Taking the Roissybus into the city centre, the second thing noticeable was how quiet it was. Of course, it's the end of July, and the Parisians are starting to leave for their summer holidays, if they haven't left already.
This is one place where the locals abandon the city, leaving the tourists to their own devices. Businesses, usually the family-owned variety, close down for the summer while the owners head for their holiday homes by the sea. Middle-class Parisians often have second homes in Brittany or Normandy - within 3 hours' drive of Paris, and start populating these second homes every weekend as soon as it starts getting hot. This is all possible because the social welfare state is a massive disincentive to work even without the Loi Aubry which gave the French the 35-hour week, and there is no more RTT (Fr:reduction du temps de travaille). Still, employees typically get 20+ days' annual leave a year, compared to the 11 or so days that us Honkies get.
As many Brits discovered before the crisis, property in France were affordable, and a house would cost no more than a bedsit in Bognor Regis. The ownership demographic shifted radically from the 1990s, to the extent that many locals started complaining about being squeezed out by the Brits, thanks also to Ryanair which opened up provincial airports like Rennes.
The holy sabbath is the other reason why the city seemed deserted, of course. Almost everything was closed when we arrived at noon, and getting a toothbrush was a minor logistical headache. There are the traditional Sunday markets, and certain supermarkets in town are allowed to open, to close promptly at noon. Although there is apparently a draft law to liberalise Sunday trading, it's not here to benefit us yet.
Since I was last here, the ticketing system for the RATP (the autonomous Parisian transport system) has changed somewhat. Gone is the fidgety monthly coupon which resides in a plastic sleeve, which you have to take out and put into the turnstile. They have now adopted the Navigo, an electronic pass a bit like our Octopus card system. It was being put in place when I left five years ago, based on the same monthly fee for unlimited travel within certain zones (like in London). I see all the locals using it now, although it hasn't reached anywhere near its potential as e-cash.
One of the typically Utopian projects which the city Paris loves is a system of bicycle renting called Vélib', funded by the taxpayer; many roads have been made narrow by the cycle lanes. The idea is that you can pick up a bike from one station and return it to another, only renting the bicycle for the time you are on the road between stations. It's priced to encourage short hops and is very popular because the first half hour's use is free. When people started putting their own locks on the cycles to "reserve" their bicycles, employees were mandated to cut the locks.
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