Before we went to France, I was warned about the dangers of Paris. My bf wanted to stay and work in Strasbourg, but well, it was hard for me to find anything related to my field there. So Paris it is. I never really paid much attention to these warnings before because I’ve always been alert wherever I go. After all, the Philippines has its share of pickpockets and robbers – even if we always find it safe to walk around the Makati area on a Saturday or Friday night (where the number of drunk people is higher than during the average day).
Anyway, we went to visit some friends in La Defense last Saturday night. The night went fast, before we knew it, it was around 11PM. I know it wasn’t very late compared to the usual Saturday night gimmick, but we were dependent on the RER and we didn’t want to miss the train. Normally, La Defense is a very safe area and RER A is usually OK, but it was Saturday night and there were a lot of drunk tourists – talking very excitedly, going down in the Chatelet Les Halles stop, and all that. We usually don’t care about this – we just mind our own business.
When we reached Nation station though, it was a different story. There was a French man of African descent – big and drunk, who was talking and spitting inside the RER all the time we were in there. Je suis ecoeure! Everyone ignored him. I was silently reading my newly borrowed novel from Kala and my bf was just quietly sitting down, when the guy almost tripped and fell on our backs. Of course we looked back to see what the problem was. The guy stared madly at us and said, “Encule!” Ugh, as if! What was his problem anyway? He just stood on our left and began to say all kinds of indecent stuff to us.
“Degolas!”
“Ta merde!”
“Baise ta mere!”
All the while, he was spitting and pointing in our direction. He even went in front of us and raised his finger to point at us again, as if shooting us – his right hand imitated the shape of a gun. Of course, I was very scared because he was big and fat. But at the same time, rage was rising inside and I knew that if this guy suddenly attacks us – we would have more advantage because he was drunk and we were alert, alive with adrenaline. One hard kick to the groin or a violent hit on his knee could be the trick and it would buy us some time to run and call the police.
When the RER stopped on the next station, we got out and got inside the next car. There was another drunk guy talking nonsense, laying down on the seats. From the train station, we took a bus to our apartment because we were so lazy to walk and the bus was full of young, noisy, drunk guys who are, surprise, of African descent. In the parking lot of the area where we lived in are full of people, again of African descent, smoking weed or hashish and drinking beer, throwing their empty bottles on the ground – not even bothering to clean up. What a shame.
Paris is full of crazies during Saturday night.
My bf said he couldn’t even be safe in his own country.
We were so angry after. The big, drunk guy and the other black people we saw – they are the ones who give bad reputation to their own country/continent. I’ve always noticed that people usually avoid big, black guys in the metro and rer. They would rather stand than sit beside them. It’s sad, really. Some innocent people who are of the same origin are stereotyped because of bad acts like what we saw and experienced last Saturday night.
(Many thanks to my bf for the post title)
im afraid to go near people like that. If I see one, immediately, I change train or cabin or what ever.mga sakit sila ng gobyerno, parasites baga.
I m happy you are safe now.
Hi Timi! That’s one scary RER ride. I’ve always thought that the RER is creepier than the metro. I used to take the long metro rides than take the RER. Hope you won’t experience more of that.