Thursday, July 22, 2010

Attention travaux !


If your were in Paris at the moment, you would find a lot of signs like this! During the summer the city turns into a giant work in progress - there are no less than 5,125 streets in Paris for a total of 2,918 km (1,813 miles)! The good side is that pavements and sidewalks are pretty well kept, the bad side is that in July, where a lot of Parisians are still home, the traffic is absolutely dreadful. Even some train tracks are impacted: hence the complete shut down of traffic between Gare d'Austerlitz and Invalides until August 21st, due to the refection of  all the tunnels... God, I would not like to be in charge of a city like Paris LOL!

15 comments:

  1. It's so pretty with all the lovely colors. Leave it to Paris to make even street repairs beautiful!

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  2. It's a popular thing to do in Stockholm as well this time of the year I think.

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  3. Thank you Eric....just came back from celebrating my big 4-0...love the colours in this picture and the Tenin perspective:)

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  4. Because of severe winters, roads take a beating here. We have a saying that is only one half joking: in Minnesota there are two seasons, winter and road construction.

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  5. Construction everywhere! I travel at a minimum once a week, and I have not been anywhere where there was no road construction. Ever!

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  6. We complain when the roads need fixing, and then we complain when they are being fixed. We just can't be pleased.

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  7. And you didn't mention the ever dutiful Men In Green. I have a few photos to post on them one day!

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  8. I guess the solution is to travel by foot. :~}
    The Paris streets are in very good shape—whoever is in charge must realize that a temporary inconvenience is better than a permanent one.

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  9. This has nothing to do with the photo, but I had to share it.

    "...we bowled along toward the Chatelet...In the square, the spitting sphinxes of the Palm-tree Fountain reminded me of the disgusting game we used to adore at Montigny; standing in a row, five or six of us horrid little girsl would fill our cheeks with water and imitate the sphinxes. The one who spat furthest won a marble or some nuts.

    "At the box-office and on the staircase, my cousin Uncle kept bowing to people or shaking hands with them....It was badly lit. It smelt of horse-dung...The Chatelet audorium was large but ugly and commonplace; the lights showed red in a halo of dust. I cn assure you it did smell of horse-dung! And all those heads down below--the men's black and the women's beflowered. I wondered, if I threw bread down to those people, whether they'd open their mouths to catch it?
    Chapter 10, Claudine In Paris, Colette

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  10. What is this building in the background with the rainbow façade? I will now be on a hunt for it in the 15th!

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  11. It seems almost impossible to keep roads sensibly maintained without at least a little inconvenience.
    Nice photo Eric.

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  12. Eric, I hope you don't encounter any more of these "Route Barée", figuratively speaking.

    The only way to get around Paris these days is on a bike it seems. On top of the usual summer public works, there are some major renovations and new constructions planned over the next few years that are sure to irritate Paris drivers. I wrote about some of these on the Paris-Sharing blog "Last chance to visit Paris before..."

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  13. The rainbow building certainly is pretty! We in the Houston area have a standard M.O.: road construction is an ever present frustration and you will always encounter it. Currently the only highways NOT under construction at some place are very low-used toll roads. It would be nice to know the construction was only limited to the late summer. Houston's public transportation is also primarily bus, which means aside from one seven mile stretch of light rail, you can't avoid roadwork by using public transport.

    All that being said, Houston is one of my favorite places, and I find that the more I am there, the more I know what to avoid, and so it doesn't affect me nearly so much as it could.

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  14. We have 4 seasons here in Northern Michigan: early winter, winter, late winter, and road construction. :)

    Hope you find your way, Eric!

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  15. There is a sign I recognize. My father almost never cussed, in fact never, really, except when he was driving in Paris and came across ... well ... this sign.

    (Paris traffic will make *anyone* cuss) ;)

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