In a common English-language folk song “the people on the bus go up and down”. In Paris, the people on the subway do that … and a whole lot more!

On trouve tout … dans le métro

La Samaritaine is still closed, but these days you can find it all … on the subway!¹Ok, maybe not exactly these days. France is, after all, still in the grips of Covid and looking at the possibility of a third confinement. And a young Frenchman has created an Instagram²Suite à l’investiture de Joe Biden last week, even Bernie Sanders is having his moment on the métro! to keep track of it.

Des deguisements, des animaux, de la cuisine … people on the subway do it all

Costumes³In French, the word costume means suit., animals, and cooking … you can find that and more on the Paris Métro. So just what can you see?

Les gens qui dorment⁴People who sleep / sleeping people

Les gens qui dansent⁵People who dance / dancing people

Les gens qui chantent (même si ils ne le savent pas)⁶People who sing / sing people (even if they’re not aware they’re doing it)

Les animaux surprenants⁷Surprising animals Where we see un poney, une chevre, une poule, un crabe, un rat et même un iguane⁸a pony, a goat, a chicken, a crab, a rat, and even an iguana… are we on the farm or at the beach?!

Les gens qui font du sport⁹People who work out / exercising people, souvent sur le quai¹⁰often on the platform Ils font des tractions, des pompes, des abdos¹¹They do pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and even a little pole dancing?

Le prolongement de la salle de bain¹²People continuing their morning routines (lit. the extension of the bathroom)

Les gens qui cuisinent¹³People who cook / cooking people

Pour approfondir votre vocabulaire

While it’s in not captured in les sous-titres¹⁴the subtitles, Gaëten uses a word twice that I had never heard before. At 1 minute 23¹⁵…qu’ils avaient vu le matin ou le soir, en allant au taf … (travail, in the subtitles) and again at 4:24¹⁶Je suis arrive à Paris il y a dix ans pour le taf (travail, in the video) he uses the word taf. Short for travail à faire¹⁷work to do/work to be done, taf has become a common replacement for the word travail in expressions like avoir beaucoup de taf¹⁸to have a lot of work and even has a morphed into a verb, taffer, which shows up in expressions like je dois taffer ce soir¹⁹I have to work tonight or je taffe à Paris²⁰I work in Paris.

Hear taf/taffer in use (and learn 14 more typically Parisian expressions) in this great video from French School TV.

Image CC0 from https://www.pexels.com/photo/architecture-chairs-city-commuter-302428/

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  Ok, maybe not exactly these days. France is, after all, still in the grips of Covid and looking at the possibility of a third confinement.
• 2
  Suite à l’investiture de Joe Biden last week, even Bernie Sanders is having his moment on the métro!
• 3
  In French, the word costume means suit.
• 4
  People who sleep / sleeping people
• 5
  People who dance / dancing people
• 6
  People who sing / sing people (even if they’re not aware they’re doing it)
• 7
  Surprising animals
• 8
  a pony, a goat, a chicken, a crab, a rat, and even an iguana
• 9
  People who work out / exercising people
• 10
  often on the platform
• 11
  They do pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups
• 12
  People continuing their morning routines (lit. the extension of the bathroom)
• 13
  People who cook / cooking people
• 14
  the subtitles
• 15
  …qu’ils avaient vu le matin ou le soir, en allant au taf … (travail, in the subtitles)
• 16
  Je suis arrive à Paris il y a dix ans pour le taf (travail, in the video)
• 17
  work to do/work to be done
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  to have a lot of work
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  I have to work tonight
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  I work in Paris