Posted on 09/14/2016 8:53:11 AM PDT by NRx
It was 1am and we were just leaving dinner at a friend’s house behind Montmartre. We were tired, but the taxi we’d called for never appeared. So we headed down to the main road to try to hail a cab, along with a number of other stragglers now wishing, like us, they’d kept Metro hours.
Within minutes, several men had urinated in plain sight very near to us; one had clambered up on a little raised platform with some shrubbery on it just to do so. Nearby, a woman yelled in French “You’re no better than beasts!” but the beasts took no heed. Faced with this scene, not a taxi in sight, we walked the three-and-a-bit miles back to our flat. This was Paris in 2016.
Despite its extraordinary charms, the City of Light can also feel like an anarchic, post-apocalyptic hellhole – people litter, spit and pee freely in the streets, as if the city were their personal lavatory, bin and ashtray combined.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
DeGaullle has a stiffy
The prototype for San Francisco?
But...but...travel is so broadening and enriching and a chance to sample different cultures.
And if you disagree, you’re a narrowminded bigot.
OMG, I’m so sheltered. I live right here in Houston and I don’t hear about any of this! But then I don’t watch the news.
I spent some time in India last year. Urinating in the gutter is the custom there. Sidewalks are for business, streets are for walking, gutters are for urinating. There’s a weird sense of relief when you catch a whiff of urine and realize it’s horse piss, not human.
Sounds like San Francisco. Visited that place in the early 90s. Had a great time. Place was beautiful and clean. Visited again in the 2010’s. Please was a pit, and I was constantly and aggressively accosted by bums. (I’m not a small guy, so no real confrontations occurred, but it was annoying.) Human urine and feces all over the place. Etc.
Ah, just go to any golf course and you will see the same thing. Guys just watering the trees.
San Fran: voodoo, prepare, hurry up and gimme your change
Paris a dump...hmmmm you have never been or have an axe to grind. The Louve, the Museum D'Orsay, the architecture, the parks, the culture, the food. Are there crappy neighbourhoods sure, just like in Peoria or St Paul. I've been going since the 80's, speak French and recognize Paris as one of the cradles of Western civilization. Sad you don't. I think you need to spend more time there, sit at a cafe, eat a delicious baguette and drink some fine French vino or cafe ole and admire a sexy French brunette who strolls by in her 6inch stiletto Christian Loubitains and Roberto Cavalli mini dress.
Ever been to the French Quarter in New Orleans?
Yes, and the older they get, the more frequently they water.
I play pool with one guy and it seems he’s off to the rest room every ten minutes.
“I was just there 10 days ago ...nonsense. I was all over Paris, not just the tourist places. No worse than NYC.”
Agreed. I was there for 2 weeks about 2 months ago. I walked all over the city and didn’t see anything different than any other big city.
surrender monkeys
The Twin Cities? Less so now. And however clean they are, the traffic more than offsets it.
And you can be arrested for photographing the Eiffel Tower at night.
I love being a New Jersey native.
You have to be tough to be from there.
I do have an axe to grind. I’ve been pick-pocketed there (yes, an Arab), stepped in the ubiquitous dog poop, and stayed in over-priced, dingy hotels. Been there in my student years as well as occasionally nearby for work later on.
I do not speak French. Yes, that would help improve things for sure. If I ever go again, I will avoid Paris and perhaps go elsewhere. Notre Dame, the Louvre are all treasures, for sure, but they are islands in a polluted sea.
What galls is that despite the fading cultural heritage, you see more France’s aggressive secularism and leftism. The PLO scarf-wearing leftie types seem to be everywhere. Its the root of all their present problems, from the Euro to unemployment to the Muslim issue - and they refuse to recognize it.
French expats I know elsewhere are fine people, but to a one - they have all given up on their country. Example - a French couple I know have a daughter entering college. I asked “why not send her back to France - its free, she maintains her citizenship, and your family is there?”
Their response - “Absolutely not! With the way France is now!?”
Guy I work w...was in the mex army...stationed in mex city for a while..even while in uniform he says they couldnt walk 2 blocks....without being robbed...they would take a taxi...to go 2 blocks..
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