Why are Parisians always in a hurry?

March 01st 2007

Why is it that people in big cities always seemed stressed out, in a hurry, etc. while people in smaller cities seemed more laid back and cool? It’s kind of like the East coast / West coast thing. People in New York are more stressed than people in California. And Paris is like New York on steroids. The Parisians are always in a hurry. One of the first things I noticed was that when going up or down an escalator, you stand to the right and you walk to the left. Of course there are no signs stating this, you’re just supposed to know it. Soon after living here I found myself walking up the escalators (on the left side) along with everyone else. Not only does it save you 8 seconds, but it’s better exercise. It was quite funny when my cousin, niece, and nephew came to Paris to visit us. On our first outing, we had to go down a huge escalator. Well it turns out my little nephew is scared of escalators. He froze once he got on, and I must admit we were in La Défense and the escalators are very long as you descend deep underground. He had never seen an escalator so long and he was holding on for dear life. Meanwhile, he was causing a bouchon (”traffic jam”) and people were very impatiently waiting behind me. I was quite embarrassed by it all but it was quite amusing at the same time.

Once I happened to meet a coworker in the train station on the way to work and we were waiting for our train. He was from Lille, a smaller city in the north. I was so used to being in a hurry in order to get a seat that when I heard the train coming I jumped up out of my seat and started heading towards the train. Then I realized he wasn’t alongside me. He was still sitting down, folding up his newspaper. So I stopped and waited for him. I told him “Hurry up! We’re not going to get seats!” And to be honest, sometimes you don’t even get on the train if it’s full. He was so calm about it and made a comment about Parisians being in a hurry all the time. We got on the train, I don’t remember if we got a seat or not, I don’t think so, but he didn’t care. This really showed me just how different things are in Paris.

Another Parisian friend explained that the Parisians aren’t in a hurry to get some place, they’re just in a hurry to get out of the metro, which usually stinks and is generally unpleasant. I guess that’s a good reason to walk up the escalators.

And the most interesting thing is that just by living here among them, we become like them.

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  1. The Paris Métro, the mirrors, and breaking the rules : Everyday France on March 1, 2007 20:54

    [...] like urine than the Parisian metro so I guess it’s about even. If you read my previous entry, Why are Parisians always in a hurry? you’d know that they’re only in a hurry to get out of the [...]

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