Paris: will Georges Brassens' mosaics disappear at Porte des Lilas station?

Users of the ligne 11 of the Paris metro necessarily know these three mosaic frescoes created at the end of the 1980s. Created by mosaicists Pepsy et Michel L'Huillier as well as by their daughter Mathilde L’Huillierthey pay homage to George Brassens and his iconic song “ The Lilacs “. Among these three mosaics, visible from the quays of the Porte des Lilas stationthere are two which highlight the famous lilacs. The last represents the famous singer, a pipe in his mouth. A portrait that once again places art in the Parisian metro, for our greatest pleasure. Only that's it. According to the Racines du 93 association, these three mosaic frescoes could disappear due to infiltration problems within the station.

“The station has infiltration problems in places. A repair operation is underway. For now, only the white tiles on the walls have been removed. The three mosaics still remain. But they are in danger“, confided Sylvain Oerlemanspresident of the Racines du 93 association, to our colleagues at BFM Paris Île-de-France this January 16.

So, the association decided to act. Roots of 93 launched an online petition to save “ this heritage work “. Posted online last summer, the petition has so far collected more than 6,800 signatures.

In this petition, Roots of 93 specifies that the mosaicist Michel L'Huillier exercised, on December 10, his “moral right” by reminding the RATP “ respecting its initial commitments “. In an interview with Le Parisien on January 15, Michel L'Huillier explains that he has been in discussions with the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens since 2023, and confides that he does not want to “ let go ».

For its part, the RATP remembers being “ very attached to the heritage of the Paris metro ». « The RATP would have liked, as far as possible, to preserve these frescoes, but the technical constraints linked to the operation make their conservation on site impossible. », she said in Le Parisien, specifying that she wanted to find solutions in order to “ preserve the memory of this heritage or imagine a new intervention in homage to Georges Brassens ».