Observations on Paris - the end; Taxis and the WSJ.

This column from the Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition reminded me that I did not post my final comment on Paris.

If you will be in need of a taxi in Paris in the morning – rush hour time – be sure and order it the night before. Otherwise you will be out of luck. We awoke early, hoping to get to the Montparnasse station early for breakfast before our mid-morning departure to St. Emilion.

When we asked the front desk to call us a taxi, the look on the woman’s face clued us in that we made a tactical error. In all of our reading and research, no one mentioned that everyone in Paris ordered a morning cab the night before. You would not guess it, but it seems there are not enough cabs to go around.

View from out taxi of a taxi.  Get it?

Our only option was our first metro ride. And we had our luggage to carry, during rush hour no less. To prove my point that the French have an unwarranted bad reputation, allow me to explain otherwise. The night desk person was just leaving, and going on vacation to Cyprus. He volunteered to walk us to the Metro station, and then he spoke to the attendant for us so we could speed through paying the fare. It was a very generous act of kindness, and although we thanked him profusely, I never got his name.

Thanks to him we made it to the train station with enough time for coffee and a shared baguette. I hope he had as good a vacation as we did.

Observations on Paris - Pt. 4

Some things that are okay in Europe - would not fly in North America. For example, you may have heard of their small buildings and hotel rooms. Also the small elevators, or lift as they call them, using the British term. One of ours was frightfully small. So small I was unable to stand sideways in our lift. Well, I could, but my shoulders touched the front and back wall. The lift restriction was 3 persons or 225 kg (about 500 lbs). Were I to live in Paris and eat like I did, I may not be able to share a lift with any one in short order.

Although the lift was an OTIS, I don’t think it would pass OSHA standards on this side of the pond.

It is also not easy to get around if you are disabled in Paris, and I don’t simply mean the cobblestone streets. Of course there are improvements for wheel chair access, and I don’t mean to say that they are not doing anything.

Because so many of the buildings are from the middle ages, there is only so much retrofitting that can be done. Many restaurant restrooms are in the basement, down very narrow stairwells, often curved, with tiny stair steps. Tough not only for handicapped, but rough on the elderly as well.

St. Emilion, France.