Located in the 11th arrondissement of Paris is metro station Parmentier, known for its peculiar potato theme and charming design. Named after French agronomist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (1737-1813), this metro station celebrates his efforts to spread the word to the French people about the safety benefits of eating potatoes. Before Parmentier, there was a time when potatoes were viewed as potentially poisonous!
Who Was Antoine-Augustin Parmentier?
The man who gives the station its namesake was a French agronomist, pharmacist, nutritionist and hygienist. He is known for promoting the health benefits and safety of potatoes in France.
Prior to Parmentier, potatoes were becoming popular in other European countries, since their introduction from the New World around 1570. While other countries embraced potatoes, French officials placed a ban on them from 1748 to 1772, thinking them to be poisonous, with rumours spreading that they might even cause leprosy.
How Potatoes Became Popular In France
Parmentier was an army pharmacist who was imprisoned for three years by the Prussians during the Seven Years War. During his time imprisoned, he found that he could survive quite well on the potato-based diet which he was given.
At the time, French potatoes were only given to livestock, so Parmentier was determined to change minds when he returned to Paris. The timing was perfect; a failed harvest season in 1770 saw the Academy of Besançon run a prize for solutions to feeding the masses. He won, with his paper ‘Inquiry into Nourishing Vegetables That in Times of Necessity Could Substitute for Ordinary Food‘. After his campaign to declare the potato safe, the Paris Faculty of Medicine made potatoes lawful again in 1772.
But, the general public still needed convincing. Parmentier used his standing to perform a number of potato stunts – he served potatoes at lavish dinners for dignitaries such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier. He gave potato flowers as gifts to the royal family, with Louis XVI placing a flower on his lapel and Marie Antoinette in her hat. He also assigned armed guards to his potato plots in the city, encouraging the people to believe they were valuable. When the guards left at the end of the day, Parisians helped themselves to the unguarded ‘valuable’ samples.
In the years that followed, Parmentier was commended by the king of France for his work, and was awarded the Legion of Honour by Napoleon after the revolution years. When he died in 1813, he was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery. Many foods are named after Parmentier, such as hachis parmentier, a form of shepherd’s pie.
Design Of Parmentier Metro Station
Parmentier is located on Rue Parmentier, on line 3 of the metro that runs between Villiers and Père Lachaise. The street was built around 1818, and named after Parmentier, who died in the area 5 years prior. The 2-lane station opened in October 1904 with the rest of line 3, and has a single entrance with an Art Nouveau-style Guimard-designed entrance. It is located between stations République and Rue Saint-Maur.
The station was renovated in the 1950s and 1960s to cover the walls with green latticework, and large plaques, glass displays and photos that describe Parmentier’s story and his role in bringing the potato to French tables. The display cabinets show objects from pre-Columbian America, how different potatoes can be used, and how potatoes are produced in France.
There is also a statue of Parmentier himself, handing a potato to the poor. It is a replica of the original, which is found in his home town of Montdidier, Hauts-de-France. One unique feature is the station name design, with yellow lettering on a black background (the only other example of this lettering is Falguière metro).
In 2016, the name of Parmentier metro was changed to ‘Pomme de Terre’ (potato) for an April fool’s joke. Parmentier station is not one of the busiest stations in Paris – in 2019 it was ranked 163 out of 302 in terms of traffic, with 3,103,492 annual passengers.
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It’s quite an unusual thought to have a Paris metro station with a potato theme. But when considering the work of Parmentier in not just spreading the word about the potato, but helping the people feed themselves during times of famine, it’s not surprising that such an enlightened figure receives his own recognition in the form of a station namesake. When passing through Parmentier Metro, make sure you stop to check out the interesting designs of this unique place.
If you liked this post, make sure you check out my lists of France’s most amazing metro stations!
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