Public vs. Private

On the metro the other day, mid-day so the car I was in wasn’t crowded, a cell phone rang. The guy answered his phone with what you and I would have considered a normal speaking voice. But the car was empty and it kind of broke the silence so it caused me to look up. He saw me and instinctively raised his hand to cover his mouth and looked at me apologetically. This reminded me of a train trip on another visit when I observed a grandmother and her granddaughter who was maybe 7 years old. For an American, the granddaughter was speaking in a real whisper (and was amazingly well-behaved) but the grandmother was constqantly shussing her granddaughter to speak more softly. No wonder the French see the Americans as loud. In public, what we consider to be a whisper are more like normal inside voices for the French! Europe is crowed; you guard your privacy in public in this way.

Note: the trains now have signs in most cars (and announcements) telling you to put your cell phones on vibrate and, if you have to make or take calls, to it in the space at the end of each car reserved for luggage, toilets, etc.and, for the most part, this seems to be respected.

Crossing the Street

If you're old enough to be reading this blog you're old enough (surely) to think that you're competent at crossing streets, right? Well, not so fast! Mechanics are a bit different here (kind of like looking the opposite direction first when you're in England). Here the trick you MUST learn is that many of the larger streets have separate traffic signals for each direction of traffic (even if it's only one lane in each direction) and they change at different intervals (check out the photo). So, if you want to live, when you've halfway across the street you need to pause and check out the traffic signal for that part of the street!

OK, that's easy enough to learn. But it turns out that there's a cultural component to this as well which goes like this: though laws here have penalties much like in the US there's a different attitude towards them. Here, if a car encounters a red light but there's no traffic coming, the car is likely to just keep going. So, in a certain sense, in terms of common usage, traffic signals are often treated as 'optional' or 'advisory'. What this translates into in practice is this - if you want to cross the street and you have the green light, not so fast! From a social context, the French (and others) see no reason to stop if there's no traffic!. Here's what I do - I wait for the traffic to stop, I step off the curb (announcing my intention to cross), stare in the direction of the driver and then, and only then, do I cross! Of course, when there are crowds of pedestrians, this works in reverse. Often, even if the cars have the green light, the pedestrians just cross, en masse. Just a little bit of anarchy to keep life interesting!

Rhythms of Life: The Pharmacy

Rhythms of Life: The Pharmacy

There are pharmacies all over, several in any given neighborhood. They’re easily identifiable – they all have green neon signs that say Pharmacie and an animated version of a plus sign, in green and blue neon, as in the photo. The variation is in the animation routine. You can’t miss them!

Pharmacies here sell both prescription and homeopathic remedies and, everything except some beauty products (skin crème, etc – they don’t sell makeup…) is kept behind the counter. If you need something you describe what you’re looking for or what your problem is. Once I wanted something for a cough and the clerk asked me questions to determine what kind of cough it was (dry or hacking) before giving me something for it. Early in my stay I felt a cold coming on so I went into a pharmacy to get some vitamin C. From an earlier trip I knew I’d have a choice of chewable or fizzy tablets so I knew what to ask for. What I’d forgotten – but was quickly reminded of by the counsel of the clerk – is that the French use vitamin C for fatigue. Very earnestly I was told that I could take 2 in the morning and, if still feeling tired, another 1 (maximum 2) no later than mid-afternoon. Since it gives energy if I took it later in the day I’d risk trouble sleeping. And I was cautioned strenuously against taking more than 4 in 1 day because “that’s 2 grams you know:. Now, at home in the US, if I feel a cold coming on, I might take 4 grams during the course of the day, never with any trouble sleeping. So I read the carton carefully, wondering if vitamin C here was combined with caffeine or something else, but no, it was just plain old vitamin C. Just one of those things where each culture has its own mythology.

A couple of weeks ago I needed to find a doctor for what was essentially a sports physical (I’d signed up for an exercise class and I needed a note from a doctor - a certificate medical - to participate). I’d asked a friend how to find a doctor and we discussed that it was probably better to find someone in my neighbor – in case I got sick there’d be someone I’d already been to and I wouldn’t have to get on the subway to go to the doctor when feeling miserable. But how to do that? She suggested I find a pharmacy in the neighborhood and ask. Hmmm… So I asked another friend (an American who’s lived in Paris more than 30 years) and she said the same thing. Then, when I registered for the class I asked again. Same answer – go to a pharmacy in the neighborhood and ask for a recommendation there. OK, so with 3 answers all the same, I decided that was how it’s done here.

