Two observations from Line 1 of the Paris Metro at 6.25pm, the real heart of rush hour. The French don't really start at 9 on the nose. They seem to work 9.30ish to 6ish.
First observation: there are more women in Paris than men. This is subject to a demographer's correction of course, but the rush hour traffic is more representative than my off-hour travels, probably. I'd imagine women are less likely to travel solo in the evening than men, and that alone would skew the results of such observation. But at rush hour: I counted 15 of the 24 people in my "box" of the train car were women. The count, though not overwhelming, merely "confirmed" my overall impression that the subway car was just packed with women.
Second observation: where are the working-class? Okay, so getting on the 1 at the Champs-Elysees at office quitting time is not the place to make this observation. Of course, on that train, it was all office casual, some tourists, and a few old-ladies in Chanel. But this is an interesting point more generally. On the NY subway, you will see construction workers get on, or security guards riding to work, or shabby looking people who are wearing suits but reporting to truly miserable jobs. I'd have difficulty saying there are many such Parisians. Surely there are jobs like this to be done -- but maybe these people live in the suburbs or elsewhere? They're just not on the Metro, commuting from downtown apartments to jobs on the Champs. The poor areas in French cities are generally at the outskirts (the "banlieue"), not in the "inner city". So that could be part of it. Also, it could be an issue of the industries in Paris and the average cost of office space: upscale and expensive, respectively. Compare that to the huge white-collar labyrinths filled with innumerable tiny firms and boiler rooms in the heart of Manhattan.
Posted by amol at October 23, 2002 01:34 PM