Why is Paris so inaccessible?
The Earful Tower: Paris
Oliver Gee
4.8 • 749 Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Meet Parisian woman Virginie Dubost. In 2018, she became a quadriplegic after a surfing accident.
Now, she is an accessibility advocate and has made headlines in Paris for drawing attention to accessibility issues in the city.
She joined us in the lovely Square Santiago-du-Chili in the 7th arrondissement to talk about Paris, its low level of accessibility, and how it can be improved. Here's the viral video she featured in, which we talked about in the show (4 million hits on Instagram!)
Find out more about Virginie via her Instagram page here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody, Oliver G. here from the Earful Tower podcast in Paris. Now, a few weeks ago, |
| 0:06.9 | I was at the American Ambassador's residence for some kind of mingley event, and I found myself |
| 0:12.5 | talking to today's guest, Virgini Dubost, and we chatted a little bit afterwards, and I said to her, |
| 0:23.9 | I've always wanted to do an episode about accessible Paris. |
| 0:25.3 | And I wondered if she'd be interested. |
| 0:29.2 | And she said, yes, she's something of an accessibility advocate. |
| 0:33.1 | So the story you're about to hear today, to give you a bit of background, |
| 0:39.3 | Virgini became a quadriplegic after a surfing accident in 2018. Meaning that she's lived in Paris before that and since it. |
| 0:43.3 | So she has a really good idea of what this city is like in terms of accessibility from both sides of the spectrum, as it were. |
| 0:51.3 | And we talk all about that. We talk about the city of Paris, as I always do, |
| 0:55.7 | and we talked about the Paralympic Games, a little too. This episode was recorded in the Square |
| 1:00.0 | Santiago de Chile in the 7th Arandismont, so really near the Tour Mourbourg metro station. It's a |
| 1:07.2 | lovely little park. In fact, there's a little bust of Pierre Antoine |
| 1:11.5 | du Saint-Exuberi, the guy who wrote the little prince with a little quote from him underneath. |
| 1:17.3 | Worth checking out right by the Anvalide. I want to say huge thanks to the Patreon supporters of this show |
| 1:22.3 | who keep everything going. patreon.com slash the Earful Tower where you not only help this show exist, but you get |
| 1:29.3 | extra bonus features. Check it out. Here comes the episode, a little bit of music from |
| 1:34.0 | Pressmax and to start us off. And then you're in the park with Virgini and me. Virginie, how are you today? |
| 1:56.0 | Fine, thank you. I'm so glad to be here with you. |
| 1:59.0 | I'm very glad to be here with you as well, even if it's a bit windy in this place. |
| 2:04.8 | It's not rainy. |
| 2:06.2 | No, not yet. We stay positive, right? |
... |
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