Attention aux piètons!

Although Paris is a great city in which to perambulate, the relationship between drivers and pedestrians is a little tense. There are many pedestrian crossings in Paris, it is true. Pedestrians are even factored into some traffic light arrangements. The novice Parisian flâneur who presumes that these civic arrangements impose any kind of obligation on the drivers of Paris errs egregiously, and perhaps fatally. Parisian drivers take an attitude to each other which is a little bit Benjaminian: they insist upon their individuality – nay, singularity – as driving entities; they take some pleasure in participating in the great seething mass of traffic, but they regard all other entities within the crowd of vehicles with contempt. The horn is rarely avoided. The bumper nudge is a common manoeuvre. No infraction is suffered in silence. La vie flâneuse is thus invigorated.
This sign indicates that children are being walked in the neighbourhood. I lived near a pre-school in the 10th arrondissement a few years ago. When the kidlets were being taken for a walk, they all grabbed onto a rope whose tail was held by the teacher and were marched double time, sometimes dragged, along the footpath; it was a caterpillar made of toddlers. You might run into such a hazard near a sign like this one. More importantly, however, if you park your car here, you will be towed away. By a truck. Sans hésitation.

Here we see a highly qualified notice of a pedestrian area. Although this byway, which happens to run alongside the Seine, is designated a pedestrian area, the fine print ratifies more loopholes for cars than you’ll find in a big block of emmental. The relationship between responsible adult and young beskirted lass is, presumably, less close in this quartier.