Paris Insider's Guide
We were at the American Library of Paris the other day, and C happened to pick up a copy of the Paris Insider's Guide 2010. At first I thought it was just another random guide, but after flipping through it, I realized it was actually a really handy little booklet, even for the seasoned expat.
It has several different sections, covering everything from safety info to expat organizations & clubs to metric conversions. There are pages that list all of the different marchés in Paris and others that give hints about how to start & end a French letter or how to make friends with your building's concierge. There's even a short how-to for attending a French wedding.
C was particularly interested in this page, which mentioned various chalk-marks burglars could leave on doorways when scouting out future apartments to break in to:
I'm not sure how "real" this actually is, but it was still interesting to learn about anyways - and now you'll know just in case to erase any random chalk marks you find on your door!
Portions of the guide can be downloaded on their website here.
Labels: Life in Paris, Tips
posted by Ksam @ 1:37 PM
9 Comments:
Or mark a "nothing of interest" sign on your door!
I would go with "police officer lives here" sign, myself!
Very interesting info. Thanks for sharing.
Where can one buy it btw? I'll keep it in mind the next time I'm in Paris.
I am with Eileen... hehe! I can't believe there are soo many codes -- WELL, I DO believe it.. Alex told me about this.. but he probably doesn't know just how many codes there are.. I'm going to post this on my blog! Thanks!
i'd heard about this coding but never seen any of it. I'll be looking out now! A scary but useful chapter in a guide!
This is quite a well-known list now and I imagine burglars have developed a whole new set of codes (using an iPhone app) by now. I mean, have you ever seen a chalk mark on a building? The only vague sort of mark I remember was on a building I lived in about 15yrs ago, and we rubbed it off just in case.
these are known as hobo or tramp signs in the US and have been in use for decades there http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/hobosign.htm
Great comments everyone! And how interesting to learn that they've been around for a while (and exist in other countries as well!)
Some drunk guy at a dinner party once started telling everyone of us about how he delivers CSA baskets for a farmer's co-op but his side job in all this is to stake out houses and apartments and pass on the information. Everyone was like *gasp* and he was like "well I don't get MY hands dirty and I make some money. It's just information man!" Since then I'm really freaked about people who come for service calls or who come door to door. I don't let them in unless I absolutely have to and I don't say ANYTHING personal.
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