I’ve never been to Boston or Austin, but here in Paris many people take the public transit, be it metro or buses: rich, poor, and in-betweens. Talking to rando

I’ve never been to Boston or Austin, but here in Paris many people take the public transit, be it metro or buses: rich, poor, and in-betweens. Talking to random strangers when out and about is very much not the norm. Being forced to come into contact with the others is seen more as a negative than a positive. The only places where I see some kind of mingling is where that’s the goal, such as bars, and possibly “hobbies”. Although, IME, even those tend to have people from similar “categories”.