If you come to Paris in winter, you may purchase one of those umbrellas, after all not only will they protect you from the rain, but also guide you in the Paris Metro ! There are 14 lines in Paris (plus too diversions). The first one was built in 1900 for the world exhibition, and the last one in 1998) - More on Wikipedia. The network never ceases to grow (they are still extending existing lines, especially towards the suburbs) but it’s never enough. Some lines – like line 13) is actually saturated and in the morning you often have to wait 2 or 3 trains before getting on board. Well, so I’m told, as I’m really allergic to the metro and try to stay away from it as much as possible!
I love that metro map so much, I framed one and hung it in my home. It is next to my REAL London underground map the manager of the Glouster RD station saved for me.
ReplyDeleteI found a nice sized Paris metro placemat, photocopied it, and laminated it for my over 40 eyes.Maybe if I buy this umbrella, I can REALLY see the stops better!!!
*Gloucester
ReplyDeletewith you on the Metro - use buses as much as I can in Paris (and also in London!)
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good idea but you'd have to get wet whilst you consult the map!?
ReplyDeleteI never carry umbrellas - much too cumbersome. Annoying. I'd rather get wet.
Lynn, you cracked me up!!!
ReplyDeleteLynn will fit right in here in Seattle where it seems almost a matter of pride for folks to do without umbrellas except in true downpours :-).
ReplyDeleteA very happy new year to you, Eric, and all best wishes that you enjoy one of the best years ever!
-Kim
Zazie dans le Métro? I'm just so sick with people being so egoistic!
ReplyDeletePeople talk about Humanity all the time. Does anyone care about Humility, nowadays??
Lynn, I hardly carry umbrellas unless I am with someone for I don't want both of us to get wet.
ReplyDeleteSeattle sounds like the place to be, thanks Kim.
Bonne Année 2010 à toutes et à tous!
Love, love, love that umbrella!! Went through all the tourist shops in the 5th to find one that folds and could fit in the suit case but no luck. :(
ReplyDeleteI have 2 umbrellas from the MTA store (New York subway). My life will not be complete until I get one from the RATP though! ;) (wish I were joking).
I have several subway maps, as well, including an antique one that predates my birth (that old) I hope to come across a *real* vintage one, from an actual metro station some day.
If I lived in Paris I might get tired of the Metro, especially if I had to take it to work every morning. But one gets used to it (I got used to the El trains in Chicago, for instance). And for tourists, it's a real saving grace.
ReplyDeleteI think the umbrella's charming.
Thanks for your visit to my blog today, Eric! I was hoping you'd show up. It's been a nice blogiversary. I'm looking forward to yours.
Ooops... forgot to mention the metro-map dish towel that I never use because I don't want the washing machine to erase the stations ;)
ReplyDeleteSame idea: I bought a stand up, square-ish plastic bag/carryall with the metro map on both sides(at a REAL tourist shop..)also has great round solid plastic handles; get many comments everywhere...and can read it any time!
ReplyDeletei want an umbrella like this! is it available in most touristy shops? i guess i never really went into those when i lived in paris so i didn't know this sort of thing existed!
ReplyDeleteAny chance that umbrella is available to purchase online!??
ReplyDeleteHow timely! I'm just waiting for a Christmas present to myself to be delivered - a coffee table book of double spread photos of various Paris metro stops (called "Metro") by a man named Yust. I've coveted it for a couple years! Last fall I got a couple journals (sold at Galeries Lafayette) with covers which are the stops from the map nearest where I stayed. A great packable souvenir. Total tourist that I am, I'd buy a metro map travel umbrella in a second - but only use it in the US of course!!
ReplyDeleteIf you google souvenir-metro.fr you will find a RATP site that sells what sounds like a collapsible metro umbrella that fits in a hand bag. I can't vouch for it of course, but it certainly seems like it comes straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak! As for Eric's - he'll have to tell you where he got his. ; )
ReplyDeleteWell that''s what I need, although I think I"ve found the very thing for travelers. I bought a Metro placemat. Don't you dare laugh. For those of us that need reading glasses and find the Metro maps too tiny to really read, this is the perfect choice! It's large enough to use to plot the next day's adventures! The added plus is that it tucks in your suitcase with no extra kilos!
