Zazie in the Metro

Raymond Queneau

Zazie arrives in Paris with one ambition above all others: to ride the Métro. Naturally, it is on strike.

What follows is a wildly irreverent journey through the city above ground. Traffic, cafés, landmarks, arguments, slang and confused geography turn Paris into a playground in which the famous city outsiders come to admire is constantly undermined by the people actually moving through it.

Zazie wants to get inside Paris quite literally, into its underground arteries. Instead, she discovers the unruly city that exists on top of them.

Paris; Métro; Satire; Language; Urban life