## 12 One slice of life in February
Sometimes, I write posts for pleasure, without any specific ideas in mind. This post is about a day in my life. Last weekend, I went to Paris to visit my family. I won't go into details about family affairs, as it could fill a novel. Instead, I want to talk about Paris, just a few months before the Olympics. I expected to see a transformed city, but it still seems like a massive construction site. I empathize with the Parisians as the construction seems never-ending, but I also understand Mayor Anne Hidalgo's efforts to improve the city. I have visited several areas including Champs Élysées, The Concorde, La Madeleine, Opera, Les Grands Boulevards, Place de la République, Le Père Lachaise, and Denfert-Rochereau, and have noticed that the construction is still ongoing. Although I have some concerns about the final outcome, I remain cautiously optimistic. I am optimistic about Avenue Foch and the surrounding roads and streets near the Champs Élysées, as well as the Opera, because they are popular touri
st destinations. However, temporary barriers have been placed around the Louvre and the Concorde to prevent cars from using the cycle paths that have replaced the roads for the past 20 years. This is not only a problem for car drivers, but for all means of transportation. I had sometimes the impression to do slalom skiing between cars and motorbikes with traffic lights as gates.
For trams, it's a problem of traffic lights at intersections. For buses, it's a problem of identifying the bus lanes at some intersections. For cyclists, it's a problem of keeping yourself alive, especially at night. Hopefully the Olympics will be held in the summer with short nights. But when you consider that the cycle paths are hard to find, hard to see, too narrow, with poor lighting and sometimes buses, it's a far cry from what I know in Germany or the Netherlands, for example. Many road signs are missing to describe which lane to use to go left or right. Don't worry, it's the same at Roissy airport to find the metro or buses if you're a tourist with a suitcase. There are no colors on the pavement or on the road to indicate whether it's for buses, bicycles, motorbikes, scooters, ... It's no coincidence that the number of accidents between pedestrians and scooters has increased in recent years. Don't forget that the French don't respect the rules....Not only the French, because when I tried to cross the
Champs Élysées, it was difficult because of the tourists everywhere to take a picture of the Arc de Triomphe, and double parked cars (often with diplomatic plates...) every hundred meters.
But it is not all bad. Sometimes the cycle paths are fine, with safety for the cyclists... The most dangerous are the cyclists and scooters themselves, who run red lights or use the pavements as a race track. Some road signs have been added and I hope for a long time. The aim is to have fewer cars in Paris and that's a good thing. The only problem is .... Parisians: you know those people who throw everything on the ground, forget to turn on the lights at night and ignore all the rules but shout at people who don't respect their rules. I'm not from Paris, I'm from the suburbs and it makes all the difference. So imagine being a foreigner... I'm always fascinated by the reactions of Japanese people who have an idea of Paris, as in manga or films, and are shocked by our dirtiness and lack of politeness. It's not a legend, but don't worry, it's the 1st level boss in the game Visiting France. And for some people, the 1st boss is at customs with our legendary French accent and friendliness. You're in France and you
won't forget it. The second level could be Strikes!
If we don't win many medals at the Olympics, as expected, I'm pretty sure we'll win our favorite sport: strikes. We have so many reasons to go on strike with Macron that 2024 could be the festival of strikes. Teachers, nurses, doctors, farmers, train conductors and drivers, air traffic controllers, firefighters, policemen, Uber drivers and deliverers, taxi drivers, the Eiffel Tower (closed for strike this week-end)... and of course future retirees and pensioners, because Macron screwed us and many French want to fuck HIS Olympics. The transport specialists in logistics are planning a disaster because our metros and busses can't cope with so many tourists with the daily workers. I don't know if it's true, but if you know the famous line 13, you can imagine the disaster. Oh, it's no worse than in some very crowded countries. As you know, I prefer to walk and if you pay attention to what's on the ground, Paris is a very beautiful city. I think it will be very difficult for me to see the family in Paris in July.
Maybe a good soap opera for the blog?
The motivation for this day in Paris was to bring heavy or bulky items, as well as a hot meal that we had prepared ourselves. It was during a holiday period, so there were fewer people than usual. I mean fewer Parisians and commuters. I wouldn't have done it during a "normal" weekend. Sometimes it's easier to take the train or the metro and to buy everything around the family and not to bring or prepare anything. It sometimes reminds me of when I was a real Parisian for seven years. Paris has changed a lot and some neighbourhoods have been transformed, gentrified as they say. I still love walking in the multiethnic parts of Paris, but the rents are getting so expensive that Paris is being robbed of all that and a bit of its soul. It reminds me of what some New Yorkers said a decade ago...
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