Paris for the Parisiens?

The past week, I received a visit from a very good Brazilian friend and as it was his first time in Paris, we did the whole Eiffel Tower, Champs Elyssee, Saint Michel, etc tourism. One of his comments that I found interesting was that the people he was seeing in the metro and other public places did not look very French. I immediately responded that he is completely right because the Parisiens are long far away for their holidays.

Most of the world knows Paris and would like to visit or live in Paris: La ville de l'amour! However, now that summer began and with that the student holidays, Parisiens are all away, leaving the hordes of tourist behind. Because of this invasion of tourists, Paris does not feel to be empty at all. The metro system is fuller than ever, as well as the streets and squares. I guess this is normal for touristic cities, such as Rome, Paris, London, etc.

This is very curious for a Brazilian because for vacations we usually go to the beach, leaving our cities completely empty. Furthermore, the people that are in the costal cities do not go to other cities but just overcrowd even more the restaurants and bars near the shore. So it is very seldom that a Brazilian city is full of people that do not live there.

The Orange Machine is showing how to do it

These pasts weeks, I've been following the European Football Cup, and after watching almost all games, up to now, the Dutch team really seems to be the one taking the cup this year.

I always liked the Dutch team, as they say it is the European team that resembles the most with the Brazilian style of playing the game. However, they were always eliminated, most of the time not even reaching the final. But now, after beating Italy and France by big margins, I think it has come time to make justice and give the cup to them.

Well, football is not basketball and not always the best team wins, or as we say in Brazil: football is like a surprise box. So it might be too early to put all my money on the table, but from now on I am cheering for them.

German Nationalism is Back

Before the last world cup, held in Germany, it was always a taboo for a German to show his nationalism, as this was considered almost as a Nazi tradition. For instance, when I arrived in Dresden three years ago, it was easier to find a person wearing a Brazilian shirt than a German one. However, after the football event, this taboo is surprisingly over and now because of the European championship (EC), you can see everywhere cars displaying proudly the German flags on city streets.

Though it is nice to see that this long lasting taboo is over, it still makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. There is clearly a segregation of the Turkish community in the German society. For example last Saturday when Portugal and Turkey opened the EC, it was surprising to see that most of the Germans that I saw were supporting Portugal and not Turkey. I cannot see any good reason for Germans to do so, other than their xenophobia towards the Turks. In Brazil, we usually cheer for the weaker team, or the team that is plays fair, or if there is community of that nationality living in Brazil, we support them. But this was not the case in this match, since Portugal is clearly one of the favorites for the title and as far as I know the Portuguese community in Germany in very small.

What makes me more afraid is that the Germans that were supporting for Portugal were not uneducated people, but university students. After the match, I asked some of them, why you do not cheer for your fellow Turkish? They immediately demonstrated their discrimination towards them, by saying that the Turkish community is terrible and low-class people. From where they got this idea is not very clear to me, but I could only think that in Hitler's time this was the same propaganda towards the Jews. I just hope that this uprising German nationalism is controlled by not following the examples of Germany's recent history.

Finally made it to Paris

As I mentioned before in another post, Paris is very pleasant city to do biking, but the banlieue, that is, the outskirts of Paris, is perhaps even better. I actually live in Antony, to the southern part of the banlieue near to the airport of Orly (not Charles de Gaule to the north of Paris). Nearby there is a very long and beautiful passage for bicycles that connects Paris and Massy-Palaiseau, called la coullee verte.

I usually use the coullee verte when I go by bike to Polytechnique, which is further to the south. However, it was not until today that I used this way to go to Paris. I really liked the way, though it sometimes lacks adequate signs to guide the bikers to the correct directions (I actually got the wrong track twice). The part that connects Antony and the beginning of Paris is very fun, since the landscape is nice and especially because you do not have to stop in the crossing that often. However, when you reach near Paris things begin to change. The landscape is no longer green but filled with ugly buildings and worst, you sometimes have to wait for some minutes at the crossings until the traffic lights turn green.

Besides theses inconveniences, I think the path is overall very pleasant and I leave the recommendation.

Does anyone work in May?

Because of the presence of so many holidays, May is certainly a very unusual month in Europe. For instance, we are approaching the middle of the month and until now we had three holidays from which two coincidently fell on a Thursday resulting on a total of five holidays. Counting also the weekends, people actually worked only for three days!

Not that I am complaining, but since people have their vacations now in July and August, I begin to question the saying we have in Brazil that Brazilians have too many holidays. There are definitely less than in any European country.

P.S.: In France, things get even better. Here people already have every Friday afternoon free because of their 35 hours journey. (Vive la France:)

Velib Experience

In the past year, Paris has been transformed into a biking town, what I would call the Velib phenomena. Everywhere, you can see these little bike stations from where you can grab a bike, called Velib, ride for a while and leave it any other free station. Since Paris is relatively small, with good metro system, and not having many slopes, Velib has turned out into a huge success.

Finally this past weekend, me and Andrea took the courage to rent two Velibs and for merely one Euro each, we could have it for the whole day. I should also add that we were a bit lucky with the weather; it was a sunny warm afternoon. Soon after you begin riding the bike, you can notice its strength and that it is a bit heavy, but very comfortable. I enjoyed a lot going near the Seine by bike and now that summer is coming, I think the Parisien streets will be full of them.

The awful German language

Today I read a very funny and informative text from Mark Twain discussing the bad and good aspects of the German language -- more often the bad aspects. You can find the text here.