The Americans all went home

"You work too hard," I said, scolding my friendly neighborhood "arabe" as I bought some milk late last night (he's actually a Berber; but a lot of French people call the corner grocer an "arabe" --most small grocery stores in Paris are actually run by North Africans).

I really do worry about him sometimes. He smokes, and coughs, and works six days a week.

"You have to work hard," he said, shrugging. "Otherwise, you go out of business."

"Everyone else is shut," I pointed out. It was Saturday night.

"Ils sont des employés," he said.

Then we got into a discussion about the various nationalities in the neighborhood. "There used to be lots of Americans," he said. "I liked them, they were nice, polite people. Non, je ne plaisante pas. But they all went home. There aren't any now.  And the Japanese-- there are very few Japanese around here now. They are very decent people too.

"It's Spain now," he went on. "Everyone is going to Spain. Spain and la Grande Bretagne. It seems it is much easier to work and make money there.  If I were young, I'd leave too."

Comments

[L'Amerloque]

Hi !

Yes. As Amerloque pointed out quite recently on his blog … (plug, plug …) … people are moving out …

While there may only be one Paris, it is changing quite rapidly and, in Amerloque's view, not necessarily for the better. …/… At intervals the French press reports the significant shifts in population: people are moving out of Paris and the Paris region (the Ile de France). The two major groups reported as leaving are retired individuals and families with children. This augurs ill for the Parisian economy overall since the former usually are in higher tax brackets and the latter are what makes cities vibrant, living, evolving entities. In addition, Paris is losing many of its distinctive small shops and restaurants: there seem to be fewer every year. There are more traffic jams, and there is more casual crime in some parts of town. Paris is being emptied of its working and middle classes – it is becoming a paradise for BoBos ... and tourists, of course ! Amerloque shudders to think that it might become another Venice !

Speaking of traffic jams … Amerloque has found just the site for Sedulia … (smile) …

Bienvenue en enfer !

"Ce n'est qu'en leur faisant vivre l'enfer que nous obtiendrons un jour des automobilistes qu'ils renoncent à leur bagnole". On doit cette phrase mémorable à Yves Contassot, un élu Verts de la capitale qui est adjoint à l'environnement de Bertrand Delanoë. L'enfer comme programme politique…

It's at Le Perroquet Libéré ! http://tinyurl.com/ygqalm

Merci Monsieur Delanoe ! (© Sedulia)

Best,
L'Amerloque

From Sedulia: Thanks. That's a great quote.