Parisians Love Paris

A big place to sit down after doing some big shopping
on the boulevard Haussmann.

They Just Pay Less to Get Here

by Ric Erickson

Paris:- Monday, 29. December 1997:- The fourth and last holiday 'program' is in this issue and since this is the last issue of this particular year, I've put in sort of a 'This Year in Metropole' round-up, just like the big guys do.

Unlike the 'big guys,' this magazine does not have any wars to report. Paris being Paris, there are conflicts, trials and deaths; but this no more than a sort of a low-level background murmur in the daily life of Paris, probably inaudible to a visitor to the city.

Because I live here, all the time, I find I cannot avoid mentioning some of the less joyful news occasionally. If this was completely absent, you'd think the place was like your nice, clean, sparkling bathroom at home and you might prefer to stay there.

The French word for what you get in Paris is 'frisson' - shudder or thrills - shivers up your spine - and everybody hopes the kind you get are like the ones cats seem to experience, rather than what happens when a gas leak in a tenement in the 19th arrondissement gets a spark.

In addition to the vast array of Paris attractions and the people who man them, there are several millions of ordinary Parisians living in the city and its sprawling suburbs - and you will probably meet some of these because they frequent the city's attractions too.

For Parisians, Paris can be just as magical as for visitors and perhaps more so, because they are personally entangled in the city and its history. Without the Parisians' active support all year round, many world-famous monuments and attractions would be forced to cut back severely or close down altogether.

The reason I am picking out Parisians to boost is simple. They provide the labor to make it work, for themselves and for visitors; and they provide a great number of entry-paying customers - enough to keep the whole thing running for everybody's benefit.

All the beautiful and historic monuments, the attractions, the sights, the services, the goods - none of this would function without the Parisians.

And, in spite of this vital service that Parisians provide - they are ordinary human beings too.

Paris' Science City has just opened a new 2,000 square-metre exhibition to show off the latest state of image, sound, and video, coupled together with communications technologies. The whole thing is wired up with the highest-speed fibre-optic cable available, so the whole bag of futuristic techno-tricks is impressive; but ghettoized within the Cité's own 'Intranet.' Our worldwide Internet is too slow for this stuff, which is '1,000 times faster,' up there somewhere with the speed of light or beyond.

I checked out the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie's web site to see how far behind we are in real life. I must be stuck somewhere in fuddy-duddyhood because the Cité des Sciences web site is full of stuff inviting one to download exotic browser plug-ins, rather than having a straight-forward 'real-life' explanation about this great temporary exhibit. Despite considerable patience, I learned nothing - except that simple is better.

There is some debate in France about the utility of the Internet. Some people, and especially France Télécom, think the Minitel is all the French need; especially as it keeps the French within France and France Télécom collects fees by the minute for the service.

French scientists had a great deal to do with the pioneering work that led to the creation of the World Wide Web, and they continue to play a key role in defining its key nuts and bolts. For these pages I am trying to use the standard 'W3C HTML 3.2 Final' version of the Web code - which is supposed to be the 'bottom-line;' which enables everybody with any kind of browser to access these pages. A new version f this standard Web code is in the works and when it becomes 'final,' it will be lurking behind these pages you see.