It snowed in Paris on Saturday morning. Not very much really - maybe about half an inch or so. In the Parc Champ de Mars (the park by the Eiffel Tower) there was a full covering of snow and it all looked very pretty.

After about an hour or so, the weather warmed and it began to rain and the snow soon melted.

However there was more than enough time to introduce Darling Wife to the pleasure of snowballs. We even managed to desist from throwing snowballs for long enough to make a pretty reasonable snowman - Marvellous!

In the end though, I think we were both secretly quite glad when it started to rain because it really was jolly cold!

As well as being Darling Wife's first time to make a Snowman, I can't honestly remember when I last saw enough snow to allow me to make one. I think it was probably when I was still at school.

Anyway, the rain kept up and we spent the rest of the weekend gloomily looking out of the window. We did venture out for some Christmas shopping, but that was only a trip to our local shops.

The French can't drive in the snow. Heh, heh. heh

The French really do say ‘Oo la la’ and sometimes they even say ‘Oo la la la la’

I have to admit to a experiencing a certain smug satisfaction while writing this post…

I drove home tonight in what could at worst be described as light snow and was more like sleet or even just plain old rain.

Sleet, light snow or whatever it was, it had a catastrophic effect on the traffic. People were slowing down, stopping and generally behaving like complete idiots (no difference to normal there then). The peripherique ground to a complete standstill for about 10 minutes, and even after leaving this road, the journey along the riverside to the centre of the city was also tortuous.

You may be wondering why this complete mayhem has given me such satisfaction when I was caught up in the middle of it?

Well, it means I can let you into a little known secret.

THE FRENCH ARE CRAP DRIVERS IN THE SNOW TOO!

Now, I know we’re not all like Colin McRae, but really, come on get your act together. It’s not that difficult.

Whenever we get a light dusting of snow in the UK, the country seems to go in to panic mode. Schools close, roads close, supermarkets run out of food. A visitor would be forgiven for thinking that the country was experiencing a natural disaster; not a couple of millimetres of snow.

I have always wondered if this a peculiarly British thing, or if other countries suffer in the same way. I remember being stuck on a closed M25 with no more than a dusting of snow falling. As I sat there in a bemused state, I was listening to some wag on Radio 5 telling the listeners that on the ‘Continent’, everyone knew how to drive in the snow – what a twat he turned out to be!

I can’t yet comment on any general air of hysteria in the air, but people did leave work early, all the talk in the office was of the impending ‘blizzard’ and, as I have mentioned, what little driving skills the good people of Paris have went out the window.

So, there you have it. It’s not just the Brits, the French are just as useless when confronted with a bit of the white stuff.

I saw a really unnecessary car accident today. Thinking about it, it wasn’t really an accident as it was there was an element of deliberation about it.

On the road I use to get on to the peripherique, there’s a bit where 2 lanes merge into 1. Somewhat unusually for Paris, the traffic always manages to merge into the single lane without any problem. But there’s always an exception to the rule and today was it.

The traffic always merges on a one for one basis. This morning as a tatty old transit van paused to let me in, a guy in a nice shiny Renault who was behind me tried to squeeze in to the same gap. The guy in the transit was having none of it and kept close behind me.

This was only ever go to end in tears. I don’t know if the guy in the transit didn’t see the Renault, or if he was defending his right of way, or if he just didn’t care (the cynic in me suggests the latter) but he kept serenely going.

So, the Renault ended up being scraped by the truck and also being forced into a wall.

I did briefly consider getting out an offering my services as a witness, but from the wrathful looks on both drivers faces, I quickly decided that this wasn’t the smart thing to do. So I kept going (I may sometimes be slow on the uptake, but I usually get to the right answer eventually).

The whole thing really was stupid. The truck did have right of way (letting me in was a courtesy) and even if he didn’t have the right of way, you have to be a bit dense to argue with white van man (especially the French variety).

The best thing about this (other than it didn’t happen to me) was that it happened behind me. Had it all happened in FRONT of me, I would probably still be sat in the resulting queue!

Forgot to mention this in yesterday's post about the weekend; but we had some roast chestnuts while we were in the park at Luxembourg.

