traffic & transit

driving rules in paris are interesting. green light means go, at top speed i might add. red light means go as well...with a bit more caution.

it was a rude awakening for this Torontonian where pedestrians rule...pedestrians right of way always! i think sometimes pedestrians walk extremely slowly when crossing simply because they can. what's the car going to do, hit us? i think not. my new yorker partner likens Torontonian pedestrians to deer living on an island where there are no predators.

i felt like i was taking my life in my hands when it came to crossing the road. and what was particularly aggravating were the moterbikes and mopeds. like cyclists in Toronto, most of them seemed to think that they were excluded from traffic laws so that meant if they saw a break in the pedestrian traffic, they'd go - even if they didn't have the right of way. and in some cases you'd even have motorbikes on the sidewalk! extremely irritating.

however to give props where props are most definitely due are the parking skills of the Parisians. these guys can parallel park or just park like nobody's business. they're close to the curb, pull into some incredibly tight spaces, and imagine this: if they're parking and another car is behind them, there is no honking. what a novel concept.

as well, compact, fuel efficient cars are the norm. rarely will you see the gas guzzlers of North America...we saw a few around the Champs-Elysees region.

designated bike/moped lanes exist on most major streets.

and the metro system is amazing. we didn't have a chance to take the bus but the subway is phenomenal. it's somewhat confusing at first glance because unlike most North American cities, Paris is not on a grid so there's no real east-west or north-south line. instead there are about 11 different lines as well as four RER (kinda like GO trains in Toronto) lines. it's not just enough to figure out where you've to go, you've gotta you really need to pay attention to figure out what line to take and what direction you've to go in. key to remember is that the train doors do not open automatically...you either have to push a button or turn the knob. Seems to be the norm for European subway systems; London, Prague, and the other Spanish cities with a metro are all like this and I've missed stops before because I didn't realise the doors didn't open automatically. such a silly north american i am.

best bet for paris is to get the orange card pass which lets you ride around all week for one price. you have to get a photo id card for this and their are photo stations in the major train stations where you purchase the pass. we got ours at Gare du Nord; after about 2 tries we figured out what the right option was for the id card - it's the 16 mini-image. i got the passport size first and was busy trying to figure out how the heck to get it on the tiny space provided. one key point is when you buy your orange card they'll ask you for how many zones - you pretty much only need 1 and 2 which is all of central paris. we got all zones and paid way more than we needed to.