Escalators

Or moreover, the lack of functional escalators in Paris. On any given day, 1/3 escalators in Paris are broken. It's funny, because it's Paris, not the third world, and you don't expect such a rampant breakdown in public services, but it just keeps on happening. The louvre, metro stations, or even the musee d'orsay are all prone to these escalator outages. My theory is that there must be a really powerful escalator repairman's union in Paris. Because I don't see how the escalator at the place de clichy metro can be closed so often. Aren't these guys supposed to be "fixing" these escalators? Maybe it's something I don't know about the delicate mechanics of escalators and the Parisian dirt. Anyways, I hate to say this (so much), but this doesn't happen in America. There, I said it. And I'm not taking it back. That goes for the moveable walkways too, which are ALWAYS out of service, especially in Gare Montparnasse. Parisians - get your mechanics unions in line here.