I'm finding this an interesting thread as I get to work in both London
and Paris pretty frequently and consider that I know both systems well.

They both have their ups and downs.

The "space trains" on Paris's Line 1 are - I think - magnificent.

The distinctive smell of the Paris Metro - variable thought it is - has
never gone away since my first visit in the early 1980s.

London's classic tube map is unsurpassed. None of the Paris versions
really achieves what Beck and Garbutt did, in my view.

The Bullseye/Roundel is *far* better at marking out stations in crowded
streetscapes. Exactly as people like Pick and Holden intended, there
it is to assure you that you're near somewhere where you'll be able to
"get your bearings. The "ME" symbol in Paris is much poorer at this
and its use is very much intermittent. (That said, I love the classic
"bouches de metro" Art Nouveau entrances!)

In message ,
Morton writes
I may be wrong but I think London Underground is extremely fool proof.
So did I until I worked in tourism. Some people get *very* confused or
simply refuse outright to use it "because they won't know where they're
going or where to get off". Curiously, it is often people from other
parts of the UK that are the worst for this. (I met a charming French
family in Spitalfields yesterday afternoon trying to get to Tower
Bridge. They took my advice and set off armed with a map and a sense
of determination; the people I'd had the day before from another part
of the UK didn't venture outside Covent Garden during the r free time
because they wouldn't have dreamed of getting a tube or bus......)

As
long as people can distinguish North from South, East from West.
You would perhaps be surprised how few people can. I am constantly
*staggered* at how many people don't seem to know that North is usually
at the top of a map.

LUL make
the signage 'really ****ing obvious'. The line colours, North V South, East
v West means I could jump onto an unfamiliar station and flow through it
without much brain power.
I would agree but many wouldn't!

At various stations in Paris, signs would point to
different lines, I'd walk via the directions then come to an intersection
but less obvious pointers. I'd wander around for a few minutes until I catch
sight of a poor sign then move on. The Underground has flow. The Metro
doesnt.
Once you master the metro's system for always guiding you with the Line
Number, the "direction" and the "Correspondance" then that too is very
easy. Paris and London just have different solutions to the problem
but I wouldn't; say that one was necessarily easier or harder than the
other.

Just my view.....

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk