It's a University Town!

We live in a university town. We had not yet arrived in France last year when the University started up in late August. This year we returned from vacation just in time to witness it. 

Just a day or two after we returned from vacation we noticed a HUGE uptick in the number of young people out and about on the streets. Either the students appeared to be with one or two parents or students were in large packs-- just groups of students. In checking the calendar, the University was getting ready to start in-person classes. Last year included a lot of remote learning due to Covid. We are also hearing groups of students roaming the streets practically all night long. Perhaps as the cooler temperatures set in there will be less night-time roaming in the streets. Hope so!

We live across the street from the big location for buying monthly public transportation passes. The queues were very long for quite a few days. Students get a discount! We always saw more people at the end of a month as folks typically buy monthly passes, but these queues were LONG! They had stanchions and ropes up looping the lengthy queue back and forth to the left and right of the entrance door all day long. At least the weather wasn't too bad.

Here's the thing! People park illegally anywhere they can to wait in this huge queue. They even park in front of the access to our parking garage and the parking garage entrance across the street. 

The other day we returned home and a car was blocking the entrance to our garage. A passenger sat in the front passenger seat. A honk only elicited hands being tossed in the air. Then the female passenger was on her phone so we assumed she was contacting the driver to come and move the car. Alas, no. We finally drove around the block and found a spot to "stand" until the driver returned- which was, believe it or not, 20-25 minutes later. And on her return (yes, a woman driver) she couldn't unlock the car (neither could the female passenger apparently). And she couldn't find her keys. At one point I think she might have taken notice of the no parking sign on the garage door, but B disagrees. Anyway, she finally moved on after we had waited 20-25 minutes.

I do not know what goes through the minds of these drivers.