First World Problems...

Today is the last day of The Tour de France, and it is routed right around the corner from my apartment! If you haven't seen professional cyclists ride, it is an absolutely amazing thing. They ride really, really, fast! And because there is a climb just a mile and a half or so up the street around Sacré-Cœur, they will probably be bunched up, which makes it even more exciting.

Of course there are hundreds of pedestrian barriers all over the neighborhood, and where they have been placed is quintessentially French. Not neatly along the curb. Not stacked at the corners ready for deployment on Sunday morning. No...they are lined up in no particular plan, in no particular place! Like...blocking off 75% of the walkway across the main road. Or splitting the sidewalk neatly in two.

They do similar things around street construction, but the best is at the airport. 7:00am, and the barriers leading to immigration are fully deployed, as if they are expecting 5,000 people instead of a few hundred. So back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, about 30 times. It takes far longer to walk the maze than to clear customs.

And we wonder why we had to bail them out twice in 25 years?

posted by CBD at 02:00 PM

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