Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet
I'm always ashamed when visitors can't enjoy the so called 'good life' over here.
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I must have liked it anyway because I’ve been back five times since then, including for the “Bicentenaire” in 1989 and for the Millennium celebrations. The bicentennial was better. Although, I must say that kicking through the ankle-deep broken champagne bottles that completely filled the Place de la Concorde in the early hours of January 1, 2000 was pretty special in a bizarre, somewhat surreal way.
My first time there in 1979, they still had “pissoirs” on the streets and you could buy lemonade from sidewalk pushcart venders who served it in actual glasses so you had to drink it right away and then they’d rinse the glass for the next person who came along. Also the seats in the Métro “voitures” were wooden, even in the middle “Première Classe”
Here’s a photo from 1979. Notice there are cars parked in the middle of Place de la Concorde.
Place de la Concorde - Paris, July 1979 by
bill barfield, on Flickr
In 1984, the public telephones still required actual money, so it was a real search to find any that hadn’t been smashed for the coins inside. If you really needed to make a call right away you had to do it at the PTT.