Those of you who know me well know that I HATE public transportation.
But, you know, I'm in Paris, so what the heck.
The trains mostly run underground and some metro stations transfer more than 10 different trains. There are 14 lines through Paris and none are circular. They intersect with other lines, but all lines are independent of each other and none of them share trains. Supposedly there are over six hundred police officers assigned to the metro, but I swear I never see A SINGLE ONE. Well, maybe once or twice. I mean, I saw some guys with torture tools in their belt, and I assume they were police.
The metro is an interesting place. I decided the other night when I was in the haunts of a foreign metro station by myself that if I were to imagine how a nightmare would look...it would look like a metro station. Imagine descending down dirty stain-covered stairs, lots of people, or sometimes no people, dirty tiled walls, unsavory characters, dank smells, curving passageways--welcome to the perfect setting for your own little nightmare.
Welcome to the metro.
1 comment:
One of my distinct memories of Paris was that the smell of the metro did not compare favorably to the smell of the tube in London. Not that the tube is lovely exactly, although there is that one silvery station right by Big Ben that looks like it comes out of Super Mario Bros. tube world. But both tube and metro do get you where you need to go.
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