Two men are standing on a traffic island in Boulevard Saint-Germain next to the railings of the Odeon Paris Metro station entrance. Behind them on the other side of the road is the Odeon cinema after which the Metro station is named. The Odeon is showing the 1963 film by Jean-Pierre Mocky called Un Drole de Paroissien with Bourvil, Francis Blanche and Jean Poiret. One of the men on the traffic island is reading a broadsheet newspaper and the other is an employee of the Paris public transport company Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens, known as the RATP which was formed in 1948 taking over all of Paris's public transport. He is using the street telephone to help keep the transport system functioning smoothly. Buses continually lined up along this stretch of Boulevard Saint-Germain. The cafe next to the cinema is La Bonbonniere. 6e arrondissement, Left Bank, Paris, France, 1963.