Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Taxi drivers at the Eiffel Tower protest a move by taxi companies to charge them for gasoline (1934?). In January 1934 a new tax on gasoline provoked a strike by taxi drivers and other car-dependent workers. The avenue de l'Opera was blocked, causing a huge traffic jam.

Source:
CEGES-SOMA (Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society), photo no. 45278:
Click here to view source.

Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 39

Rich and poor

On many occasions I was astonished by the attitude of the taxi drivers to their customers from Passy and Auteuil.

While exhibiting a kind of class hostility toward them they were nevertheless unconciously convinced of the so-called superiority of these people. I discussed it with them several times.

One evening I was waiting patiently with my comrades outside a theatre; we knew there would be a lot of customers; we could easily tell from the number of private cars waiting for their owners.

L�Arl�sienne was being performed and I wondered aloud how a work like this could attract such a large crowd. An old driver who heard my remark answered:

�Listen, my friend, these are not people like us. You can�t understand this play and neither can I. To do so requires study.

�There may be words in it that you have never heard before. To you it would seem like nonsense. For them it�s different, we�ll never be like them. It�s not worth bothering your head about.� [194-195]