To combat some bad behaviour (insults towards the Metro personnel, graffiti, riding without paying...) the RATP (Régie Autonome des transports parisiens - the Paris transport authority) has just launched a communications campain. They created a fake metro line on which each station is symbolized by one of these behaviours, displayed on posters and here, on the web (only in French, sorry). This photo shows one of the real metro lines (you should have seen the people looking at me when I took it!).
Appel à témoins: je cherche des Français expatriés acceptant de témoigner de leur expérience dans un article. Plus de détails ici. Merci.
I guess it must have been pretty strange judging by the angle of the photograph. Nice perspective. I had thought it was too neat and polished to be true.-) being used to look at the real messy subway signs.
ReplyDeleteNow that web site is really cool. I will show it to people at work tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteBTW: I got 100% on the quiz and I don't speak French. Basically, the pattern of the answers is 3,2,1,3,2,1 or pretty damned close.
Give it a try!
A creative way from The Paris transport authority to war with graffiti.
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever idea. Humor often gets the point across without creating a challenge.
ReplyDeletenice shot and by the way, my FIRST thought was "i wonder what the people on the train thought when Eric was taking this??" haha....
ReplyDeletethe website is amazing...definitely attests to the French love of creativity and innovation...the website is so aestetically pleasing!
I LOVE that shot. I'm a big fan of the Paris subway system (even though I hated riding it every day when I lived in Paris). Guess it's true what they say, sometimes distance can make the heart grow fonder ;)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you can practically "taste" (and smell) Paris through that shot!
I can just imagine the looks Eric got on the subway. Thanks for doing it for us and coming up with - yet - another really original post, Eric, but do be careful in crowded public places with that camera! :-)
Eric, the comics in the website are just too funny!
ReplyDeleteAnd I can see that behaviour problems in the Metro are a worldwide problem.
It's an initiative worth of imitation elsewhere.
its a good idea. In Budapest the "free ride" is very common, too. SOmehow people think that public transportation company doesnt deserve the payment for their service. Partly I agree..but without money they will be never better:)
ReplyDeleteOnly the French can be so "in the face". Hope it works!
ReplyDeleteWhile riding trains in Tokyo I sometimes came across a kind of strange, outcast person (usually young and male) who would stand alone and shout train-related gibberish as if he were a demented conductor who had totally lost it.
ReplyDeleteOn my way to the Musée Marmottan in Paris something similar happened. Some youngish guy dressed in dark clothes and wearing a too-colorful vest stood apart from the rest of us and shouted something in a loud voice to no one in particular. "No kidding. They have these nuts here in Paris too," I thought. Much to my chagrin he then walked up to me and said something that seemed kind of psycho because he wasn't addressing me as an individual. But he said it with such confidence and he had his hand out and he seemed so calmly waiting (inwardly impatient). Then it dawned on me in time and I produced my Metro ticket. Why did the Metro ticket-checker have to walk up to a non-speaker of French right off the bat? His gang of similarly dressed "thugs" then fanned out collecting and validating the other passenger's tickets. Whew. A close one.
Thank you, Eric, for putting your camera lens into places outside the norm. But for commuters during rush hour this very view would be the norm for countless people and not out of the ordinary in any way (at least for someone of my height).
Nice campaign of la RATP. You guess I -as a professional "râleur"- have found a new item to add at the item "these gestures that bother you in the Métro" : THESE STUPID BLOGGERS WHO IT FIND SO FUNNY TO COME AND TAKE PICTURES IN THE WAGON IN THE MORNING WHILST I'M NOT AWAKE AND CLEANLY SHAVED !!!"
ReplyDelete;o))
Isn't it a sad commentary on humanity that necessitates a sign like this? I've never understood the mentality of those folks who lack respect for others and themselves. Great photo, though it saddens me because it reminds me of more of the existing problems of our world.
ReplyDeletehe he ... nice way of reaching out to those who sit on the social and moral peripheries...
ReplyDeleteHey, Eric, apparently the poster campaign urging parisians to be kinder and nicer to visitors worked, so you guys must be very open to the gentle persuasion of posters!
