Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!oliveb!ames!attctc!vector!telecom-gateway From: geac!sean@uunet.uu.net (Sean Phelan) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: 8 Digit French Numbers (was: Tokyo goes to 8 Digits) Message-ID: Date: 10 Jul 89 14:41:19 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: Sean Phelan Organization: Geac Computers, Markham, Ontario Canada Lines: 20 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 232, message 6 of 12 In addition to the way numbers in French are spoken as two-digit pairs, it is helpful to remember that Paris does not have a "downtown core" which fades slowly out to endless suburbs. You are either IN PARIS or you're not ( in which case you are in the banlieue ). If you are in Paris, you have an eight digit number, starting with 4. Property prices, and to a certain extent pace of life, respect this sharp dividing line between being in the city and outside it. Try walking though the flea-market at Porte de Clingangcourt, starting from the Paris side and leaving on the northern side, to experience this. I think the peripherique ( ring-road ) more or less follows the boundaries of the city, but I'm not certain. Sean ( being francophile again ) -- Sean Phelan | "Education furnishes the mind, Geac Computer, Markham, Ontario | making it a pleasant place to sean@geac | spend the rest of one's life" {uunet!mnetor,yunexus,unicus,utgpu}!geac!sean |