Ah, Paris. The breathtaking monuments, the lively streets, the well-dressed women, the hell-hole that is Chatelêt-les-Halles.
Have you even taken the Parisian métro? If so, are you still alive? At my first internship this summer, I met a guy who had moved from the Nice area to Paris a couple of years ago. He said that taking the métro was a somewhat traumatic experience. Coming from a village where there is only one train every hour, he could not understand why people would push their way through the closing, buzzing doors of a departing métro, when another one would arrive three minutes later. Or why everyone would race to the seats in order not to be standing up for a 10-minute journey. And why they would shout at him, push past him, hurl abuse at him for not getting in - and therefore, for 'blocking' the way to the closing doors. Said collegue now has a scooter.
I'll admit it is mainly a case of Parisian rudeness - the aforementioned collegue also got shouted at for 'walking too slowly'. Everyone thinks they are too important to take their time, they are always rushing to go somewhere. Me included - you just find yourself adapting to the racy pace and end up going with the flow.
When I went to Rome, I marvelled at the fact that the tube there only had two different lines. Here, there are fourteen. And most métro stations are barely 50 meters away from each other. Yes, we are lazy. I remember I used to do three changements so I could arrive bang in front of my prépa. As a result, you can get to just about anywhere in Paris by juggling with numbers : line 10 then 4 then 1 for the Marais. Line 8 for the Bastille. Line 10 then 13 for Saint-Lazare. Bingo!
In a recent survey, I read that breathing in the 'métro air' was as bad for you as smoking ten cigarettes at the same time. Another study showed that on one metro seat, many different kinds of urine and semen were found, as well as rat and human excrements, fleas and cockroaches. Gross. When you think of the London tube, which I find so clean and safe, or even the Korean tube, which my best friend says it is so clean that you could probably eat a meal off the floor, this is just shameful.
Yet take line 6 one evening, and look at the amazing view. That line is a métro aérien, meaning that the tracks run through the city above ground - and above people. That is how I really fell in love with Paris, sighing at the clichéed view of the illuminated Eiffel Tower while crossing the Seine. Admittedly, I was not using a seat. I left the others to rush for them and chuckled to myself when I thought of what they were actually sitting on.
