Maîtres mots

  • Il y a longtemps que notre pays est beau mais rude.

       --Newspaper editor Olivier Séguret, 25 January 2012

    The USA are entirely the creation of the accursed race, the French.

       --Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), writing to Nancy Mitford, 22 May 1957

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French Freedom of Speech

Today the cheminots are:


  • "À nous de vous faire préférer le train!"
    "Voyager autrement"
    "Avec le SNCF, tout est possible"
      --Former ad slogans of the SNCF (French national trains), each in turn quickly dropped

Fun French words

  • ouistiti

    (literally: marmoset)
    Etymology: onomatopoeia from the sound a marmoset makes. Actual meaning: this is what you say in France when you want people to smile for the camera.

    Selon une étude réalisée par le fabricant d’appareils photo Nikon, le « ouistiti » utilisé en France au moment de se faire prendre en photo est le petit mot le plus efficace pour s’assurer un joli sourire.

Who's en colère today?

  • Private sector

    First strike in 43 years at an aeronautics company in Toulouse, Latécoère


    Public sector

    The SNCF (toujours eux), regional train employees in the Lyons area guaranteeing unpleasant travel from the 17th-21st December
    Also yet another strike by Sud-Rail, a particularly truculent SNCF union in the south of France, this time five days in January: 6,7, 21, 22 and 23. "We have no choice." Right.

    Marseilles trams on strike until February

Go back to school in Paris!

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« Aéroports de Paris: Out of service | Main | Clintons, Paris, the Purple Heart stamp and a Frenchwoman ahead in the polls »

Comments

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Don't agree.

The reason is quiet different. Taxis never existed significantly in Paris. Delanoe is for nothing and Paris is not NY city.

Taxis are waiting in the airport just because it is more profitable for them. They always refused that the prefecture increases the number of taxi license in Paris.

I suggest you should do as every Paris inhabitant: Take tube or buses, it's less expensive and the density of their network (at least inside Paris) is really very high.

From Sedulia: Dear Fred,

"as every Paris inhabitant"? I *am* a Paris inhabitant.

Several taxi drivers have told me themselves that the taxi drivers prefer not to drive in Paris because of our dear mayor's city-crushing "improvements." Have you asked them? I have.

As for your kind advice: thanks, but I do not take the tube and bus when there are several people with me, or I am transporting heavy things, or I am traveling out of the country before or afterwards, or I will be coming back late at night when the tube and bus stop. This is most of the time.

There are not enough taxis in Paris. Until there are, et ce n'est pas demain la veille, I will be taking my car everywhere. I agree with you though on one thing:

Delanoe is for nothing!

That doesn't mean what you think it does.

Hi Sedulia !

Your commenter Fred wrote:

"Taxis never existed significantly in Paris."

Well, in 1914 there were enough of them to save the French Army on the Marne. -grin-

Back to the history books, Fred.

Amerloque fully agrees with Sedulia: the transport situation in Paris has become unbearable thanks to the City Hall and its shortsighted policies.

Best,
L'Amerloque

The comments to this entry are closed.

Today's quotation

  • In Paris, the purest virtue is the object of the filthiest slander.

      –Honoré Balzac (1799-1850), in Scènes de la vie privée

    À Paris, la vertu la plus pure est l'objet des plus sales calomnies.

Le petit aperçu d'Ailleurs

  • Annual Geminids meteor shower (shooting stars!) coming this weekend, if it's not too cloudy out at night.

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