Tuesday, August 13, 2013

le Metro(politan)

I think riding the Metro here has been a new experience for a lot of the group.  Paris has a very extensive Metro system, and the city proper is actually rather small, so you can get within a few blocks of pretty much anywhere you want to go in the city if you are willing to transfer metro lines. 

On our first full day here we took our first Metro ride and encountered that common denizen of the underground, the wanna-be entertainer.  Some are more entertaining than others, and I suspect their craft is probably technically illegal, so they have to stay one step ahead of the Metro patrol.  The first guy we met was singing a French pop song and incorporating some acrobatic moves using the handholds on the train as well as some lewd hand movements.  We mostly tried to avert our eyes, but I think he was a surprise for some of our group, who were not expecting to be entertained.  We've also encountered various other entertainers, including a saxophonist, a guy with a harmonica and banjo, and a guy reciting a famous poem in French by François Villon.  The odd thing for me was the discovery that I could (but didn't) recite the poem with him.  It was Ballade des Pendus (Ballad of the Hanged) and begins like this:

"Frères humains qui après nous vivez,
N'ayez les cuers contre nous endurcis,
Car, se pitié de nous povres avez,
Dieu en aura plus tost de vous mercis . . ."


If I remember correctly, all young people in France memorize this poem when they are in school, and I had a French teacher in high school who felt that if this was good enough for the French it was good enough for us to memorize also.  

The Metro always provides something to entertain us.  Today Paul and our kids were taking a metro to the science museum here (largest in Europe and quite impressive), and a guy got on the train carrying a 3-gallon tank of goldfish!  Apparently it was only half full of water and he proceeded to casually set it down on the floor of the train and the goldfish rode the train off to their next destination.  Apparently the ride wasn't too rough for the goldfish.  They didn't appear to be in great distress.

The Metro is also full of interesting tips and expressive drawings as well as ads.  One of the ads posted in a number of stations admonishes people that even though they might be on vacation it's still their responsibility to care for the environment, because the earth isn't their wastebasket.  It strikes me that the French seem to be much more environmentally conscious than the Americans in general, and it might be more helpful if the ad were also in English. 

This is one of my favorite schematics from the Metro:
It's posted on a number of locked doors in Metro stations.  I think the meaning is pretty clear, but it's a rather odd schematic.

I'm also finding that it's generally more interesting to read the signs in French, even if there's an English translation.  For example, on the inside of the train cars on the Metro, there's a sign that says in English something like, "don't put your hands on the door or you will get hurt."  The French sign has the same warning but includes the threat that one's body may be pinched very forcefully by the doors. 

One thing that has confused me a lot about the Metro is that although the signs inside the station are very clear about which way one needs to go to get to various platforms (and often a station is a maze of tunnels going up and down and over and under tracks to get to the correct platform), the trains themselves are often marked incorrectly.  Platform directions are always given in terms of the line you want (color coded) and the final stops on that line.  For example, you can take line 6 to either end, which would be Nation or Étoile.  Therefore you always need to know the line, the stop where you want to get off, and the last station on the line in the direction you want to travel.  As far as I have discerned, the platforms are essentially always correct.  The trains themselves, though, usually have the name of one or the other end of the line lit up on the side of the car.  As far as I can tell, the name that is lit doesn't seem to have any relationship to the direction the train is actually going.  This threw me for a loop the first time I saw it.  The rest of the group had already boarded the train and I was standing on the platform staring at the wrong destination and scratching my head.  Fortunately I decided it must be a mistake (and even if it wasn't I was more willing to go the wrong way with the rest of the group than be the only one who was right but have lost everyone), so I jumped on the train before it left. 


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