Believe it or not, this was the first time I've ever eaten them. A little sweeter than I expected. But on a bitterly cold day, there is only one word to descrbe them - MARVELLOUS!

We recently went to the Musee Picasso. I have to confess I was regarding this particular visit with no great enthusiasm. I am not really into ‘Art’. I enjoy looking at old (and new) buildings especially churches and castles etc. One of the more enjoyable afternoons I have spent in Paris was employed wandering around La Defense looking at all of the new office blocks and, of course, Le Grande Arche. But as for paintings and sculptures etc I have never been able to get too excited by it all – sorry but there it is.

Having said that, there is a painting in the Louvre – The Wedding At Cana which really did grab my attention. It’s a huge painting (9 metres by 7 metres) and is full of intricate details. It seems that every time you look at it you discover another little scene being played out. As it happens, it is currently on display in the same room as the Mona Lisa and so it pretty much gets ignored in the undignified scramble to get close to Signora Lisa, or should that be Signorina?

Anyway, getting back to dear old Picasso. None of the photographs of his work that I have seen has ever really interested me apart from one - Guernica (which I believe is one of his most famous) it’s about the Spanish Civil War. So, as I say I was not really bursting at the seams with anticipation when Darling Wife announced that she wanted to visit the museum.

I have to say though that I was pleasantly surprised by it all. Seeing the paintings for real was an unexpected pleasure. They seemed to be very vibrant and real. Even though I can’t confess to understanding what he was getting at with some of the later work, I found nearly all of the paintings quite fascinating. It was also quite interesting to see how his style changed over the years. From what I suppose you might call ‘conventional’ paintings through to the later abstract styles along with plenty of examples of his sculpting prowess.

Alas, Guernica is not on display here.

The visit was rounded off in the pleasant garden drinking coffee (€4.20 for a Crème, not very hot and rather too milky – 5/10) and admiring some of the larger sculptures. This experience was somewhat ruined by a loud American lady who had obviously swallowed a guide book on Picasso and was keen that everybody within earshot should share her knowledge – well really, some people!

So, noisy colonials aside, an enjoyable afternoon spent enriching my cultural understanding of the world!

The French Train Drivers are going on strike tomorrow; something to do with not enough Garlic in their staff meals I believe.

As I wanted to find out if the Metro is affected (officially it’s not, but some sympathy action is expected), I typed ‘Strike’ and ‘France’ into Google. It returned 17,000,000 hits!

Just thought I’d share that with you.

To quote one of my former bosses, “it’s been shocking cold” recently. Ever since the clocks went back, the temperature has been slowly descending. Nothing dramatic, but just a little colder each day. It was around 20 degrees on the Sunday of the weekend the clocks moved and it finally froze in Paris on Saturday night and the temperature barely rose above zero yesterday.

Darling Wife and myself had intended going shopping on Saturday, but it was such a glorious day, that we abandoned this idea and caught the bus across town to Luxembourg Park (or Gardens as they are called in French).

I have always thought that the gardens at Luxembourg are very scruffy. This is mainly due to the fact that the ground is covered in loose gravel and there are no laid out paths. This is very much in contrast with most parks in the UK which have tend to have nice lawns and clearly defined pathways. However, gravel is very much a feature of French parks.

The park looks even worse at this time of the year because the trees are shedding their leaves and the ground is covered in them and this adds to the general air of untidiness.

Scruffy or not, there’s no denying that the park is a welcome oasis of calm in the very busy shopping and business district that surrounds it.

As is usual in all of the cities gardens, there is plenty of seating available. We had intended to grab a couple of seats and just watch the world go by. There’s a small pond on which toy sailing boats vie for space with ducks and raucous seagulls. There are also donkey rides available and I was looking forward to sitting in the sun watching nothing in particular.

However, as mentioned at the start, it’s a bit chilly at the moment and after a few minutes, we had to get up and start walking in order to keep warm. Ever since I returned from Asia, I have always thought that I feel the cold more than I used to. But judging from the large numbers of hats, coats, gloves and scarves being sported by the local population it seems that I am not alone after all.

