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"Paris notes"
07/01/2004 Entry
I spent part of last week in Paris. Since many readers at Crooked Timber kindly offered suggestions on what I should do while in Paris, I thought I’d post a note about my trip. I include some reflections on random things I took note of (e.g. garbage disposals, toilet fees, price checks in stores).
Cool. Fête de la Musique. If you have a choice about when you visit Paris, I highly recommend including June 21st in your travel plans. It is an all-night program of free concerts all across town. It was a blast. Just imagine, walking around Paris with various free concerts scattered all across town. Awesome. And as you can imagine, the fact that France beat Switzerland in soccer that evening only added to the celebratory mood.
Cool. Government support of the arts. Related to the above is the fact that unlike in the U.S., government support for the arts is quite common in Europe. I doubt many people took particular note of the large sign behind a stage with the words “Ministère des Affaires étrangères” on it, but for me it stood out as it’s not something one would often see in the States (maybe local government is better about this around here?).
Not cool. Closed off garbage bins in the Paris subway. Apparently, right after the bombings in Madrid, all of the garbage bins in Paris were closed off. The “solution” has been to put a flat cardboard paper container on the ground right next to them. The result: disgusting piles of trash of various sizes around the bins. Even if people aim at the paper trays, by the time the light waste makes it to the ground it scatters all over. A better solution would seem to be transparent bins or something. I did see some of these on the streets. Maybe they are getting around to introducing them in the subway. (Of course, people from some cities may respond that at least they have garbage disposals of some sort!)
Cool. Metro 6. This is one of those things that a tourist would rarely pick up on, but many may enjoy it if they knew about it. The #6 metro goes above ground for a good chunk of the way. It passes very close to the Eiffel Tower and I think offers a wonderful view of the area. I remembered this from the time when I spent a month in Paris many years ago and took this line to class every day. Taking it from the Trocadero stop going West will offer this nice view.
Cool. Photo exhibit on fence of Jardin de Luxembourg. The northern side of the Jardin features a row of large World War II photographs with captions (in both French and English). It seemed to be in honor of the 60th anniversary of D Day. I don’t know if they use this space for photo exhibits at other times, it is certainly a neat idea.
Huh? Cost of using the toilet at Notre Dame: 41c. It made no sense to me to ask for that particular sum for use of the toilets at Notre Dame. The machines only seem to take exact change. How many tourists have that kind of exact change? I would have preferred to just pay 50c then have to bother finding the exact coins. A staff member seems to have it as her full time job to make change for people lining up. This made no sense to me.
Cool. Electronic price tags in stores. It seemed to me that the price tags on the shelves of a supermarket near where I was staying (thanks, Maria!:) were electronically managed. This seems to make a lot of sense. Of course, systems can go down, which would be unfortunate in such a case, but as long as the system is up, it seems a great way to change prices centrally instead of someone having to run around the store changing the little stickers all the time.
Not cool. $5 soft drinks. I found the price of non-alcoholic drinks at sit-down places ridiculous. Wine was often cheaper. I am sure this comes as pleasant news for many, but since I’m not much of a wine fan, I didn’t like it. And paying $5 for a silly drink seemed extreme. (And thus my supermarket experience, where I bought cute little cans of drinks just perfect to quench one’s thirst instead of the regular ones that I can never finish anyway.)
Overall, the trip was great despite some of the not cool moments.;) Numerous friends happened to be in town at the same time and I enjoyed seeing them. It was also a great pleasure to meet Maria in person finally! I also spent a good chunk of my time just walking around in town, sitting on bridges or in parks and pondering things. It was quite a treat.
I’ll post about my London experience another time.
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