The French have the right idea about slowing down.
Free bicycles every 900 feet or so in Paris: what a concept! Well, they are free for the first half hour, and then you can rent them. So far there are more than 10,000 bikes available and the program is expected to double in January.
Initially the program was conducted in Lyon in 2005, but now the “Vélib” program is taking off in Paris.
Although Paris has a long way to go to catch up with such hyper-civilized cities as Amsterdam, it is a wonderful start.
Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, you are a slow guy. Of course, slow is now under threat from the new government push to speed things up.
I’d like Paris to resist too much speed. Even if we, in America, can’t have two-hour lunches with a half bottle of something red, then I like to know that there are those that do. After all, slow is an aspiration.
What I like about the French is just how French they are. Did you know that French is the official language spoken in heaven?
I have completely forgotten that they invaded Britain in 1066. It’s all water under the bridge and I think nothing of it. Forgive and forget.
Tags: Talk Back //
I could see myself on one of those :-p
Modern:
You make a compelling case for spending a few leisurely months in Paris.
1066? Tiz but a time, about half-way through the morning (in an alternative universe, where there are 70 minutes (or perhaps more) in an hour)!
Speaking of which (time, that is)… we are so ruled by the pernickety little blighter, aren’t we? It doesn’t say much or do much, but it is always there, on the periphery of your vision, tutting every now and then and tapping its wrist. Wouldn’t it be just a marvellous coup for the Slow Movement if we could somehow pass a law through all the courts of all the world to have all time-pieces banned? And I do, of course, include those eternally visible little indicators at the bottom right of one’s computer screen. Although I may decide to save the humble sundial, on account of its symbolic representation of the virtue of living by the natural rhythms of Mother/Father Earth…
Anyway, back to Paris, bicycles and so forth…
I don’t personally own one (a bicycle, that is), but I do like to walk as much as possible, whenever I have to get somewhere. Walking is good. It makes you far more aware of your surroundings and better able to interact with such. Of course, one doesn’t always exist within or walk through surroundings one necessarily *wants* to interact with, and I fully admit that my viewpoint on this matter is coloured by the fact that I presently traverse a delightful, quintessentially English country path, passing paddocks and corn-fields, every single morning and evening, between my home and the train station… but… it also keeps you fit and makes you slow down! Which are definitely good things.
Regarding Paris, and the country of which it is the capital, I am in agreeance re the Frenchness of the French. It is not generally deemed appropriate for an Englishman to express an affinity with the denizens and culture of our neighbouring country, but… well… when did I ever claim to be a “typical” Englishman? Don’t be fooled by my enjoyment of tea! Regarding the French… if one peruses the works of Tom Hodgkinson (author of How to be Idle and How to be Free), one will find that he (an Englishman) also expresses a fondness for the French… They invented absinthe! And it was a French lady who introduced me to the delights of Mr H… a French lady who drinks lots of tea! How’s that for cultural harmony!
I love this part:
“I’d like Paris to resist too much speed. Even if we, in America, can’t have two-hour lunches with a half bottle of something red, then I like to know that there are those that do. After all, slow is an aspiration.
What I like about the French is just how French they are. Did you know that French is the official language spoken in heaven?”
Beautiful!