We did a few circuits of the park; it’s not that big a place. Then we decided to walk back in the general direction of home. We managed to walk in a line through an area where neither of us had been before (north of Montparnesse and south of St Germain). I would like to be able to say that we discovered a new shop, or a nice Café, but that wasn’t really the case. All the shops seemed familiar (although they obviously weren’t) and none of the Café’s or Bistro’s were inviting enough to tempt us (although I have to admit, a nice warm chocolate would have been well received).

Eventually, the cold got the better of both of us, and we jumped on the metro and made our way back home.

In the evening, we went for a Korean Barbeque. This was in St Paul and was worth the longish metro journey. I don’t think they have Korean Barbeques in the UK so here is a very quick description. Basically everything is cooked in a W shaped dish. There is a gas flame sat under the middle of the W and the meat cooks on the on the middle surfaces of the W while the vegetables cook in a soup around the bottom of the dish. This wasn’t the best one I have ever had, but it was pretty good. It’s also the first time I have had this sort of food with wine, Beaujolais Nouveau of course, instead of beer. The restaurant did have some Korean beer on sale, but the wine seemed more appealing.

What’s that? Wine more appealing than Beer! I guess I must be turning into a Frenchman!

Yesterday (Sunday) was pretty much a repeat of Saturday. We wrapped up like Eskimos and went for a stroll along the Seine before cutting back and wandering through the shops towards home.

Today is the day that Beaujolais Nouveau arrives in the shops and restaurants of Paris.

I seem to recall that this always used to be a cause for celebration in the UK as various people tried to be the first to get a bottle to London.

It seems that in Paris it’s no big deal.

In our local supermarket, there was (is) a large display with 4 or 5 different types on sale, but not many people seemed interested.

I have to display my ignorance here. 4 or 5 different types? I thought Beaujolais Nouveau was Beaujolais Nouveau. Apparently not. There were blue labels, red labels, yellow labels and some nice multi coloured ones. I did try and enquire what the difference (apart from the price) was. However this proved beyond my very limited French, so I am still none the wiser. Thinking about it. I presume the different bottles are fromthe different vineyards in the region.

Whatever, I chose a middle priced one, and am now sat here enjoying it. Not being a wine buff, all I can say is that it tastes very nice!

Cheers!

Well, the rioters seem to have gone back into their boxes. I suspect that this has more to do with the appalling weather we have been having recently, rather than as a result of the efforts of the government to appease the rioters. It always seems less appealing to go out disturbing the peace when it is 5 degrees, blowing a gale and pouring down with rain!

Having said that, a frost is forecast tonight, so what better way to keep warm than to burn a car or two.

I was on the Champs-Elysees on Monday night. I have to say that the police presence there was rather over the top. As well as loads of Gendarmerie patrolling on foot, there were a large number of CRS (The French Riot Police) vans parked everywhere. Each one was loaded with burly policemen. I suppose this is understandable – after all, this is the most famous street in Paris and there is no way any trouble will be tolerated here!

Changing the subject, the Champs-Elysees was looking suspiciously festive. Christmas lights are hanging from the trees and lamp posts (although, they have yet to be lit). A number of shops have also put up lights and, heaven forbid, in one shop there was even a Christmas display. Maybe the riot police were present to stop the Frenchies rebelling at this shockingly early (for France) display of festive cheer.

In preparation for the Xmas holiday which this year will see us return to the UK for a few days, Darling Wife and myself will shortly be visiting Val d’Europe which is out near Euro Disney. This is a huge shopping mall that also has a large discount outlet park (selling all of last years fashions at silly discounts). We went there last year and managed to buy all of our presents in one go. I am pleased to report that despite going on a Saturday in December, it wasn’t that busy. Hopefully it will be the same this time around.

Ok, I’ve been good. 20 odd posts and no rants. So I feel I can be forgiven this one…

One of the things that I really can’t cope with in France is the concept that people only do the job they are employed to do.

To take an extreme example. If someone’s job is to fill out part of a form, and the person who sits next to him has a job to fill out another part of the same form; you might expect that having filled the first part of the form, the first guy would pass the form to the second guy. Not on your life. Unless his job description states that he has to fill in the form AND pass it on to the next guy, it will sit on the first guy’s desk until it rots (or until some poor overworked, underpaid, service rep (I.E. me) goes and collects it and passes to the second guy.