ReplyDeleteYou all will thank me for this idea.!
Carrie really hit a gold mine, or close to it. (There’s that pesky missing “s”). Three pages worth.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Carrie, you're right, it is the real thing. Wooot!
ReplyDeleteTG, your link is broken. It's
www.souvenirs-metro.fr
Tomate Farcie
One of the most practically-impractical great ideas I've seen today! A fun find, Eric.
ReplyDeleteVirginia, your placemat sounds wonderful, and at a pinch, can be held above your head while running for cover in the rain. :)
Thank, TG. : )
ReplyDeleteOops - still missing that pesky s.
;0
Thank-you Eric for another must-have item! The last time I was in Paris I hunted down the water carafe at the Water Museum and the next time I'm in Paris I will get this umbrella! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I wish would be to share this umbrella with someone I cherish and walk side by side with him/her.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty tired today because vacations often rythm for me with far too many things to do - at least for me - and my pretty selfish partner - who may have some others quality though- never feels it a minute. That's why I can say that your words, Keats, echo a lot in myself.
Less egoism, that could be a 2010 wish (and more for me??) Lol :) Sorry for this egoistic thought.
I find here in PDPland many non egoistic people, starting with - of course - the boss Eric... Thank you for all and for that. Kisses.
Thanks Heidi! Feeling so good to have encountered a soulmate across time & space.
ReplyDeleteHappy♪♫• New♪♫• Year♪♫• & all the best to you x yours.
I am holding a beautiful book between my hands. This is a book written by Willy Ronis, called 'Ce jour là' with a famous photo taken by Willy Ronis in 1952 on the cover page. A little boy running in the street with a French baguette under his left arm. Beautifully done. I really enjoy reading Willy Ronis own comments under each photo chosen for the book. It shows photos between 1934 and 1992. W. Ronis writes (sorry in French) : "j'ai la mémoire de toutes mes photos, elles forment le tissu de ma vie et parfois, bien sur, elles se font des signes par delà les années. Elles se répondent, elles conversent, elles tissent des secrets."
ReplyDeleteThis is a sort of autoportrait or more precisely a sort of "I remember". Very moving and who do you think I am thinking of reading these pages ? ;) of course to Eric's work. Even if one difference between the two is that Willy Ronis more often took people and faces in photo. Well that was another period with less "rights matters" than now ( a cooler period from this point of view).
I like when the photographer talks about some instants he remembers of taking a photo such like a 1982 photo of a little girl Daphné "je sens quelque chose de confus en moi, je prends mon appareil ; une force interieure me dictait de saisir c'e moment."
Well as I know Eric, he is willing to protest against any comparaison but that would be unworth because I don't mean to compare. I only mean to understand better a photographer, like both ;-)
And I mean to say thank you for all these graceful moments.
Why don't you like the Metro? I find it nice and easy, as well as safe!
ReplyDeleteI bought a sweet little brooch at at the Bastille art market . Heart shaped with a small fragment of the tube map on it. The one I chose has the Belleville metro station as it is where my wonderful Parisian friends live. Belleville is where I lay my head when in Paris and where my heart is.
ReplyDeleteLove the brolly too.
Am in the off-and-on-Internetless country, and have missed wishing you a happy new year, which I do now. Better reply quickly before the connection disappears. I really love this umbrella, and might have to have one (says possibly the only woman in America who carries a map of Paris with her at ALL times).
ReplyDeleteThis umbrella has struck a chord, Eric! It looks as if it could shelter all PDPers from a storm.
ReplyDeleteAlexa: I only carry a love of Paris with me at all times, but I might steal your idea and add a map! ;-)
Now off to check out the RATP site.
I love it.
ReplyDeleteDana - I have never heard of the Water Museum in Paris. I googled that and got nothing. It sounds fascinating. Can you tell me the name or where it is? And what's this carafe that's so worth hunting down!!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Alexa! Hope you get this!
