The Inaccurate Tourist

2. The Métro

The Paris Métro is huge, with dozens of lines and hundreds of stations. You aren't ever very far from a station and the trains come within seconds of each other. In fact, the Paris Métro makes the Vancouver Skytrain look like a horse cart... without the horse.

A trip on the métro anywhere in Paris costs 1.3€ (or about $1.85CAD), or a pack of 10 (called a carnet) 10 for 9.3€, which you purchase from a vendor in the station. You insert these little green tickets into the turnstile, where it gets sucked in and appears out of a little slot farther along. This unlocks the little doors after the turnstile, so you can proceed (baaaa).

Frequently, some wild-living student will jump the turnstile and through your doors before they can lock again. You should keep your ticket so that you can prove you've paid, in the unlikely event of a police check. Your ticket is allegedly only good for one trip, and only for the zones specified. Before I knew better, however, I used the same little ticket all day, and through far more zones that it was supposed to permit.

The doors on the trains don't open automatically. Follow somebody the first time to see how its done (you just have to lift a lever for a second), or you may be standing foolishly in front of a closed door. In addition to the fixed seats, there are seats that fold down next to the doors for when the train isn't crowded. These doors are not like elevator doors -- when the buzzer sounds, you had better stay clear because they intend to shut, and they aren't going to open again until the next stop. When you arrive at your stop, follow someone else out of the train, or lift the little lever to open the door.

While tourists use the little green ticket, Parisians (like me) use the orange ticket shown. This is the equivalent to a pass, and it can be purchased for the week, for the month or for the year. It is accompanied by an orange id card (hence the name Carte Orange), and is good for unlimited travel for the specified time and zones. My monthly pass from zones 1 to 5 (where I work) cost about 88€, which is reasonable when you consider that I will use it to travel nearly 1300km every month.

Most of Paris is zone 1. In order to get into other zones (the suburbs), you take special trains (connected to the métro) called RER. You can't (shouldn't) use the little green tickets to take the RER out of Paris because you would be heading into other zones. In addition to the suburbs, the RER go to Charles-de-Gaulle Airport and Disneyland.

During my second weekend in Paris, I took the métro to see that other great Parisian landmark -- the Arc de Triomphe. From the closest station (Alésia), I took the number four line in the direction of Porte de Clignancourt (the directions of the lines are named after their final destination), and transferred to the number six line at Montparnasse-Bienvenue. Some of these transfers can seem quite complicated -- just remember the line number and destination name and keep following the signs. I took line six to its terminus at Charles de Gaulle-Étoile.

The word étoile is french For star, and twelve broad avenues intersect the Arc de Triomphe. I had heard that many car insurance policies will not cover this specific area. I have no idea how many lanes are in this traffic ring, and I doubt that the French drivers do either. In order for the pedestrian to reach the Arc de Triomphe, one must descend under the traffic (in a tunnel, as opposed to the usual lying-crumpled-on-the-ground way).

The tower was commissioned by Napoléon in 1806 to celebrate his military victories. The names of battles and generals are carved inside, and the outside is decorated with neo-classic sculpture. The construction took thirty years, so it wasn't finished until long after Napoléon's defeat by the Russians (1814) and later by Wellington at Waterloo (1815).

The Arc de Triomphe actually has four pillars and four arches arranged in a square and supporting a single roof. This usually isn't apparent in pictures, but you can get a sense of it in the picture taken from inside, looking up. You can ascend to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, which is 50 meters high. You have to buy a ticket to go to the top, but it's free to walk around underneath. Just follow the signs to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was added after World War I, and now commemorates the dead of both world wars. At the head of the tomb is the eternal flame.

From the Arc de Triomphe, I walked down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, which is a straight line all the way to the Place de la Concorde, which is the largest square in Paris.

The Champs-Elysées is a very broad avenue, lined with interesting buildings and shops, and is very crowded despite having very large sidewalks. I was hurrying along because it was a pretty cold day, so I'll have to visit it in more detail later. I saw my first demonstration (or grève) at a McDonalds on the way. I stopped in the Monoprix (an ever-present supermarket/department store) to warm up.

Later, I stopped in the Virgin Megastore to see if it was any different than in Vancouver. It was grander, with stone staircases leading to the two upper levels that ringed the lower levels. The prices for CDs, DVDs and other home electronics were about the same in euros that one would pay in Canadian dollars (i.e. they cost about half again as much).

It was dark by the time I reached the Place de la Concorde, so I will have to return to it later. From the square, you can see all the way down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe (about two kilometres away).

Between the obelisk and the Seine, there was a large Ferris wheel (called the Roue de Paris, I think). This is another opportunity in Paris to go way high up in order to see a view. I don't know if this is a permanent fixture or not (it had the year 2002 on a large banner), but I would very much like to take a ride on a clear day.

Despite being pretty weary at this point, I decided to walk to see the Eiffel Tower at night. I followed the Seine for a couple of kilometres, but it wasn't until I was nearly right under it that I could see it in the fog.

On a totally different topic, France already has access to FOUR new Harry Potter books. But don't get too jealous -- these new books are shamelessly derivative of the first four. In Harry Potter à l'École des Sorciers, Harry has apparently forgotten that he is a wizard until he is shipped off to Poudlard, the celebrated school of sorcery (a thinly veiled Hogwarts, except everybody speaks French). While Poudlard resembles Hogwarts in other ways (including being divided into Gryffindor, Poufsouffle, Serdaigle and Serpentard), at least Ms. Rowling got rid of that tiresome Professor Snape. She did introduce a new character, Severus Rogue, who seems to have it in for Harry, but I'm waiting to see if he is as evil as he appears.

Posted by The Inaccurate Tourist at January 18, 2002 12:00 PM