In a message dated 1/26/01 2:58:39 PM Eastern Standard Time,
garth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> Last trip to Paris, my wife and I ran into a charming
> young man and woman from San Francisco -- both in their late teens or
early
> twenties -- who were rather paranoid about Paris. In particular, they
were
> worried about the safety of Paris' Underground.
I think the Pairs underground is a lot better than some...just to tell you my
"stupid American" story:
The very first time my hub and I hit Paris was in '75 for a three-day
weekend...Friday night we didn't have French currency and decided to roam the
Champs Elysee, and walked it's entire length (we started at the Louvre) then
visited the Tour Eiffel. By 1 or 2 am we were pretty tired and decided not to
walk the whole length back, and went down to the underground for a ride. We
entered the underground and were rather uncomfortable waiting becasue of all
the drug transactions and rather "dark" looking creatures hanging around..it
seemed to be a veritable underground society...and not of the most savory
looking dudes. Me, with my waist long hair and hip-slung bellbottoms, my hub
with his very-very-very short GI haircut...we were the quintessential
Americans....They approached us for money about 500 times, appoached us to
buy pot, and stared, spit, and glared. Finally, after we had waited about an
hour or 75 minutes for a train, one came over and asked if we were going to
spend the night in the underground. Seems the trains had stopped running
around 1:30...so by 3:00 we were really tired..I'll never forget that LONG
stroll back across town with very blistered feet. But mostly, I'll never
forget the roar of laughter from the underground crowd when they realized why
we had been there all that time....we "skeedadled".
Moral: get the underground schedules and take some Francs with you for your
first night! And don't walk so far away late at night!
Susan Steele
Virginia USA
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