ReplyDeleteKeats - Hip, hip, humility!
Anonymous - beautifully said.
Bonne année, bonne santé.
ReplyDeleteMy mom in law (who used to work for the RATP) always prefers taking the bus in Paris. The part I like the best is that on the big buses the bus stops are announced so you can space out, people watch, and sightsee all at the same time.;)
Regarding your "Attitude Change" photo of yesterday, I just saw on the news:
ReplyDelete"Party people across France will be able to dance all night under new regulations that will allow discotheques and bars with dance floors to remain open until 7:00 am. Last call will be at 5:30 am, allowing for a one-and-half-hour "dry period" when no alcohol will be served. This harmonisation will discourage young people from getting behind the wheel of their cars to find a bar that is open. It will also make Paris and other French tourist destinations more dynamic especially since they were seen as cities that shut down early compared to Berlin, London or Barcelona."
Thanks a million Keats!
ReplyDeleteDon't you think we shoud dance all the night then ? Till 7am?? Omg, I have to take a car tomorrow and come back home. Lol. Okay I won't need to drink at all as we are soulmates, aren't we? :) kisses.
Eric, you are right about line 13. It's my line, and there are never enough trains running. SOOO many people take the 13, and there are times, both morning and night, when it is impossible to get on. And when there's something going on at Stade de France, forget it. Tried to move away from line 13, but haven't managed...yet. I like the relative ease of the metro...but line 13 is truly "up close and personal" way too often!
ReplyDeleteThis is the type of umbrella that I hope the person in front of me carries....so i can glance at it and they can get stuck trying to get through a crowd with it!
ReplyDeleteSean
A very useful item, to be sure.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
Well I want to add that although I'm an Alabama "girl" that has never set foot in any kind of rapid transit here , I've grown to love the Paris Metro. It took me a while because my daughter and other well meaning Paris friends helped me too much so I never learned to use it till............I returned to Paris solo last July. Well it took a few trips to get it just right. OUI, I did have a few mishaps going the wrong direction. It happens to everybody.. even you Parisians and you know it. Well I kept on till I got it right. I even figured out how to get back to Paris on the RER/Metro from CDG when I go bumped from all flights. We'll not talk about that right now s'il vous plait. My point is , now that I"ve pretty much learned it, I'd love to ditch my money sucking car and use it exclusively.Now all I need is a Paris apt! :)
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Heidi!
ReplyDeleteWe can dance all night. I'm a Tango lover & an aspiring linguist who meditates between the lines. We should do "telepathy" more often.
Carrie, hip hip :p
Carrie, here is the link to Eric's archive about the water museum. Just in case the link doesn't work, its 6 NOV 2008. I think you even commented that day! cheers http://www.parisdailyphoto.com/2008_11_01_archive.html
ReplyDeleteI love my water carafe I wish I'd bought all three!
Yes Keats, your words really made my day yesterday. I was amazed how clever it appeared to me. Almost immediately. Almost. You inspire me :)
ReplyDeleteSo if you like, tell me more. About you and I'd know more about me :) I like words and lines. Please don't hesitate to tell me when I'm mistaking with langage.
* language
ReplyDeleteJust catching up with PDP. Love the umbrella. In fact, I bought one for myself and one for my sister while in Paris in the fall. I got mine at one of those tourist shops near the Notre Dame. It does start conversations.
ReplyDeleteBonjour Heidi!
ReplyDeleteYou could reach me here:
mocking@myself.com
Let's run through details later on.
Cheers!
dance floors are built to enhance performance and reduce injuries
ReplyDeleteCan someone please tell me where you can get buy one of these paris metro umbrellas in paris? I lost my sisters one and she is going to kill me...I need to buy a new one asap! Thanks...
ReplyDeleteThis blog is an exact representation of skills. I appreciate the blogger for posting the most excellent thought. This topic posted by you is trustworthy. I like you recommendation.Your recommendation is of well use to people. A great article post, this is something very interesting. A great concept that reflects the excellent thoughts of the writer.
ReplyDelete