04 February 2019

Se déplacer dans Paris

These are more Paris photos from June 1998 that I took using CHM's 1996-vintage Kodak DC50 digital camera. Looking at all these fairly recent photos makes me remember all the years I spent in Paris between 1974 and 1982. Getting from one part of the city to another was always an adventure.


For years I just rode the Métro, or subway. There are some 300 stations in Paris, so you're never far from one. In the early '70s, when I was living in places like Aix-en-Provence and Rouen, I would go to Paris as often as I could. Then in 1974 I got a job in Paris and found an apartment in the close-in suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine, near Courbevoie and Levallois-Perret on the western edge of the city.

I lived right next to the Asnières train station. I could take a commuter train three stops or so to the Gare Saint-Lazare, and there I could transfer to the Métro. I was working in the Latin Quarter, so it was a long ride. I spent so much time underground that I started to feel like I was living the life of a mole. Or an ant. At rush hour,  the trains were packed like proverbial sardine cans. Sometimes the platforms (les quais) were so crowded that you feared you might just get pushed off and fall on the tracks in front of a speeding train.

Then in 1974 or '75, the Métro system introduced the Carte Orange, a monthly pass for unlimited travel on public transit all of over the city. I was on a tight budget, so it was nice not to have to buy so many single-ride tickets every week. The Carte Orange saved me a lot of money. And one of the best benefits it provided was that it was also good on the buses that run all around the city at surface level instead of in underground tunnels.

So I started riding the buses. That's a lot more fun, because you can see where you are. With the monthly pass, you could jump off the bus whenever you saw something interesting to explore, and jump back on without having to buy or use a second ticket. In fact, most bus rides of more than three or four stops in Paris cost you two tickets anyway. Unlimited travel on buses changed my life. The downside: buses can get caught up in traffic jams.

Even so, the best way to get around in Paris was to walk. The rain be miserable, and you always to had to be careful not to step in the dog poop that littered the sidewalks. Or worry about getting run over by some crazed driver when you were crossing the street. Anyway, walking around the city was good exercise. From 1979 to '82, I lived just 10 steps off the rue Montorgueil near Les Halles. I could walk to the Latin Quarter or to Saint-Germain-des Prés, where I was working back then. What a different life that was.

12 comments:

  1. And now, we Ile-de-France residents can get a Passe Navigo -- all 5 zones for less than €80 a month. Unlimited RER, Metro, Bus, and Tram use. In fact, in my department, I get the Navigo for €38 a month because the department subsidizes half the cost. For those who do not have income tax to pay, there's a full subsidy.
    I go into Paris a lot! And I take the buses because I have time, now. It can take me 2 hours and 4 buses to get to the American Library.
    For those who still use tickets, the buses now allow you to transfer, without using a new ticket if the transfer is within 1:30 of the first use. In that time you can transfer as many times as you want as long as your are not backtracking. It's a great way for tourists to see the city.

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    1. How do they verify that you are not backtracking? Sounds like it would take drivers some time to decide whether you are or not. I have no experience of Navigo, but it sounds like an improved Carte Orange.

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    2. When you put your ticket in the machine, it prints the bus line number. Also, the first time you put it in the machine, it prints the time. This information is also implanted on the magnetic strip of the ticket, so that if you take the same bus line in the opposite direction, the machine knows and lights up red, with a loud buzzer noise and the same thing happens if the last bus you want to get on is late coming and your 1 and 1/2 hours are up.
      With the Navigo pass, no such limitations. You can go from bus to metro to another bus to the tram to the RER, seamlessly. The only thing you can't do is go down to the metro, realize you forgot a bag at the restaurant, leave and run back to get your bag, then down to the metro, all in less than 8 minutes. If you are so quick, as I was on Monday, your Navigo pass will not work and you have to go to the RATP person so she can open a gate for you. She told me you have to wait 8 minutes before reusing the pass at the same station.

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  2. In New York, there's a joke: should we walk or do we have time to take a taxi?
    The sardine reference reminds me of the Patrick Sébastien song (which is unfortunate, because I find him to be an odious sexist). And now I'm going to have "Qu'est-ce qu'on est serré, au fond de cette boite, chantent les sardines, chantent les sardines...." (boite being a can but also being a nightclub)

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  3. I don't remember seeing any of these photos, but I'm glad you were able to take them. They're vintage, too. And, again, they're very good, considering!

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    1. I truly believe I used your Kodak camera to take these photos, but I don't remember when you gave me the camera, or how or when I returned it to you. I drove from California to North Carolina in Feb. 1998, after Apple/Claris's big layoff. Did I stop in Salton City on my way to N.C.? Did I take your camera with me to N.C.? If so, I haven't found any photos from that trip. I flew to Paris in May of that year. After that trip, did I drive down to Salton City to give back the camera? Did I save and then convert the KDC files to BMP format before returning tne camera? Or did you come to San Francisco? My memory fails me.

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    2. Since I had retired the year before, I traveled a lot in 1998, to and from California and Paris. To be honest, I don't recall lending you the Kodak camera, but I take your word for it. And, if so, you probably gave it back to me in August, when you picked me up in Carteret. I did have it on our trip back to Paris through Bayeux, and Rouen [?]. I didn't find yet all the photos I took that year. I'm working on it.

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    3. I have all the photos you took in the Cotentin with the DC50 when we were there with Jeanine and Andrée.

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    4. Must ave been in August1998. Didn't find them yet, but found photos you took in Arizona when you come to see us with MA on March 12, 98. What camera did you use then?

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    5. It must have been your DC50. I think I remember taking it to N.C.

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  4. I love riding the buses now. I had a long commute from the Cité Universitaire to the CNEP.

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  5. I'm enjoying this tour. On your advice, we now take the bus in Paris whenever possible. Everything you say about it is true.

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