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You ride on the subway, and the smell almost knocks you out, garlic, sweat-and perfume!" Anyone who has ever ridden on the metro in Paris on a hot summer day can likely relate to this "gripe," in this case expressed by American servicemen posted in France after the end of World War II in 1945. Although a severe shortage of soap caused by four years of German occupation made the odor on the metro worse, a crowded metro is still not a pleasant place to be.