The French gendarmes belong to the Ministry of Defense. To become a gendarme you need to study at least three university courses and receive the diploma (licence). You will hardly ever meet gendarmes in Paris.
Posts Tagged "Paris"
If you are visiting French friends, do not forget the entry code to the door. You will not be able to enter any building in the historic part of Paris without the access code. If you do know it, you can go through the internal courtyard (cour intérieure) first which will lead you directly to the concierge.
Typical House in Paris
The original secondhand booksellers appeared on Voltaire Quay in Paris (Quai Voltaire) in 1891. Today you can find these green boxes full of books everywhere on the parapets of the Seine from Royal Bridge (Pont Royal) to Sully Bridge (Pont Sully). The size, colour and weight of these boxes meet the statutes of the city government.
Each secondhand bookseller is given not more than 8.2 metres (26.9 ft) to display their books. You can buy old and new books, engravings, posters, dictionaries, encyclopedias, magazines, comics and cards at a discounted price. You are not obliged to buy anything, just enjoy browsing and have a pleasant chat with the secondhand bookseller about Balzac, Flaubert and Stendhal.
Book stalls by the Seine
Those who are politically left-wing traditionally read Libération and Le Monde, and those on the right read Le Figaro. Communists may read L’Humanité. In spite of their varying political views, all the Parisians read the sports newspaper L’Équipe. You can find city news in Le Parisien and in the free newspaper, Métro. The satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, which means “Duck on a chain”, exposes everyone – Presidents, ministers, right-wing, left-wing, red, green or blue, illustrating the facts with cruel cartoon caricatures.
A typical Parisian snack bar is old-fashioned, simple but very homely and friendly as they are designed for socializing. Parisians drop by two or three times a week to enjoy a drink, exchange a few words with the owner (a big fellow) and meet their friends, known as the ‘regulars’. According to one source, the word “bistro” appeared in the French dictionary after 1814 due to the Russian Kossacks who implored the slow French innkeepers to “Hurry up! Hurry up!” (“Bistro! Bistro!”). In the Tertre Square area (Place du Tertre) on Montmartre there is even a plaque at the place where allegedly the word “bistro” was first used.
Bistrot, Rue Saint-Antoine, Paris
Walking along the banks of the Seine, you will notice the moored barges which look inhabited with curtains at the windows, laundry on a line and perhaps a little kitten on the deck.
This is not the most common way of living in Paris but it is popular with rich foreigners, actors (such as Pierre Rishar) and famous mountaineers from the MacLaud clan. These barges can also be turned into floating restaurants, bars or night clubs and some of them, such as Batofar on the Quay Francois Moriaka (Quai François Mauriac) combine all these activities onboard.
Barge on the Seine
The shape of today’s advertising columns (or Morris columns) copy the historic shape of city advertising boards but they are now much thicker and twice as high as their prototypes. The process of changing the posters in these round structures is fascinating to watch. A couple of workers do the job artistically, making the sophisticated mechanics of the “Colonne Morris” work. Phones, news-stands or public toilets are located in some of these advertising columns.
Advertising column
You can find drug stores all over the city. They are clearly marked with a neon green cross. A French pharmacist (pharmacien) is a competent and highly qualified professional. If you have a toothache or headache, you can ask him for help without waiting for a doctor. The majority of drug stores are closed on Sundays, but the address of the nearest one on duty is always specified in local newspapers and on the door of the local pharmacy. Toiletries and basic medications such as aspirin can always be found in supermarkets, where the prices are generally much lower than in drug stores.
Pharmacie sign
In Paris the name and the surname of the addressee are written right at the top of the envelope. Next are the number of the house and the name of the street, zip code, city and country (if the letter is going abroad). The first figures of the zip code specify the department of France where the addressee lives. For Paris, the first two figures are always 75. The two last figures show the district number, and the figure in the middle is always zero or one, for example: 75018 is the 18th district of Paris, 75116 – 16th district etc. As a result the Parisian address looks like this:
Jean-Paul Belmondo
10, Avenue George Vd
75008 Paris
France
Range of French postage stamps
France, like most countries in Europe, has a rich and varied history. In this beautiful country you’ll see some of the oldest buildings, the best architecture, and the most amazing castles in Europe. Perhaps even in the world. In a country with such a storied past, you’ll always find skeletons in the closet, and a sordid past. This vast country has many stories to tell and some very dark secrets indeed.
If you ever get tired of the sights, bored with the world-class shopping and fancy a real fright, why not take a trip to some of the most haunted and scariest places in France. You’ll find a number of old, and even some new spots on the map that have gruesome and terrifying tales to tell. And you’ll get to see a side of France that most tourists never have the chance to experience.
If you love things that go bump in the night, then France is the place for you. Perhaps you are even familiar with some of the popular “haunted” spots like the Loire Valley castles or the gloomy Conciergerie prison in Paris, but we’ll tell you about strange places in France you didn’t know before.
Some of these sights are not for the faint hearted. So, if you’re not into scary ghost stories, haunted houses or cemeteries, then this list of the top ten scariest places to visit in France is certainly not for you.
Prepare to be scared, here are the spookiest spots France has to offer…
