Friday, 14 January 2011

TRAVELLING IN PARIS

Parisian Public Transports

The metropolitan is the fastest and the cheapest transport in Paris.The story of the Metropolitan began in 1897 when Eduard Empain and his company the CMP started building the first metropolitan line. It was inaugurated on July 19th 1900. Its name was Line 1. It goes from Vincennes to Porte Maillot. Since 2001 the RATP has been running more than 16 lines (211 kilometers) and 366 stations.


Today, the RATP operates a multi-mode public transportation infrastructure : buses, regional trains, trams and Métro services. Noctilien is the network of night buses in the Île-de-France region. There are projects under way to create new light rail lines.
The RATP logo represents, in a stylized version, the Seine's meandering through the Île-de-France region or the face of someone looking up.

The RER is like the metro but the French use it mainly to cover long distances.
Buses are slower than the metro but they are nicer. It’s useful to cover short distances.

The Metro map
To travel by metro you have to buy tickets or a pass called “Navigo”.
The price of a metro ticket costs 1, 70€ about £1.42 but it is cheaper if you buy a pad for 12€.
You can also take the “Navigo” pass if you intend to stay in Paris for a long time.


The RER map
To travel by RER you have to buy tickets or use a “Navigo” pass too.
Other transports are easy to take like the tramway or the boat.


Economy and tourism in Paris today
Paris and its region, which has been called l’Ile-de-France since 1976, represented 11 million inhabitants in 2002, that is to say 19% of the population of France in 2.2% of the land.
2,125 million inhabitants lived in Paris in 2001. It has been directed by a Mayor since 1977.  Paris is a very important pole for the French economy : 80.7% of people working in Paris are employed in the service sector and 19% in manufacturing.
In 2000, 36.4 million tourists visited the region –a third of them were French (source ORTIF).  In 2000, 75 million foreign tourists came to France and 24.6 million came to Paris, placing it in the first rank of tourist destinations in the world. 19% were British, 10 % were Americans, 8% were Japanese, Italians and Greeks and the other nationalities represented 39% of the tourists.

Be careful while using your car in Paris! Parisian drivers are easily nervous when something happens in the traffic. And remember to never tell anything on the way a Parisian driver drives, you would regret it!


Omer, Olivier, Théo & Romain

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