One of the places where people usually start their trip to Paris, starts from the airport Charles de Gaulle, where you inevitably go through the following steps:
- Buying a ticket from an automatic ticket machine. For tourists, these machines might seem to be a real challenge. Many people forget to pay attention to the fact that some of those don't accept cash except from coins, so they stay in a line in vain. Some people don't believe the person before them saying that the machine doesn't accept credit cards - the person might say something like "oh really", but still try himself to make sure.
- When finally you succeed in getting a ticket, next step is a trip by RER B. All the Parisian trains usually have several seats that can be folded up in case if there are too many people in the train. These places are situated just near the doors. In the rush hour, when people squeeze in as if it was the last train ever, sometimes you find yourself squeezed as a "sardine in a can". And surprise surprise, an amazing fact: you will almost always see a situation when one or a few people don't get up from their places to fold their seats up and to give some space.
On one hand, of, course, as this rule is "unwritten", no one is obliged to obey it, but, on the other hand, it is incredibly amusing to watch those people, who pretend not to notice what is happening around them. How can this action be characterized? Selfishness? Intolerance? Lack of breeding?
Well, hopefully, not all the Parisians act in this way. You can easily see a contrast when coming out from the metro - very often the Parisians hold the door to the person behind them, so that the door doesn't sharply close just in front of your nose. It is a small gesture of politeness, that takes some 15 seconds from a stranger, but which makes you simply smile in return.
