Given how slow my job search is going, I think it’s time to return to the real format for Learn or Do – so starting today, I’m going back to the original themed content by day and cutting back on the focus on job search. I feel like it has gotten repetitive – and that’s BORING! LOL!
So it’s apropos that today is Monday – it’s the first day of return to format which fulfills the Monday theme of firsts. So let’s remember as well, that the original purpose of this blog was to try to prompt my readers (and myself) to learn or do something new every day.
So here’s a fun first I bet you didn’t know – on March 18, 1662, the first public bus service started in Paris. The bus service was called Carosses a Cinq Sous and was meant to try to relieve traffic in Paris during the reign of Louis XIV. Famous mathematician Blaise Pascal was one of the instigators for the service – who better than a mathematician to recognize the problems of traffic?
There were 5 routes for the carriages with a published schedule. The carriages were staffed by a driver and a footman and could carry up to 8 passengers. However, soldiers, pages, and other liveried men were barred from riding in the carriages “to assure the greater comfort and freedom of the bourgeois and meritous classes.” Remember, Europe of the 1600’s was very class stratified so as unfair as this might seem to us today, it was a fact of life then.
Want to know more about Carosses a Cinq Sous or Blaise Pascal? Check out these links!
Learn Or Do 