Since I also needed a flu shot and had seen signs in the windows of a couple of pharmacies announcing that flu vaccine was in, I went to one of those and got 2 doctor recommendations but also discovered how flu shots work here – you go to the pharmacy and buy the vaccine (a pre-filled syringe in a small carton) and then you take it to your doctor or a nurse (or in one account I’d read, to the vet who lived in the building) to get the shot assuming you don’t want to give it to yourself! Well, since I needed to go to the doctor anyway, I figured I’d bring the vaccine with me. The clerk asked me if I lived far away, I said no, just around the corner as she told me to take it home and put it in the fridge until I went to the doctor.

OK, so now I had the names of 2 doctors in the neighborhood. I called one to make an appointment as was told ‘no appointments’, just come and wait, anytime between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. except for between 2 and 3 (lunch). I went late one Friday and the waiting room was packed with sick folks so I decided that waiting was a bad strategy and left. I considered going Monday a.m. but I thought maybe that would be busy after the weekend so I picked first thing Tuesday morning and jackpot! No waiting! It was a pretty routine office visit (I did have to translate blood pressure into milliliters…the internet is SO helpful) and I left with my certificate and had my flu shot too.

Now for the really interesting parts – the first concerns cost. Doctors here fall into 3 groups – those who accept the government set limits – they’re referred to as ‘conventionée’ (much the same for us with insurance payments), those who accept them for some things but charge extra for certain other things and those who don’t. The doctor I went to was in that middle group but the office visit/physical/flu shot cost me all of 22 euros. The flu vaccine itself was just over 6 euros. The total was less than my copay for a routine office visit at home…. And if I’d been covered by French social security virtually all of that would have been reimbursed.

Next surprise – many doctors here make house calls within their neighborhoods. In fact, the practice where I went has 2 doctors – one has office hours in the a.m. and makes house calls in the p.m., the other has the reverse schedule. Oh, and by the way, the house calls are a little more expensive – 32 euros!

Hey, I'm not short anymore...

No, I haven't grown. So, well, OK, I'm still short. But I'm no longer such an exception! In general, the French aren't as tall as Americans and, in particular, especially among women of my generation and older (those born just after or during WWII)I see many who I almost tower over! I'm sure it's a combination of genetics but probably also the conditions in France during wartime. So it's nothing to gloat over... Still, it's a new experience for me.

Christmas is Coming!

Signs have been in evidence for the past two weeks (that means only since the middle of November) - stores stocking Christmas merchandise, the city stringing icicle lights across some of the narrower streets, etc. But the lights didn't go on until this week, the stores didn't really set up their Christmas displays until this week, Christmas trees and greens didn't show up at the florists - until this week, the very end of November. What's been more in evidence is the French starting to provision for their holiday feasts - lots of tastings at wine stores, lots of champagne displays and lots of advertising about foie gras and holiday meals to order (for those who don't want to cook). And from last weekend through mid-December, every neighborhood seems to have one or two locations with fairs where producers from outside of Paris come to sell their products. And what they're selling again says volumes about the celebration and what's important - food (champagne, wine, foie gras, cassoulet, duck, oysters), all to be shared with family and friends. It's not uncommon to see people walking away from these stands with a case or two of their favorite brew... There's clearly a bustle but, though the French complain about the commercialization of the holiday, it seems much less commercial than in the US, at least from what I've observed in my neighborhood!

La Greve (the strike)

Well, one of my French friends put it this way - the # 1 sport in France is the strike, followed by soccer, then rugby! This strike, primarily transit workers, came in 2 parts. Part 1 was in October and lasted a couple of days but, when it was voted on, the vote was for it to be reconductible, that is it could be resumed. Which it was about 2 weeks ago. At issue was an attempt by the government to bring the transit worker's retirement age (now 50) into line with some other sectors. It affected virtually all public transportation - in Paris the metro, bus, tramway and RER (suburban light rail), the SNCF (all the intercity trains including the highspeed TGV). Businesses rented hotel rooms in order to house employees who otherwise would be unable to get to work. A friend who was leaving for the US the next day got a hotel room near the airport (with some difficulty because of businesses snapping up rooms for their employees) to ensure that she could make her flight. One woman in my exercise class who lives in the suburbs got a ride from her husband who she 'jokingly' said threw her out at the very outskirts of Paris and she walked the remaining several kilometers from there. Another person got a ride from her mom, lots of folks rode bikes (motorized and non-motorized alike (the motorcycle accident rate doubled), etc.

