Don't come to France, stay away from Paris.

If you're already in France; stay away from Paris, stock up on bottled water, dried food and as many emergency rations as possible.






That is, if you believe the Brit press account of things :

Strike sends France closer to abyss

FRANCE faces a week of chaos with a strike set to paralyse a nation already shaken by furious protests against new employment laws.

And criminal gangs from Paris have begun a spate of crimes in the centre of the city while police are occupied with the protest marches .. Scotsman


Crisis grows as students snub PM

Sarkozy calls for compromise as French strike looms and pressure grows to scrap youth job laws

Civil crisis in France deepened last night as political efforts to quell widespread unrest collapsed and the country braced for a national strike on Tuesday.

Violence and looting in central Paris last week led the Foreign Office to advise Britons against visiting parts of the city this weekend. The mood worsened yesterday when students boycotted meetings between Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and opponents of a new employment law.... Observerguardian.


Let's just be clear : yes the students are demonstrating, yes there have been clashes with the police, yes there maybe/will be strikes on Tuesday.

But .... student demo's are a national, traditional, springtime hobby - they always have been and always will be - i can't help but think of the song "Love and Marriage" by Sinatra.

Articles like these really make things sound a lot worse than they are :

'France in Chaos' - heuuuuum...i just dunno what to say really...from my standpoint things are fine, y'know...we still get t.v...the water and electricity's still on...there's food in the shops...the banks still have money to give us...and i didn't have to queue when i filled the car up with petrol yesterday (ouch)

Perhaps 'Paris in Chaos' would be better ?...you got me on that one...the trains run on time, they're clean, not too packed...the tube is still working (phew)....there don't seem to be tanks parked on every street corner...i work not too far from Place de la Concorde - the scene of the mid-week 'battle' - i was in the area throughout most of the week...i didn't get tear gassed, robbed or stoned (hehehe)


'Widespread unrest' - yes, there is 'widespread unrest' but in a geographical sense.

It must be pointed out that there is a sustained effort across the country to mobilise the student population in university towns and cities...it's not as though Joe Blow is out there with 'em - Joe Blow doesn't give a toss about students' and/or employment law, he's more worried about his little world, his wifey, his kiddies and above all; his bifstek...there will not be pitchforks at the Elysée, Chirac and his entourage will not try to do a runner to Fontainebleau, nor will there be anything like the storming of the Bastille.

'Criminal gangs' - think about it this way : if you have ten people in a room, 1 will do all he can to derail things, 1 will join him, 2 will silently applaud, 3 will frown but not do anything and the remaining 3 will just put up with it - because they think they're the minority.

We've seen huge groups of people marching peacfully, chanting slogans, waving banners and all the rest of it...in situations like these you're always, always, going to attract trouble makers - they really are in the minority - the police are limited as to how they can re-act, they can't afford to be seen to be indiscriminate...there was a scene on the news today where we see a guy goading the police. A snatch squad jumped him. He punched and kicked a few. He got whacked and cuffed and stuffed. End of story.

I'm sure many people, sympathetic to the cause, silently thought "f****** right".


'Looting' - and all the rest of it ... is a by-product of all of the above and also highlights the plight of the haves and the have nots - which polite french society politely ignores.

Paris is surrounded by terrible, nightmarish, concrete jungle, sink estates that date from the 60's and 70's which were created to rehouse (and to surtout hide) immigrant workers who had, up until that point, lived in disgustingly, filthy dirty 'bidonvilles' - shantytowns.

These estates have never, ever, been renovated or looked after, succesive governments have closed their eyes to it all, hoping the problem will just disappear (the elephant in the room) - these places have been left to rot and decay...they really are rough, tough no-go areas, ruled by dead-ender youths with no hope and no way out...riddled with poverty, desperation, drugs and prostitution...any one who comes from somewhere like this is stigmatised for life just by the address alone...

A really very good film to get an idea for all this is 'La Haine' - 'The Hate'

Are things really any different in England these days ?

You can bet your bottom dollar that some of the 'racaille' (cheers Sarko) from the 'states were in town this week, saw they could get away with, litterally, daylight robbery and passed the message around...it's a simple as that...can we blame them ?

'National strike' - this one here is a classic; we have strikes allllllllllllll the time here : one day strikes with plenty of warning given in advance...these always turn out to be a 'ho-hum' event...the last one was at Christmas....it's just not like, say, the strikes in the U.K in the 70's nor do they have the amplitude of the miners' strike...

Strikes here generally affect the inter-city rail service where a minimum service is assured anyway, with on average 2 trains in 3 running on time - s'funny how we don't read about that one in the Brit press.

Although calls do go out for a show of sympathy, they are generally unheeded - Joe Blow again - except for the dyed in the wool union people ( salut Balajo ;-\ ) who are a surprisingly decreasing number.

Strikes are generally issue driven also: when the petrol prices soar, haulage companies mobilise themselves quickly to either blockade oil refineries or create slow moving traffic jams on the motorways at peak travelling times - but once again, when they call for a show of sympathy, it turns into a show of apathy.

Believe it or not, even motor cyclists organised themselves for a day of action when a special tax was introduced for them at toll gates !!!!

P'raps, ultimately, people should come, chill out and see what's really going on.

:-)