 marks the site of the discovery.

Place de la Concorde is one of five royal squares in Paris. Located in the heart of Paris, it was the spot where revolutionaries beheaded the king and queen during the French Revolution as part of their bloody campaign in the name of freedom. The text of the 1789 "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" covers the wall of the Concorde station right above the tracks of Line 12.

Two months after the end of the Second World War, the Aubervilliers station was renamed Stalingrad to commemorate the successful defense of the Russian city of the same name by the Red Army and its allies during World War II. In 2016, the station was mentioned frequently in the media, as refugees set up a tent camp nearby.

The Catholic Church played a major role in France's history and is the largest religious denomination today. Paul was a Catholic saint, and the Metro station owes its name to the church of the same name. It is located in the Marais (French for swamp) neighborhood named after a marshy area on the northern bank of the Seine that was drained in the 13th century.

As early as the mid-15th century, Hotel Cluny housed aspiring abbots who studied at the Sorbonne University. Today, students still study in the main building of the former theological teaching institution in the Latin Quarter, but these days, it's mainly literature and linguistics on the syllabus.

In the 1630s, Cardinal Richelieu had an urban palace built that the royal family then took over in 1643. From then on, it was known as the Palais-Royal, or royal palace. Today, the former palace houses the Council of State, the Comedie Francaise theater, the Constitutional Council and the Ministry of Culture. The Metro station also indicates access to the new entrance of the Louvre museum.

France is proud of its poets, writers and thinkers. Many Metro stations are named after famous writers, including Victor Hugo and Emile Zola. On April 1, 2016, the Paris transit authority renamed the Alexandre Dumas station for one day, giving it the name of one of his most famous works, "Les Trois Mousquetaires" ("The Three Musketeers").

Once the residence of kings, the Louvre Palace has housed the most visited art museum in the world since 1791 — the Musee du Louvre. As a special treat, the Metro station Louvre-Rivoli presents display cases with replicas of some of the museum's famous exhibits.