The Bleaching Powers of the Seine

Oh, France. Pays de la liberté, l’égalité, et la fraternité. But is it, really? Something struck me in the metro: The lines that go from north to south are full of diversity, from people’s heights, skin colours, accents, and odours, in the periphery of the city, and are more bleached-white around the Seine.

Why is this?

And why are the nicer metro lines, 1, 14, etc, all around the river?




We went to a session at the Assemblée Nationale and the vast majority of representatives are men. Maybe there are more who weren’t present, but out of at least 100 people I could only spot one black functionary. I didn’t anticipate it because this is not representative of what I could see in the metro, or around the city. Maybe it is the recent increase in immigration from ancient colonies, which would explain the delay in the assimilation, but it was still very astonishing.