Tuesday, March 07, 2023

Rush hour in Paris

Having not lived in a city for the last twenty years, I kind of forget about things like "rush hour." I was reminded last week. I think it was around 18h15 when I left Andy at the Gare de l'Est and headed across town to Montparnasse. I took the Number 4 line, the most direct route and the main north-south métro line across town. I had to ride through fourteen station stops, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with my fellow passengers all the way. I was the only person I saw wearing a mask.

One of the pedestrian tunnels between the subway and the train station. Not a mask in sight.

When I got to my stop, Gare Montparnasse, I had a long trek through tunnels from the métro to the train station. You can bet I took advantage of escalators and moving sidewalks to speed my walk. Hey, I'm a senior citizen now!

6 comments:

  1. How old do you have to be to call yourself a senior citizen?

    While in New York some years ago, I didn’t time things right and took the subway from mid-town Manhattan to Brookly. I did that often in years past. At one point, I might have jumped off the train at a random station had I been able to move.

    I'd be wearing a mask in that mob, too.

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  2. I have the scars to prove I am old enough

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  3. I would say you are just smart enough!

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  4. Those moving walkways are a great improvement. I've never seen them in Paris before. Maybe there are more escalators now, I have no idea.

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  5. Montparnasse is such a big station. Our closest metro stop when we were there in January was Châtelet which is a nightmare. I swear we walked longer in the metro station than we rode on the train!
    BettyAnn

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  6. mitch, in France, I think it's 60.

    travel, oh my...

    sillygirl, I found the stairs in the subway to be more difficult than they used to be. ;)

    evelyn, they've been around for a while. I remember them in Châtelet-les Halles back in the 80s.

    bettyann, Châtelet is, arguably, the hub of the whole system.

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