Maîtres mots

  • Il y a longtemps que notre pays est beau mais rude.

       --Newspaper editor Olivier Séguret, 25 January 2012

    The USA are entirely the creation of the accursed race, the French.

       --Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), writing to Nancy Mitford, 22 May 1957

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French Freedom of Speech

Today the cheminots are:


  • "À nous de vous faire préférer le train!"
    "Voyager autrement"
    "Avec le SNCF, tout est possible"
      --Former ad slogans of the SNCF (French national trains), each in turn quickly dropped

Fun French words

  • ouistiti

    (literally: marmoset)
    Etymology: onomatopoeia from the sound a marmoset makes. Actual meaning: this is what you say in France when you want people to smile for the camera.

    Selon une étude réalisée par le fabricant d’appareils photo Nikon, le « ouistiti » utilisé en France au moment de se faire prendre en photo est le petit mot le plus efficace pour s’assurer un joli sourire.

Who's en colère today?

  • Private sector

    First strike in 43 years at an aeronautics company in Toulouse, Latécoère


    Public sector

    The SNCF (toujours eux), regional train employees in the Lyons area guaranteeing unpleasant travel from the 17th-21st December
    Also yet another strike by Sud-Rail, a particularly truculent SNCF union in the south of France, this time five days in January: 6,7, 21, 22 and 23. "We have no choice." Right.

    Marseilles trams on strike until February

Go back to school in Paris!

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« Who are the rioters? | Main | Bercy Park »

Comments

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This is really scary stuff. So far, I feel safe in Paris but I guess we are never really safe anywhere-either from riots or weather. I'm glad your car escaped damage. Linda

Oh no - how frightening! I had read that they hit Paris last night. What arrondisement is this in?

I've been listening to this on the radio this morning and feeling very removed from it all - in fact ended up discussing the riots we had in the 80's in England. Then I read something like this, which is so personal and realise that it's not just something on the news - it really is happening. How very frightening for you - I hope you feel less shaken now.

That is incredibly crass.
Hope you are calmer by now... when my wife and I had our honeymoon in Paris, we also got into a riot, almost squished hen we tried to enter a metro station and teargassed later.

Just ask her.

- Sparky

Wow! That's definitely too close for comfort. I surprised a burglar once so I understand about shaky leg syndrome. Let's hope the authorities get this under control soon.

Glad you're ok.

yess, true.
there is a Big Difference beetween "ideas" (personal, political, social...)
-- and "experience" ( = real life).
and when You look at those things in tv... safe, in comfort...
interesting.

Moving account, thank you. As is my custom when I read something I like, I went on poking around your blog and tagged it. You have a keen sense of time and place and your personality shines through.

Unfortunately, it took a frightening encounter for you for me to discover this.

I came here through a link from another blog. Thank you for sharing this harrowing story with your readers. It really hits home when you get a direct perspective on what is actually happening in Paris. Hope you are OK. Is there a safe place where you can put your car until the unrest dissipates?

Sounds like a total nightmare. Thanks for the post. Be safe!!

All the emergency numbers (15, 17, 18) actually go to one central operator that will reroute you to the appropriate service.

My gosh. Please be safe! I can't believe what's going on. These jeunes are using any excuse to be bad and it's gone on too long. I work in Villepinte and go through Seine-Saint-Denis and Aulnay-sous-bois and I see what the jeunes are doing. I'm scared on the trains, the RER B stopped running at 17H30 today.

That was a mini rant... whew.

I can't believe that's happening outside your window. I hope this mess stops soon.

From Sedulia: The American embassy is recommending not to take the RER B to CDG airport until further notice. It's been attacked a couple of times.

It was very interesting to read your story. Good luck from Austria!

Thank you for the report. We are planning to travel to Paris on the weekend. Can you advise us wether or not you feel this is a good idea or not? It is extremely hard to filter the news we are seeing/reading in North America. Be well.

Hello Bob,

Some friends of mine are coming too. I think there's no problem and you shouldn't worry. The things you are seeing on television are not happening in downtown Paris, which is crawling with cops and soldiers (and has been for years, by the way). However the U.S. embassy is recommending that people take the bus or a taxi into town, and not the RER B train because it passes through some of the "sensitive suburbs."

Thank you so much for this report.

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Today's quotation

  • In Paris, the purest virtue is the object of the filthiest slander.

      –Honoré Balzac (1799-1850), in Scènes de la vie privée

    À Paris, la vertu la plus pure est l'objet des plus sales calomnies.

Le petit aperçu d'Ailleurs

  • Annual Geminids meteor shower (shooting stars!) coming this weekend, if it's not too cloudy out at night.

News about France in English

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