Robust public transportation options make getting around Paris and many parts of France easy. Whether you’re taking the bus, le métro, or the train, a host of helpful voices help to make sure that your journey will be safe and efficient.

Photo by Dmitry Demidov from Pexels

Les voix des transports en commun

From announcing the prochain arrêt¹next stop or directing riders to the correct quai²platform, to providing urgent updates and safety reminders, the voices of public transportation ensure that a rider’s trip will be a pleasant one.

But not just anyone can be a voice. It takes someone with just the right qualités de voix³vocal qualities, “une voix qui a du caractère, qui a une intention, qui est … qui soit rythmée, et qui ait un débit assez lent pour que tout le monde puisse comprendre l’ensemble des mots à l’intérieur de la phrase.⁴a voice with character, intention, that is … that has rythme, and a slower pace so that everyone can understand all the words that make up the phrase“

Like any professional entreprise⁵enterprise, business, organization, the RATP holds des castings⁶casting calls to find just the right voices … like Sophie, who is also agente de réglementation et de sécurité à la RATP⁷security and regulations agent at the RATP or Diane, Chloé, and Carmen who provide les voix françaises, anglaises et espagnoles de la ligne B du RER⁸the French, English, and Spanish voices of the RER B

Et si on prenait le train

If you take the train, you’ll hear a different set of voices, but with the same goals … though those goals have evolved in the time of Covid and added new responsibilities for the announcers working in the 25 Postes d’Information Voyageurs⁹Travelers Information Stations, or PIVIF located in the Île-de-France region.

“Depuis le confinement, en plus des arrivées et départs des trains, ils doivent communiquer sur le respect des gestes barrières.¹⁰Since the lockdown, in addition to the arrivals and departures of trains, they must enforce social distancing / Covid safety reminders”

If you’ve taken a train in France anytime in the last 38 years, you might recognize Simone Herault who has been recording messages pour les trains et les gares¹¹for the trains and the stations for almost 40 years!

https://youtu.be/jJRStVr-m6Q

Pour approfondir votre vocabulaire

2020 saw record online shopping. As more and more French people were taking advantage of new shopping options to avoid going into stores, the Ministère de la Culture weighed in to remind people of the proper French terms.

Instead of using the anglified click and collect to refer to the process of ordering online for in-store pick up, they recommend cliqué-retiré¹²clicked-picked up or retrait en magasin¹³in-store pickup / in-store retrieval.

For online purchases that are delivered, the preferred terms are cliqué-livré¹⁴clicked-delivered or livraison de commande en ligne¹⁵delivery of online order.

Read more here and here. And click here for a real word example of the old click and collect from my Darty post last janvier.

• 1
  next stop
• 2
  platform
• 3
  vocal qualities
• 4
  a voice with character, intention, that is … that has rythme, and a slower pace so that everyone can understand all the words that make up the phrase
• 5
  enterprise, business, organization
• 6
  casting calls
• 7
  security and regulations agent at the RATP
• 8
  the French, English, and Spanish voices of the RER B
• 9
  Travelers Information Stations, or PIVIF
• 10
  Since the lockdown, in addition to the arrivals and departures of trains, they must enforce social distancing / Covid safety reminders
• 11
  for the trains and the stations
• 12
  clicked-picked up
• 13
  in-store pickup / in-store retrieval
• 14
  clicked-delivered
• 15
  delivery of online order
• 16
  live/real-time