Sunday, September 25, 2005
|Why I Officially Hate Paris.|
God, this damn stupid inefficient city (and I'm none to fond of France right now, either).
From the moment I arrived in this city and began using their accident of a metro, I thought, "Why are there passes made of paper? That's such an environmental waste and so absurd." I would have bought a month pass, but their month passes correspond with the month, not with date of purchase... so I would have basically lost money.
Normally when I get that little metro ticket I throw it away, only when I discovered that I needed to keep it to transfer from the metro to the RER I realized I should start keeping it incase any other little things like that come up. Tonight, I entered the station, put my ticket in the machine, it gave the ticket back to me (think D.C. metro) and let me go on my way. When transferring lines, I was suddenly haulted by a gaggle of green jacketed men and women demanding to see my ticket. Evidently you are supposed to keep them and by not having my ticket they are left with no other conclusion than that I jumped the bars or something and didn't actually pay to be on the train tonight.
But, hazaa, this time I'd thought to put my ticket into my little change pocket. I fished it out and triumphantly showed it to the crooked-toothed guard. But, alas alack, the grossly incompetent French machine had failed to mark it. There was no indication that the ticket had ever been used! I thought, maybe that's an un-used one and I actually put the used one in my wallet. I pulled out my wallet, all of the spare tickets were unused. I tried to explain to the man that it wouldn't make sense that if I were the type to skip over the bars that I would buy tickets in advance. I actually always carry 3, two for the round trip and a spare just in case (which I had actually needed because earlier this morning when the machine told me that my new ticket was already used!).
Oh, and there's a fine. 25 euros. $30 because I can't find the cheap little piece of paper which it's entirely possible that I actually threw away. But, no, because I didn't have 25 euros on me, nor do I have any sort of license indicating my Paris address, the fine will have to be sent to the American Embassy and then either on to my home in New York (luckily I happened to have at least my NYS ID, which I do not normally carry around) or I will be stopped when I get on the plane to leave this cesspool of foolishness and circles in January, which means the fee will have been augmented from the 25 in the station, to the 57 it would have been to send it to my home in Paris, to the 100 euros ($120!!!!!) if they send it to the American Embassy. If I get stopped at the airport, I'm just going to have to make Charles DeGaulle my new home because I REFUSE to pay this fine.
The man's sidekick, and equally crooked-toothed woman explained to me that there are signs everywhere, in multiple languages. I have never seen a sign and because I tend to look for that sort of thing, if there is a sign it must not be terribly visible.
Paris is officially on my Shit List.
God, this damn stupid inefficient city (and I'm none to fond of France right now, either).
From the moment I arrived in this city and began using their accident of a metro, I thought, "Why are there passes made of paper? That's such an environmental waste and so absurd." I would have bought a month pass, but their month passes correspond with the month, not with date of purchase... so I would have basically lost money.
Normally when I get that little metro ticket I throw it away, only when I discovered that I needed to keep it to transfer from the metro to the RER I realized I should start keeping it incase any other little things like that come up. Tonight, I entered the station, put my ticket in the machine, it gave the ticket back to me (think D.C. metro) and let me go on my way. When transferring lines, I was suddenly haulted by a gaggle of green jacketed men and women demanding to see my ticket. Evidently you are supposed to keep them and by not having my ticket they are left with no other conclusion than that I jumped the bars or something and didn't actually pay to be on the train tonight.
But, hazaa, this time I'd thought to put my ticket into my little change pocket. I fished it out and triumphantly showed it to the crooked-toothed guard. But, alas alack, the grossly incompetent French machine had failed to mark it. There was no indication that the ticket had ever been used! I thought, maybe that's an un-used one and I actually put the used one in my wallet. I pulled out my wallet, all of the spare tickets were unused. I tried to explain to the man that it wouldn't make sense that if I were the type to skip over the bars that I would buy tickets in advance. I actually always carry 3, two for the round trip and a spare just in case (which I had actually needed because earlier this morning when the machine told me that my new ticket was already used!).
Oh, and there's a fine. 25 euros. $30 because I can't find the cheap little piece of paper which it's entirely possible that I actually threw away. But, no, because I didn't have 25 euros on me, nor do I have any sort of license indicating my Paris address, the fine will have to be sent to the American Embassy and then either on to my home in New York (luckily I happened to have at least my NYS ID, which I do not normally carry around) or I will be stopped when I get on the plane to leave this cesspool of foolishness and circles in January, which means the fee will have been augmented from the 25 in the station, to the 57 it would have been to send it to my home in Paris, to the 100 euros ($120!!!!!) if they send it to the American Embassy. If I get stopped at the airport, I'm just going to have to make Charles DeGaulle my new home because I REFUSE to pay this fine.
The man's sidekick, and equally crooked-toothed woman explained to me that there are signs everywhere, in multiple languages. I have never seen a sign and because I tend to look for that sort of thing, if there is a sign it must not be terribly visible.
Paris is officially on my Shit List.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 17:49.
2 comments
2 Comments:
Sorry hun, that's one little tidbit I forgot to tell you (of course, I used the carte orange).
They really should have told you that in orientation. It's sort of an honor system, so the penalties for breaking the rules are especially high. Get a carte orange on the 1st of the month and you'll never have to worry about the markings.
Also, it is always good to carry proof of where you live in Paris (copy of the first page of your lease or something).
-mom ;)
Bugger the bastards.
I am sworn to think of you in your test. I'll throw in some thoughts for your trials.
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