Friday, August 03, 2012
Sane
More good news from the Guardian over breakfast this morning.
Not that I needed to find an excuse for heading back across the ditch to Paris, but it looks like those godawful rat runs of insane traffic racing along the quais and ruining everyone's enjoyment of the Seine …
… will soon be as quiet and idyllic as the beautiful walks around the Ile de la Cité. Woohoo!
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7 comments:
Do you mean the fake beaches? Or the tourists?
Either way, you tempt me.
The fake beaches and tourists will still be there, Petrea, but the four lane (with French drivers, make that eight cars squeezed across four lanes) race track that made getting to the river a risk to life and limb will soon be gone. Sure, the traffic in the rest of the city will snarl up even more but then it always does. No sane person in Paris drives a car anyway.
Trees can only add so much to the beauty and peace and quiet of a neighborhood. They've added a lot to our downtown over the years, but the traffic just has the continued audacity to add congestion, smog and noise to what would otherwise be a pleasant experience. It's nice to see that the administrators of Paris finally understand that traffic is a distraction, not an addition to the beauty of the city.
(Take me with you, Dive, pleeeeze? I promise to be a quiet American. ;-))
It's the wonderful new Socialist President who's doing it, Speedway. Back when he was merely Mayor, he started his war on the Seine-side traffic chaos and now he has the power he's doing what he promised.
Yay, Socialists! Hee hee.
And I'll let you now when I can afford to head back over he ditch. I'll be waiting under the St.Pancras clock (at the end of the Eurostar platforms). Come one, come all! Unfortunately I can only afford my own ticket, darn it.
Or of course you could fly straight there, which would probably be cheaper.
That's great to remove the traffic along the Seine. I hope the President is able to accomplish this.
Now, we just have to win the lottery so we can afford to fly over the pond and meet you at the station. :-)
Ms. M, for the heck of it, I checked the prices for round-trip tickets from Indy to Paris and London. In rounded sums, Paris would be about $2000 and London about $1100. A ticket on Eurostar from London would cost about $60. Yep, looks like a bucket list/lottery win plan to me.
Ms.M and Speedway, much as I am jealous of your wide open Colonial spaces (and ludicrously low petrol prices) I must confess, the knowledge that I can hop on a train in my own village, get to Paris before lunch, wander along the banks of the Seine and be back home for bedtime makes me glad I live on this tiny, rainy island.
Mind you, that would be a pretty dumb way to waste a train ticket to Paris; I'd rather find somewhere cheap to sleep and spend a couple of weeks there.
If ever you guys are in England, however, a quick hop across the ditch for a midweek break in Paris is a cheap and inspiring diversion.
Count me in.
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