On the Buses

All large cities, by their very nature, require a good public transport system.  Paris is certainly no exception with the Metro, bus lines, RER, rental bicycles and even a funicular! But today's story is mostly about some of the experiences we have had on the buses.  Admittedly they are not as dramatic as several years ago when we were involved in two bus accidents on the same day, but we thought they were interesting and hope you will as well.

We took the bus number 85 from near the flat down to the Louvre.  The intent was quite mundane.  Bruce wanted to buy some socks and possibly even a necktie.  Both of the shops he wanted to visit are on the rue de Rivoli.  Fortunately the bus stops only a few metres from the tie shop.  The bus was crowded but we struggled to the door.  Bruce alighted, turned to help Virginia down the step but the  door closed in his face and the proceeded on its stately way.  Virginia, on the bus, shouted "La porte, s'il vous plait" and others joined in not unlike a Greek chorus, but the driver was unmoved.  But Bruce was also unmoved since he knew that she knows the Paris network like the back of her hand and should we fail to make contact she would just head back to the flat after having an interesting afternoon on her own. Meanwhile back on the bus everyone consoled Virginia and at the next stop barred the doors so they could not close and she could make a stately exit.

The bus driver's seeming lack of concern was quite unusual as we have seen them go very much out of their way to help passengers.  This includes stopping quite illegally to let people on and off and getting off to help elderly people and mothers with prams and babies.

Anyway, after catching up, there were no ties that met Bruce's exacting standards so we walked down to C & A, a large department store which deals with ordinary people like us and where Bruce buys his socks.  Then it was back on the bus and not long afterwards we had our second bus incident.   In Paris the streets are very narrow and it is something of a miracle that the buses can even get through.  We always feel as if we need to take a deep breath as the bus driver squeezes his double-folding bendy bus through a space that just doesn't seem wide enough.  Because trucks stop to load and unload in the streets, often the bus may be delayed while everybody waits for the unloading to finish.  Then it is off again.  Buses start as soon as passengers get on without waiting for them to be seated and passengers have to make their way from pole to handhold to pole as they move through the bus.  Today, the man sitting opposite Bruce got up to get off at the next stop just as the driver put on the brakes.  The passenger stumbled, slipped and fell, taking Bruce down, off the seat, with him.  What was interesting was not the actual falling down which was merely uncomfortable, but the time both Bruce and the other gentleman spent apologizing to one another and the way everyone in the vicinity was helpful, asking if they were hurt, helping them to their feet, and shaking their heads and tsk-tsking about the driving that had caused such a terrible thing to happen. Terribly French!

Route of the Montmartrobus

The third incident took place on the Montmartrobus.  This is a little electric bus which runs from the Marie du 18eme to Pigalle taking in Sacre Coeur, place du Tertre and other interesting areas.  It is really a bus used by locals who live on the butte where shopping is limited.  They come down to the Marie, do their shopping in the area and then ride the bus back to their homes.  It is always crowded since it is also used by tourists to go up to Sacre Coeur and the place du Tertre.  We usually avoid it, but today Virginia had to take it from rue Lepic back to our flat.  It was raining, people had umbrellas and the bus was crowded as usual.  While forcing her way to the back in accordance with the less than subtle requests of the driver, "avancer, avancer" she dropped one of her gloves (a necessity considering the very cold weather here at the moment) and a very unlikely young man went to considerable lengths to help her recover it considering that the bus was packed too tightly to bend down. Then, to top it off, he gave her his seat.  This, by the way, is not at all unusual as both Bruce and Virginia are frequently offered seats on crowded buses.  Virgina accepts graciously but Bruce who refuses to admit he would like to sit down tries (usually unsuccessfully) to bear up bravely in the upright position.

The Montmartrobus

On a totally different note, we have really had the notion of identity theft brought home to us.  Not, fortunately, that it happened to us, but last night, from our lounge window we saw a man going through trash which had been put out to be picked up.  He was well-dressed with a notebook in hand and he split open the plastic bags full of rubbish searching for receipts and then taking notes based on, we presume, what he found.  He had a knife to split the bags so was serious about what he was doing. Was he the local tax inspector,seems unlikely! We had never seen this before - perhaps it is a big city thing - but it reminds us that it is good to shred anything which might have personal information on it.