ReplyDeleteI bet this finds its way into another great - but perhaps lesser-known - Paris institution (the only one I know of in the world), La musee des affiches. I visited it when it was out in the sticks in the 11th or soemwhere, now it's gone upmarkt as part of the Louvre! Still fascinating though.
The quiz is a hoot. My favourite?
ReplyDeletePourquoi est-il interdit de jouer de la musique dans les inceintes et les materiels roulants de la RATP?
I want to answer:
Les musiciens amateurs ne sonty pas tous des virtuoses.
Oh, never a truer word was written!
I am pleased however, that:
l'espace musique accord de la RATP auditionne et acredite certains artistes . . .
And I am thrilled, after listening to a full mobile phone conversation on my train this moprnign that passenger "tranquility" is a concern of RATP.
Do people speak loud and long into their mobile phones on paris transport???
I'm still at that embarassed stage with my new camera. It's large and very obvious when you pull it out your bag, so I need to get over that. Any tips? I don't want to fall into the trap of just posting landscape photographs. Loving the DP family!
ReplyDeleteNice link for this photo Eric. You're too funny nasty gg!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea for campaign! I like it!
ReplyDeleteΙ love the website. Did you know there is a game you can play? Frade n'est pas jouer!
ReplyDeletethere are campaigns in singapore too, but does it really work? Hmm...
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeletenice perspective! and about the Metro, the situaion in China is really really different.
There are special workers on the Metro who are supervising the passengers all the time to pay for the tickets,not to spit on the ground (embarrassed,you can that so often on the street in China. ) there are even the Metro Polices.
I think the Parisian are humour .:) I like that way..and this photo!!
Here we also have a line named "M8"...:D
...Jing
Haha, all in the name of daily photo blogging!
ReplyDeleteNice photo! Metro of Tokyo, fortunately, has no graffiti and is rather safey. By the way, the authority of Tokyo-Metro gives each station a code, eg. M-5, for travellers from oversea. I think it is easier for them to perceive each station by a code than by proper name.
ReplyDeleteThat's a cute idea! I like it. We should have that on our Metro too!
ReplyDeleteThe "L" in Chicago needs a lot much then good behavior signs...how about signs of the stations in each train cart. They usually have one, so if you’re on the other side of the cart and its packed, then you have to relay on your decoding abilities for the supposable English spoken from the old speakers!!
ReplyDeleteHahaha!
ReplyDeleteNice shot! I can imagine the looks you go.
ReplyDeleteThe cartoons are cute. On wonders, though, if the money could have been spent more efficiently to upgrade their customer service.
ReplyDeleteTonight I am sitting in the "Ballard" neighborhood of Seattle, doing my blog via WiFi from a cafe. How weird to check in with Paris Daily Photo and see "Balard" as a Metro destination. Seattle's transport system is also called Metro . . . .Cool shot.
ReplyDelete-Kim
A pic of you taking the pic, please :-)
ReplyDeletePeople may have think that you are were tourist, héhéhé. How you fooled them !
Eric, how I miss that line 8. When I visit my family in Paris, that's the train I catch in Ecole Veterinaire to go to centre.
ReplyDeleteVous deviez avoir l'air fin lorsque vous avez pris cette photo !" psss ce touriste n'a rien de mieux à faire que de prendre en photo la plaque de la ligne numero 8!!"
ReplyDeleteI know this will sound wierd, but while in Paris I looked forward to riding the metro everywhere! The colorful people, the bizarre performances, and puppet shows were truly a treat to me. At every new stop, it was like Christmas, because I never knew what I might find as I emerged from under a new exciting street!
ReplyDeleteanonymous is right, the Metro is that, too. (sigh)
ReplyDeleteI took the metro this very day in Paris! Yes, judging from the crowd around me, I can imagine you got a few strange looks taking this photo!
ReplyDeleteIt is so wonderful to visit your site now that I've been to Paris. To hear you talk about particular neighborhoods and the culutre...I feel so much closer to it now.
Thanks as always for feeding my love of Paris.
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ReplyDelete