Birth Anniversary: Hector Guimard — March 10, 1867

Hector Guimard was born at Lyon on 10 March 1867 and became the face of French Art Nouveau, so much so that in Paris the style took the name «Style Guimard». The famous entrances to the Paris Métro are his — green cast-iron kiosks with plant-like lines and floating letters — and so is the Castel Béranger, the manifesto of the new taste. For Guimard, industrial cast iron could bend like a stem. The anniversary marks the architect who gave Paris its most recognisable signs.