Most visitors to Paris walk a lot. Perhaps this is really the best way to
see the city. It's also nice to ride the buses, as you can still see a lot
while moving. However, a real sense of Paris will elude you until you venture
into Le Métro, the vast underground (and elevated) subway system, with its
connections to high speed RER trains and railway stations.
If you are in the city any length of time, you will be using the Métro to
get somewhere rapidly. There is almost no location in the city more than
an hour away by Métro. There is a fringe benefit to this travel. An
interesting sub-culture exists in the pedestrian tunnels and interchanges
and even in the subway cars. You can't miss the groups of musicians, but
there are also mimes and other attractions to hold your attention.
Somewhere along your Métro journey you will likely change trains, which means
wending your way through a maze of stairs, escalators, ramps, tunnels, and
platforms. As you leave the car on your first train and head toward the
stairs at the end of the platform, you are likely to hear strange sounds
coming out of the tunnels ahead. Actually you may be some distance from it,
but after a few twists and turns, and perhaps even going up to another
level, you will encounter the source. Often this is a single accordion
player, but there are no rules. The strange sounds might have been produced
by a zither player, or a set of steel drums. We have seen chamber groups -
string quartets and trios, set up in some of the larger Métro interchanges,
such as Concorde and Solferino. Perhaps the oddest encounter was with a
gentleman playing a full sized concert grand harp.
These people hope to receive a contribution, and there is always a hat or
cap lying nearby for that purpose. You will be hard hearted indeed if you
leave Paris without being tempted to offer at least a few coins for the
music you have enjoyed down below.
At least let's hope you enjoy it, because it's hard to avoid. Having reached
your new platform, when you push your way into the arriving car, guess what?
Yes, there will be a crush of people, old men and ladies, young people,
perhaps a derelict or two, but somehow there seems to be always room for
a musician or group of musicians. Saxophones are popular of course, (shades
of New York City), but vocalists are not shy either, and about the only
instrument we didn't see down there was a Steinway grand piano.
The concert is often accompanied by a loud sales pitch for a "new magazine"
or booklet on alternative medicine, yoga, or whatever. Almost no one buys
these things, but the vendors don't take offense.
It is unlikely that you will make a Métro trip and just sit in your car like
a bump on a log. You WILL enjoy yourself, thanks to the buskers of the Paris
Métro. Would we want it any other way?
