Paris bulletin 7 2012

Just about any time you catch a metro, you can learn something, about life in general and the human race in particular. I’m not sure why this should be truer of the metro than of the bus but it seems, to me at least, to be so.

I was on my way to a lunchtime concert in the Louvre auditorium yesterday. I walked over to catch the line 7at Louis Blanc instead of the 48 bus. Chance would have it that I found a seat opposite a yogi. You may wonder how I knew he was a yogi and of course I couldn’t be certain. He didn’t have a notice on his sleeve saying ‘Please don’t bother me. I am a yogi and I am fully occupied with my inner truths.’ But being a regular attender at a Brahma Kumaris meditation group, led by yogis of many years’ training, I’ve got quite good at recognising some of the key features of ‘yogi-ness’(for want of a better word).

The first clue, you could say, was that he was clad from head to foot in white and cream. Unusual for a man. However it wasn’t only his dress that held my attention. He was extraordinarily beautiful in a Buddha-y kind of way – a stillness about him and a repose in his face that was almost non-human in its intensity. He had on a white flat cap and he seemed absolutely unaffected by the noise and chatter roundabout him. After a moment he shut his eyes but you knew he wasn’t dozing, like most of us might be. He was somewhere deep in the calm acreages of his mind.

A few stops further on a middle-aged woman, (maybe in her mid forties), got on: a respectable-looking little woman in a zip-up jacket and jogging trousers. She bumped a heavy machine into the carriage, set it up by the door and turned a switch. It began to play background music. She lifted a mike to her mouth and launched into a song. She sang in Spanish, a brave little voice rising above the howl of the metro and the indifference of the travellers. The yogi remained as before, eyes shut, withdrawn and contemplative. I listened to the singing and I wondered about this woman. I wondered how much courage it took to go into carriage after carriage and sing the same songs against a tide of indifference and sometimes hostility. Who was she singing for? Herself alone? Her children? Her husband?

She turned the music off and came round with her open purse. I dropped some coins in. The yogi didn’t open his eyes.  

Anyone could be forgiven for keeping their eyes shut when you look at the French press headlines. It is hard to believe that it is only a matter of months since Hollande was elected to the presidency. There appears to be a wholly unrealistic expectation amongst voters that the Socialists will ‘make it all OK’ straight off. The other main topic this week has been the state of the French automotive industry and the continuing sluggish car sales figures for Europe as a whole (the commentary for the most part pessimistic). The question is on people’s minds because of the annual Salon de l’Automobile which is taking place down at the Porte de Versailles.

The average family may be hanging onto the old car for a bit longer than they used to but of course the Salon de l’Automobile is not really about Mr Average. It’s all about sleekness, va=voom and sex (there are still loads of glamorous ‘hôstesses’ on hand, to drive the message home). The top end of the car market is in fine fettle, feeding (off) the dreams of the very rich.

Consider, for example, the Lamborghini ‘Sesto-Elemento’ (‘sixth element’ in Italian, a reference to the atomic number of carbon. The car is made almost entirely from carbon fibre). Lamborghini have announced this week that they will manufacture just 20 of this model. The car is capable of 0-62 mph in 2.5 seconds, and can reach a maximum speed of 200 mph. As one press release explains however: ‘since Lamborghini have bypassed the normal measures required to make the car road-legal, it is likely to be sold primarily as a millionaire’s track toy.’

                                      

And the price for being able to whizz round your private track at those unimaginable speeds? – a cool $2.92 million. Lamborghini expect to close their order book by the end of the week. The last time they did a run like this they made 35 vehicles and they sold the lot in five days flat.

Meanwhile back here in the congested streets of Paris we are beginning see more of the city’s little electric cars buzzing about. And up the street opposite my flat there are now 4 autolib ‘berths’, their bornes already flashing green through the night. By the end of the year there should be close on 3,000 100% rentable electric cars in Paris,  and the entire ‘parc’ (fleet) will probably cost no more than a single Sesto Elemento.