Getting around in Paris

Our memories of 46 years ago (!) in Paris was that of the most beautiful subway stations in the world. Our 2019 experience is that the subway system continues to amaze our North American minds but in comparison to London, it is much less user-friendly.
Finding metro stations on land is challenging. No iconic symbol standing out for a block to let us know where to dive down into the station. Just a stone staircase in many cases. We rarely found one without the (willing) help of a local.
Maps are always posted on the wall to confirm our wrinkled, smaller one and the entry barriers take our little tickets and spit them out higher up changing the red to green and allowing passage. Now the challenge. Signage is there when you know how to find it but challenging if you are new to the station. It can't be that bad though as we only had to reverse once (first time in horrible Gard du Nord train station we are returning to today).
Metro cars in outlying areas have no way of alerting you to next station and the stations themselves have names sneakily hidden in amongst huge ads. We got on to it quickly and became more relaxed, knowing our station and counting stops when necessary.
One stark difference is the service announcement: Rather than "Mind the Gap" of England, it is "Beware of pick pockets" in French, English and Mandarin.

Chatelet - Metro station on the Purple line

Moveable sidewalk (taken from midway) to connecting station

Line C is a double-decker train rather than subway cars