VT/ET statistics and other Paris, France Local Custom Tips

1. VT tips on sites in Paris (click

to enlarge)

by Nemorino , 1 more photos

As of August 29, 2009, there is an update of this at the beginning of my homepage, with the new statistics for 2009.

In the summer of 2006 I initiated a forum thread called One thousand one hundred and seventy-eight, which was the number of Eiffel Tower tips in VitualTourist at that time.

My question in that thread was: "The Eiffel Tower in Paris currently has 1,178 tips here on VirtualTourist, in seven different categories. Is there any other single attraction on VT which has more tips than that?"

It took a while for everyone to understand that I was talking about tips on VirtualTourist, not hits on a search engine, but after we got that straightened out the consensus was that the Eiffel Tower does indeed have more tips than any other single attraction in the world. "A French victory!!" as pieter_jan_v commented.

In 2007 I did a re-count and discovered that there were 1,260 Eiffel Tower tips, up 82 from the year before. Now, in 2008, VT has 1,325 ET tips, up 65 from last year.

So it seems that we VT members have started slacking off lately, since we added 82 ET tips from 2006-2007 but only 65 from 2007-2008. Is this perhaps due to the exchange rate of the Euro against the Dollar?

As in previous years, the figure for 2008 includes tips from seven different categories. There are currently 995 Things to Do tips about the Eiffel Tower (including one of mine, believe it or not), 23 Nightlife tips, 12 Off the Beaten Path tips (!), 59 Tourist Trap tips, five Warning/Danger tips, 225 General tips and six Local Customs tips, not counting this one.

By the way, these figures do not include the 24 reviews (mostly negative) of the restaurant Altitude 95, which is in the Eiffel Tower.

Second photo: The Eiffel Tower: The most tips of any single attraction on VirtualTourist.

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Local Customs: Les sans-papiers

Tip Rating:

Updated by Nemorino

on Jul 13, 2007

1. Banner on the school fence

by Nemorino , 2 more photos

One of the fastest ways to unite a squabbling school class is to threaten to throw some of its members out of the country.

This banner at the Bullet School (named after Pierre Bullet, a French architect who lived from 1639 to 1716) in the 10th arrondissment reads:

"The Bullet School says NO to the expulsion of the children of the families without papers" followed by the names of some of the kids who are threatened with deportation.

This is currently a big issue in both France and Germany: what to do with people who have lived here for years or decades but do not have the proper paperwork to allow them to stay on permanently.

Prominent reactionary politicians in both countries are trying to have all these people put on planes and sent back to where they came from, err, where their parents or grandparents came from. For the children this would be especially bitter because many of them have lived here for most or all of their lives and don't even know the countries they are being deported to.

In both France and Germany there have been numerous newspaper stories about this in recent months. For a journalist looking for a good story, it is of course ideal if one of the children happens to be a photogenic seventeen-year-old girl who speaks fluent French*, gets straight As in school, is president of the student council and is dating a nice French* boy from a prominent local family. But even if the kids in question are only average or whatever, their classmates are determined not to let them be deported if they can help it.

*Or German, as the case may be.

Second photo: This sign on the City Hall of the 14th arrondissment says: Against the expulsion and for the legalization of the pupils and their families "without papers". (The mayor of the 14th, Pierre Castagnou, is a member of the Socialist Party, otherwise he probably wouldn't have put up that sign.)

Third photo: This "mobilized school" in the Rue Sorbier, 20th arrondissement, declares its solidarity with the people without papers.

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Website: http://ec-4-pierre-bullet.scola.ac-paris.fr/

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Local Customs: Manifestations

Tip Rating:

Updated by Nemorino

on Jul 12, 2006

1. Demonstration in Avenue Victoria

by Nemorino , 1 more photos

If you cycle around Paris for a few days you are bound to come across a demonstration of some sort. This one in Avenue Victoria was in front of the Public Hospital Administration, to protest the closing of a nursing school.

Unlike some demonstrations in the suburbs which can turn very nasty, this one was totally peaceful and even joyful, but to prove they were serious about their protest they stayed here for over four hours chanting and singing.

Second photo: This girl has written the slogan on the back of her shirt: No to the closing of Necker.

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Website: http://www.ifsnecker.info

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Local Customs: Heat wave

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Updated by Nemorino

on Jul 6, 2006

1. Good advice from the mayor's

office

by Nemorino , 1 more photos