THE PARIS METRO IN 26 EASY LETTERS
Accessibility: You’ve probably noticed that when the printed coordinates of a Parisian place of interest are given (a boutique, museum, restaurant, even a party-throwing private home), there is often a funny little symbol following the name, address, and phone number. The funny little symbol, a capital M with a «degree» sign after it (M°) precedes yet another name, as in M° Pyramides or M° Ecole Militaire or M° Michel Bizot. This designates the métro stop nearest the destination in question, a practice affirming that the métro is everywhere and used by everyone but the most crowd-averse snobs. (The site and app of the RATP has an interactive map which can give you door-to-door itineraries with travel time indications for the entire metro, bus and train system in the Paris region. - Ed.)
Begging: On the rise in the Paris metro and becomin…