the only solution

I can complain sometimes right?

Besides Paris being one of the most amazing places on earth I'm going to have to go and say that walking around this metropolis is difficult and frustrating. It all starts with Paris having a population of just over 12 million people with 9.6 million living in the urban area and 2.2 million living in central Paris. Sure, they have nicely kept parks and beautiful river banks to walk along, and yes they have one of the world's best metro systems... but when I'm walking through the city on the sidewalk I don't want to walk single file and be rubbing shoulders with pedestrians traveling in the opposite direction. Sometimes when the the streets are so narrow the sidewalks are almost non-existent, so when you run into oncoming foot traffic the only option is to step onto the street and let the others pass. Alright fine, no big deal, it's just common courtesy to let the others pass by right? Most of the time yes, but when you're in Paris you never know when some wild scooter hooligan will come whipping around the side of an oncoming car and rip past the curb only allowing a couple of inches of play. Personally I would rather not take that risk, especially when the streets are wet from it raining every other day. At least the city of Paris had it right when they put up poles around sidewalks to protect pedestrians from out of control vehicles... these are the same poles that bend when a light-duty truck backs into them. It's all about peace of mind.

The only solution to this growing problem here in Paris is to recruit all 12 million people and get them to tear down Paris and start over fresh.