Olympics
While some of the Londoners are proud of hosting the Summer Olympics, the only city to have done that three times in the era of the modern Olympics, many are simply frustrated by the interruptions of their lives. For the past couple of weeks there are Olympic only traffic lanes, making the already congested center of London even more difficult to get around in. Many Londoners are simply planning to leave the city during the Olympics, so much so that their was a PR campaign using billboards and posters saying “Who will cheer for them? (with a generic picture of British athletes) Stay for the games and support our athletes!”
 |
| The Tower Bridge in London adorned with the Olympic Rings. |
When we first started wandering around London I was surprised by the number of people who smoked in public. There is definitely a higher percentage than in Canada. When we got to France the rate of smokers went up even more. The most surprising (and sad) observation is the number of young people (in their 20’s and 30’s) who smoked. In this regard I think Canada is far ahead of Europe.
Restaurants
I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that there are more restaurants in both London and Paris that serve foreign food than those that serve traditional cuisine. There were many Indian and Pakistani restaurants and food stands, also Asian places like sushi restaurants and Vietnamese cafés. We had to be intentional to find both traditional British and French food (though our efforts were often rewarded with excellent meals).
Attire
Somewhat in London, but certainly in Paris, people dressed far more smartly than in Canada (or at least Regina). Women were often in high heels and dresses, men seldom in jeans and t-shirts. I brought my Saskatchewan Roughriders ball cap over, but soon discovered that very few people wear ball caps - in fact I can say with certainty that the ball caps I did see in public were primarily tourists from North America. This attire was in spite of the modes of transport most used - the Tube or Metro, motorcycles, scooters or bicycles (I marvelled at women in high heels riding scooters or bicycles). I guess that is why Paris and London are more centers of fashion than Regina.
Buskers
Somewhat in London’s Tube system, but very much in Paris’ Metro system we encountered many buskers. Such a wide variety of music, from jazz to classical, folk to world. In Paris buskers would hop on a Metro train playing music while wandering up and down the aisles, a tricky thing to do on a moving vehicle. Many of the buskers in the Metro stations knew exactly where to place themselves to be heard throughout the various corridors and stairways of the station. Some of these musicians were heard long before we ever saw them. Some were accompanied by background recordings using portable battery powered sound systems. Often the musicianship was quite good, at least of the ones we heard. The best was a group of four musicians that sounded wonderful (and no background tracks!) but too bad we couldn’t stop too long to listen. Perhaps the strangest buskers were the poets - or at least that’s what I assume they were. They would get on a Metro train and immediately begin reciting something (in French of course) and after a little bit they would walk through the car and people would give them money. This happened 4 or 5 times during our week in Paris so it was some kind of repeated circumstance. At first we thought they were beggars with some kind of memorized spiel that they rattled off, but after the third or fourth we began to wonder if they were poets. So that’s what I would like to think they were, busker poets in the highly cultural city of Paris.
 |
| One of the many talented buskers we encountered taking the Metro in Paris. |
Of course their were tourists everywhere in London, Oxford and Paris - this is after all high tourist season. A scene I saw repeated over and over was people taking silly posed pictures in front of various landmarks (things like looking like they were holding up the Eiffel Tower, or leaning on Big Ben, or posing in the same posture as the statue behind them. And there were simply cameras everywhere. At first I thought I might stand out carrying around my Nikon DSLR, but it seemed like every second person had a DSLR of some kind, and those who didn’t have a DSLR they were still taking pictures with cell phones, digital point and shoot, or the funniest was using their iPad to take pictures (funny because it looked rather awkward). Digital technology has now made us a culture of picture takers - snapping away almost everything (no film costs to worry about). We we might all be picture takers now, but only some of us are photographers - concerned about composition and lighting and other such factors. There were plenty of photographers too, carefully choosing their angles and subjects. The neatest was seeing a time lapse photography setup shooting Notre Dame. Speaking as a photographer I have been a little disappointed with the light over her this time around - last time when Beth and I were here three years ago we had great weather and lots of gorgeous light, this time there has been a lot of flat dull light, making for less satisfying pictures… but hey, I’ve got one of Anna posing in typical tourist fashion in front of Notre Dame!
Tube and Metro Etiquette
We have been impressed with the general behaviour of people on both the London Tube and the Paris Metro systems. There is an etiquette in place that makes getting around on the underground a reasonably pleasant experience. There was very little rudeness, and people always tried to be helpful, moving out of the way, offering seats to elderly or women with children. By the end we were very comfortable using this form of transport, it was fast, relatively easy, and certainly a cheap way to get around.
 |
| One of the platforms for the Metro system in Paris. |
Around the major tourist destinations (the London Eye, the Eiffel Tower, etc.) there are a proliferation of souvenir shops and stands. They are often crowded and awkward to move around in, and they are stacked with souvenirs from floor to ceiling. So much stuff, and yet after visiting 3 or 4 of these stores there gets to be a lot of repetition. I think one could build a whole new Eiffel Tower just with the millions of replica miniature Eiffel Towers that were on sale everywhere. The only reason to shop around a little bit is for better prices, and a general rule was the further away from major tourist spot the better the prices. Anna got some t-shirts for example about a block away from Notre Dame. About 5 blocks further way the same t-shirts were 2 euros cheaper. We have done our share of souvenir shopping but we are also shopping off the beaten paths, for example Beth and Anna got some shoes and a dress down a great little street of shops close to where we lived in Paris. While the shoes don’t have the word “Paris” stamped on them, they will certainly remember where they picked them up, and every time they wear them they will remember our time in Paris and the great little street of shops (rue Mouffetard) near our Paris apartment.
Well that does it for my little observations from England in France. I wonder what I will observe in Prague?
No comments:
Post a Comment