Rnothing is going anymore. Paris has become an impractical city. In addition to the work begun and unfinished, the Town Hall has decided on new routes for traffic despite common sense, which is causing more and more traffic jams and increasing the level of pollution.
I never understood what the Town Hall did to Place de la Bastille. Before, traffic was fluid; cars were moving in the right direction. Now we have changed the meaning and spent a lot of money to complicate what was simple. The same applies to Boulevard du Montparnasse and in other thoroughfares. We no longer know in which direction the cars and especially the buses are coming. Pedestrians, especially the elderly, are confused.
As usual, some unions are picking their moment to prevent people from going on vacation or to make leaving difficult. It has become a tradition. They think that the state will take pity on users and give in to their demands. But it’s always the same circus. Unions are necessary and their role is important in a democracy. But we ask them to have a little imagination and to change their means of pressure.
The reign of the absurd
Airports are unrecognizable. These are souks on the eve of major events. Everyone’s eye is on the departure board. It reads more “delayed” or “cancelled” than “scheduled on time”. Still, the Covid is acting up and people are forgetting to wear a mask.
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Leaving Orly, the lack of staff is the excuse we hear the most. It is true that one counter out of two is closed. When we get out of there, on returning from a trip, we go to the taxi door. You have a thousand travelers queuing. Cars arrive in dribs and drabs. Fifty-seven minute wait on June 29 between 11 p.m. and midnight. The driver tells us that he too had been waiting in a parking lot for hours. It is the reign of the absurd.
Everything is mismanaged, out of sync. Before the transformations of Orly, the expectation was reasonable. The approach to the four terminals has become complicated. A madness imagined by engineers who ignore simplicity.
We must add to this the nervousness of people tired by the journey and the heat.
A toxic air
In Paris, people don’t like each other, don’t respect each other. The aggressiveness is general, it is in the air. We catch ourselves complaining and misbehaving. The air we breathe is toxic, it makes us nervous.
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The RATP makes us suffer. Between one bus and another, the wait often exceeds twenty minutes. When the long-awaited bus arrives, the driver often warns you that he stops his service halfway. It’s up to you to wait for the next one. The bus is itself a victim of the Paris City Hall’s stupid traffic policy. Traffic jams and diversions for works are everywhere. Not a single artery where traffic is flowing. No, the motorist must be punished and give up taking his car, even if it is his working tool. Besides that, scooters are coming out everywhere and some have caused serious accidents.
The metro, not very clean, works quite well. Occasionally there are sudden stops. Everyone goes down. I believe it is the only country in the world where a recorded voice in several languages warns you that there are pickpockets in the cars.
For taxis, it is better to subscribe to be served fairly quickly. Otherwise, it’s a mess. Even the Ubers start driving you around and then send you a message: “No cars in the area; restart your order. » If you forget to cancel, you will be charged 7 euros.
Restaurants are understaffed. Since the pandemic, many servers have not resumed their work. Everyone is on edge. The quality suffers and prices have soared.
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The most beautiful city in the world is thus mistreated, unloved, poorly managed. What is extraordinary, despite all this, is that millions of tourists are not discouraged and continue to come from all over the world to visit it while supporting all that they are subjected to inconvenience and bad humor .
Paris is no longer a party. And it’s very unfortunate.
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