Sèvres – Babylone (Paris Métro)

Sèvres – Babylone is a station on lines 10 and 12 of the Paris Métro. It is located at the intersection of the Boulevard Raspail and the Rue de Sèvres, on the border of the 6th arrondissement and 7th arrondissements, near le Bon Marché department store.

The line 12 platforms opened as line 10 Sèvres on 5 November 1910 as part of the original section of the Nord-Sud Company's line A between Porte de Versailles and Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. On 27 March 1931 line A became line 12 of the Métro. It is named after the Rue de Sèvres which in medieval times ran from Paris to Sèvres, and the Rue de Babylone, named in 1673 after the Bishop of Babylon. The line 10 station was opened by the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris on 30 December 1923 as part of the first section of the ligne circulaire interieur (inner circular line) from Invalides (now on line 13) to Croix Rouge (a station east of Sèvres - Babylone, which was closed during World War II).

At the start the line 10 station was named Babylon, while the nearby line 12 station was still named Sèvres. Shortly after the opening of line 10, the city forced the two companies to form a common station, but the sign for line 10 read Sèvres-Babylone (emphasizing Babylone), and that of line 12 by contrast read Sèvres-Babylone (emphasizing Sèvres).

In the novel Transition by Iain Banks, Mme. d'Ortolan refers to the act of having anal sex with a black man as "'going to Sèvres-Babylone', as this was the deepest, darkest and most excitingly, enticingly dangerous Métro station that she knew of".