"I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me only the people who take the Metro." -- Charles de Gaulle

 This spider web (you can find a bigger one online) is the Paris Metro system. This is actually the easy map because there's no overlay of the major streets. This is just the stops. This map also just shows only the Metro itself, not including the outlying trains to the suburbs where we are these days.

If you've spent any time in a major city, especially in Europe or Asia, you know how all this works. The US has a few cities with similar operations, but they're sadly rare. In Vienna it's the UBahn, in Liverpool it's Merseyrail and in London it's the Underground. You need to know which line to get on and the direction you're headed. These days Google Maps can give you several options from Point A to Point B, including interim bus lines and actual walking times from place to place. This wasn't known the first time I tackled this in 1972, when there was plenty of trial and mostly error on my part.

I got used to decent public transportation in New Orleans. Folks there gripe about the buses and streetcars but I could go for days without having to crank my truck. Everything I needed was within walking distance or a few stops away via bus or streetcar. The French Quarter was 15 minutes. The move to Southern California was nearly as good, giving me rail access to the Pacific at Oceanside in 20 minutes then up to LAX in little over an hour or down to San Diego in another 30 minutes.  

Paris runs largely on an honor system. You're obviously expected to have a ticket and entering the traffic area of a station is prohibited without one. But sometimes you can't buy a ticket on the bus taking you to the Metro station (the same ticket is good on both), so they give you a little grace to buy one when you get there. This isn't so in Vienna, where plainclothes agents can and do stop you. One time I got tagged by one and proudly showed my ticket, only to discover I had bought the ticket for locals and not visitors. I was promptly fined $100 (payable right now) and escorted to a machine to buy the right one or I'd be booted from the system. Lesson learned. Sorry Fritz.

The Paris system is known for its long walks and extreme lack of accommodation for children and the handicapped. There are virtually no elevators. Escalators are not to be expected.  This means any mom with a child in a stroller needs to bring a traveling companion to lift this kid up and down the many stairs. You're in a wheelchair? Take a bus, but don't expect help from the driver. London, Liverpool and Vienna are much more user-friendly, with lifts at pretty much all stops. 

Paris (like London) is one of those systems you can shortcut once you learn it. There can be several ways to go from one place to another if you know how the lines work and which stop at which stations. Just today I found a much faster way to get into the middle of Paris by noticing the lines going into the suburban train station. It's almost a game. Google will tell you to get off the Metro and then catch a bus then walk a little while. But you can shorten the walk and eliminate the bus ride if you just ride the Metro one more stop and walk back a block or two.

The various actual train stations (gares) in Paris send trains to different areas. The main station (Gare du Nord) is mostly northern France plus London through the Chunnel, Amsterdam, Brussels, etc. Gare de L'est goes east to Reims etc while Gare Saint Lazare heads west to Le Havre, Calais and the rest of Normandy. This decentralization is a huge help.

All this is a long way of saying how much we'll miss these systems when we have to leave, especially to return to an area that sneers at public transportation as a boondoggle and a threat to property values. It's a three-mile drive to the closest commuter rail and more than five times that distance to a bus stop. I don't want to hear you gripe about gas prices Bubba. That's just another cost of freedom, right? Just like the costs of insurance and upkeep. It's something we'll have to do once we return in the fall because there's no option. It's a shame, but too late to do much about it now in most of the US.

We'll be using the trains for a couple of upcoming trips -- to see the Champagne region in Reims and over to see Claude Monet's house and garden in Giverny (Normandy). It's literally walk out the door, get on a bus, ride to a train, get on another train and you're there in an hour. The cost? Less than gasoline from Dallas to Waco. That's in addition to just going into Paris for lunch if we want.

Adjusting to things Out Here hasn't been particularly difficult. The hard part will be adjusting to going back.