For the first day or two, things were virtually at a standstill. After that, slowly, some workers came back to work. Many factors made this complex - the metro workers are organized into teams according to line. They each vote on the strike, so some lines resumed work relatively soon. Given that, these lines were packed - you could at least get closer to where you were going! Riders were fairly good humored about all this but by the end folks were getting tired of it! The other complicating factor is that, while there are 5 major labor unions involved in this, there are many others, so lots of moving parts which I don't understand beyond being able to give you this brief description. Then this past Tuesday, others joined in - schools and government workers among them. So then you had little transportation, schools were closed, the post office was open but only to pick up packages (government workers...), etc.

For me, the impacts were small but a bit surprising: Pariscope, a weekly listing of all the movies, plays, concerts in Paris, appears on Wednesdays, but apparently there are delivery problems when there's a strike (it's competitor Spectacle didn't seem to have this problem, go figure), I had to skip the trip I'd planned to the post office and, when I went to the opera Tuesday night, I discovered that it was being performed concert version instead of staged because the stage hands had joined in the strike!

Part of the cultural challenge of life in France, not understanding what's likely to be affected. For the moment, the strike is over (I can't seem to figure out what the settlement was) and public transit has come back to life very quickly! I'm hoping it will last - but I'm not putting away my hiking boots!

Photos are from the first strike. There was a large demonstration that first day that went virtually past my place. The weather was chilly but reasonably nice, the turnout was good and noisy but peaceful, lots of young people but not exclusively, banners, balloons, etc. By the time they arrived at this point it was maybe halfway into their march. All the cafes at the intersection were full as many people took a break for coffee!

Les flics (Cops on the Beat)

Police patrol Paris in groups - at last three, sometimes four. I've seen them on foot, on bikes and the most surprising, on roller blades (les rollers). Sorry, no photo - I wasn't bold enough to take a picture of the cops on roller blades or to ask them if I could. I'll be more prepared next time, if there is a next time!

Differences

A caption from an article in a free daily newspaper on the growth of use of kleenex:

'160 The number of tissues used per year by a French person compared to 1200 by an American.'

The slant of the article was protecting the environment and part of the concern with the growth of the use of tissues was that only 3 of the 7 largest manufacturers selling in Europe used recycled paper in their processes.

The Rhythm of French Life – A Periodic Installment: Sundays

Sundays here are for families and food, not commerce, a day to unwind. It’s like the city takes a deep breath and relaxes. You can hear the difference in the city – even on Sunday morning when there are lots of people out and about it’s quiet. Most of the people who are out are walking, practical since they can normally get everything they need in their neighborhood. Stores (just about everything commercial except some restaurants, cafes and bars; oh, and pharmacies – I haven’t figured out yet how or why they fit into this model) are generally closed on Sunday – if you want to shop at the supermarkets that’s only a Monday through Saturday option. However, in the tradition that you should/must shop for fresh food everyday, most things related to food are open on Sunday morning. The Sunday open-air markets are bustling. There, in addition to fresh fruits and vegetables you can buy fresh poultry, eggs, butter, cream, olives, nuts, meat and fish plus roast chicken with potatoes or other prepared dishes like paella (and you can buy just the amount you need – the precise weight of butter or cream you need or even just half of a roast chicken). And flowers. And wine. Add to the list of stores open the bakeries, the wine store, the florist, the news stand, all open until about 1 or 2 pm. After that, everything closes up, tbustle dies he down, you go home to Sunday dinner with your family and out for a stroll if the weather’s nice. Or maybe before you head home you stop at a cafe for a 'remontant' - a pick me up, maybe a glass of wine but more likely coffee (espresso most likely). So, now you’re on your own – cook what you have or eat out at a café that’s open! If you go out of town for the weekend and return in the afternoon or evening to a larder that’s bare, those are your options (if you didn’t stock up before you left!) except for the ‘alimentation’, the little hole in the wall store stocking water, a little fruit and some canned goods, open late, run mostly by Arab immigrants. You don’t have to actually starve, but having gone against the current the pickins are slim!

Adventures

My June 2007 Havasu Canyon adventure was a warm-up for another, maybe more grand adventure....