Traffic here is very interesting. First of all, all of the cars are super-mini. It’s actually kinda funny; a punch-buggy looks normal size here! Even the trucks are mini (they’re cute-looking, actually). I think it’s because unlike in the states, where we built many of our cities to fit our cars, historic European cities existed long before the invention of cars, so people had to fit their cars to the roads, which are all relatively narrow. However, Strasbourg is fairly modern compared to a lot of other French cities. Their major roads are paved or stone-tiled rather than cobblestone, and there are a lot of traffic lights.
There’s a superb tram system that runs throughout the city all day every day. Again, unlike in NYC, these trams must be above ground (no way would city architects risk digging huge tunnels underground here). Picture something a little more chic than a metro, but riding above-ground on a rail system like in San Francisco. I am totally impressed by them; they are super-quiet, very smooth, extremely clean, and can stop on a dime (pedestrians walk right in front of these). They don’t go very fast, like a metro does. They probably go about as fast as the cars here go, or even slower.
The feel I get from the city is similar to when I was in Boston. It’s very much bustling during the day, but traffic is surprisingly calm. Cars allow pedestrians and bikers to cross the street in the middle of traffic, and people bike EVERYWHERE. Biking has been so convenient this past week; it’s so easy to get from one end of the city to the other within 10 or 15 minutes (provided it doesn’t rain, like yesterday, gahhhh). But the amount of bikes here is astounding. Everyone goes around on bikes to get places- women going to markets with baguettes stuck in the front baskets, men in suits and ties going to work, little kids going to school, girls in flowy skirts just biking around. There seem to be very few rules about where you can park your bike, because often when I go to a shopping area or somewhere fairly popular, ALL of the bike racks are completely full and people resort to chaining their bikes to garbage cans, trees, fences, parts of monuments, etc. I like walking or biking everywhere, as opposed to taking the bus, because the city is so pretty and holds so many hidden surprises that I would have definitely missed had I been flying by on a bus or in a car.
The car companies here are also different. I recognize Volkswagon and Renault, and there’s this other lion one that Madame taught us but I can’t remember the name. AND Mercedes-Benz here is so popular and not a big deal; all of the trash trucks are Mercedes-Benz!!
Animal update: yesterday on a whim a couple of us stopped into a Musée Zoologique (basically a museum of natural history where they do taxidermy and such). It was actually really cool; even though it was this tiny converted building on a street corner, they had a lot more exotic animals than I expected, like a giraffe, polar bears, toucans, and these massive crabs. Also, there were a handful of local artists there, sketching the stuffed foxes and deer- they're drawings were SO cool. (I’m gonna skip over talking about the bug section here, because it was SO GROSSSSSS ewwwwww). On the subject of gross animals, the other night we were sitting by the river at night, I think someone had purchased one of the cheaper white wines from Monoprix, a chain grocery store, and all of us were just going to chat by the river. All of a sudden, this GINORMOUS WATER RAT starts climbing out of the water towards us, sniffing. Of course we all screamed, this thing was MASSIVE (bigger than a chipotle burrito, I'll tell you that). But a couple of local French teens nearby just laughed; apparently it happens all the time because people aliken them to squirrels in the US, feed them bread, and think of them as “cute.” UGH I don’t even want to think about it…
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