Archive for Paris suburbs
Ocean’s sub [blue wave#5]
Posted in pictures, Running with tags Britanny, canoe slalom, competition, Finistère, France, gold medal, Marne, Paris, Paris 2024 Olympics, Paris suburbs on August 2, 2024 by xi'an
travel woes
Posted in Travel, University life with tags Astérix et Obélix, Birmingham, CDG, De Gaulle airport, French politics, GNP, Jamel Debbouze, mass tourism, Paris, Paris 2024 Olympics, Paris suburbs, public transportation, RER B, SNCF, tourism nuisances, train travel, University of Warwick on April 29, 2024 by xi'an
On my last trip to Warwick, the local (RER) train I boarded broke on its way to the CDG airport, after hitting something in a tunnel just three stops short of the airport, with so much delay and misleading communication that I missed my flight. While a minor issue for me, since I managed to work (and blog) in an airport lounge for most of the day—where I crossed path with Numerobis—, while waiting for the only flight to B’ham, this made me to reflect anew on the very poor state of the transportation network in Paris and its suburbs, with such incidents (power failures, broken rails, vetust engines, stolen cables, idiots on the tracks, &tc., even without mentioning the strikes) more and more the norm. And to wonder at how the ancient and bursting network is going to cope with the incoming flow of visitors attending the Olympics this summer… Actually, when compared with the other cities with a fairly reasonably efficient airport connection I experienced, it remains a mystery to me why the Greater Paris conurbation—whose president, Valérie Pécresse, was apparently deemed the main culprit for our train break by an incensed fellow passenger that morning!—has kept for years postponing the construction of a dedicated rail line between the airport and central Paris, as the unpredictable and uncomfortable suburban train is not delivering the intended message to Paris visitors and their still-growing contribution to the French GNP. But with the growing public opposition to any new infrastructure, incl. trains, this is unlikely to happen!
in absurdum
Posted in Kids, pictures, Running, Travel with tags bakery, bicycle, burns, French police, Paris suburbs, riots, traffic light on July 3, 2023 by xi'an
“Il conduisait sans permis mais c’est un non sujet, vous avez vu comme moi que le gouvernement comptait faire passer l’âge du permis à 17 ans, alors bon…” J. Cambla, lawyer.
A few cars (and a bike!) were set on fire and a supermarket was looted just a block from home, on Thursday night, in one of the numerous riots that spread through French suburbs after a teenager was deadly shot while repeatedly trying to evade a police control. An underage driver with (obviously) neither driving licence nor insurance, in a car worth more than my yearly income. The most absurd [imho] aspect of these riots is that they destroy public and private property in the very place where these rioters live. As a result, the supermarket and the bakery [of bike fame] remain closed, the school where they sibling study may not reopen next Fall, their immediate neighbours have lost their car, and the local buses driving their parents to work no longer run…
Tour de Paris [of pools]
Posted in Kids, pictures, Running, Travel with tags bakery, Joséphine Baker, outdoor swimming, Paris, Paris suburbs, running injury, Seine, swimming pool on April 25, 2021 by xi'an
As I am prevented from running since the beginning of this year, due to a ligament injury caused by an excess of kilometers run since the beginning of the (first) lockdown, I have started swimming most days I can find a free window of time. And an open swimming pool! While Paris and most of the suburban cities near me have a decent offer of (cheap) public pools, it is often a challenge to find one open at a manageable time. Meaning for me mostly in the early morning. The lockdown has obviously reduced opening hours and introduced restricted access, requiring a medical certificate for indoor pools, and I have thus being recently visiting a rather extensive array of pools to fit such constraints, since both nearby pools, at home and at work, are rarely available. Last week, I biked to the most exotic so far, namely a pool made from a barge standing on the Seine River. It is alas not yet outdoor, but not yet crowded either (if small and rather hot). By comparison, the nearer and wider pool at Porte d’Orléans is surprisingly crowded at 7am (but pleasantly colder) and the historical pool on Butte aux Cailles also gets quickly crowded and is missing its outdoor pool (but is close to a fantastic bakery!). Even careful scheduling does not always work as I sometimes find an unexpected closed door, as two weeks ago when Butte aux Cailles had emptied overnight or a few days ago when Joséphine Baker had a disfunctioning pediluvium enough to bar entry. (The outdoor 50m pool in Villejuif I used to go to has just reopened to the general public and is not yet overcrowded, despite milder temperatures.)
my neighbourhood in the New Yorker
Posted in Books, pictures, Travel with tags 1968, Bourg-la-Reine, France, Kapital, Kenilworth, May 68, Paris, Paris suburbs, sociology, The New Yorker on October 14, 2020 by xi'an
While I was reading (part of) a recent issue of The New Yorker over breakfast, I was surprised to find my neighbourhood city of Bourg-la-Reine (twin city, Kenilworth!) mentioned in a tribune! It was about interviewing the local authors of a boardgame called Kapital! which is presented there as a form of (French) anti-Monopoly, authors who were both CNRS researchers in sociology until they retired. And who produced (even) more militant ouput since then, including this boardgame. The (unintended?) fun in the tribune is the opposition between the May 68 style class warfare denounced by the authors and their apparently well-off conditions (no BBQ in the street there!).