Today we had a delivery from the UK. The truck driver needed escorting in and out of the airport by someone from my customer. We got the truck into the airport OK, and we also managed to off load the truck without too much hassle. Then, when it was time to escort the truck out again, I asked the one of the guys to arrange the escort out. He smiled and said yes he’d do it.

I got distracted by other problems and an hour later was surprised to get an anguished call from the truck driver asking where the escort was.

I went and found the chap I had asked and inquired as to why there was no escort. He smugly replied that his was not his job to arrange escorts OUT of the airport.

Now, I don’t really have a problem with this. If it’s not his job, then fair enough it’s not his job.

But in any other country in the world the guy would have said to me ‘No, sorry, not my job’ when asked to arrange the escort.

However, this smelly, unwashed, garlic munching, mentally sub normal, French twat just said ‘Yes I’ll do it’ and had then gone and sat with his finger up his ass and done nothing for an hour.

I mean, really.

I was out walking earlier and had my Zen MP3 Player on 'shuffle'. I now that doesn't sound as cool as saying I had my iPod on shuffle but I did have a 1st generation iPod and it was crap, so I ditched it and bought a Creative Zen instead.

Anyway, I am digressing somewhat. The Zen started playing 'Slow Drag' by a band called Fastball. It's from an album 'All The Pain That Money Can Buy'

I'd forgotten what a cracking album that is. Really catchy and full of excellent pop / rock songs.

So I just thought I'd pay homage to it.

Marvellous!

Paris was relatively calm last night. From looking at the TV it seems that other areas of France weren’t so lucky. However as this blog isn’t about other areas of France I am not going to concern myself with that.

I don’t know if the curfew that was imposed in some areas had any effect, or if the rioters were just having a night off (I guess that EU Regulations say that even rioters need a rest now and then).

Hopefully things will quieten down now that a lull has occurred and the momentum has been broken.

Courtesy of the BBC here are the current statistics.

3 People killed (including the 2 teenagers that sparked it all off)
5,873 cars torched
1,500 people arrested
17 people sentenced
120 police and firefighters injured

There were also a number of schools and gyms burnt down and one Police Station was ‘ram raided’ with a burning car.

Anyway, can’t think of much else to say tonight.

So let’s hope we have another peaceful night.

Have just been watching the BBC News. There was big segment on the problems here. The programme seemed to suggest that Paris is a city under siege. Living here, I have to say that I don’t get quite that impression, but it is fair to say that something is obviously wrong.

It’s pretty strange really. The rioting was THE subject on everyone’s lips at the two offices I visited today. Yet, when I was strolling around Noisy-le-Grand in the watery sunshine waiting for my second meeting, there was no sense that anything was out of place.

There was trouble in Noisy on Saturday night, but last night was calm and most of the signs of the disturbance had been cleared away. Of course, this was at midday when most of the office staff were out about enjoying their mandatory 90 minute lunch breaks. I guess that by now as I write this (at about 8 O’clock) it’s probably a very different story now that the office workers have gone home, and the shops are shut.

Darling Wife has French lessons every afternoon, and today her teacher told everyone in the class that they would be better off staying in tonight. I have to admit that shocked me.

I am not sure if it is my imagination, and it probably is, but the streets outside Chez Smiley do seem quieter tonight.

Getting back to the news programme…

They mentioned that the British Government has advised travellers to the ‘affected areas’ to take extreme caution.

Hello? No one visits these areas. Not even Parisians visit these areas – that is all part of the problem. Rather than do something, for years governments and the French population in general have chosen to ignore what’s been going on in these suburbs.

I remember reading an interview a few years ago in a footy magazine with Thierry Henry. He is from one of the suburbs (Every, I think) and he made a big point of saying that had it not been for football, he would be unemployed with no future.

Oh well, hopefully common sense will prevail. It’s forecast to rain tonight, and that might dampen the revolutionary spirit a little.

I was out at Noisy-le-Grand today. This is one of the areas that has been affected by the rioting that has become the latest after dark craze in France over the last 10 nights or so.

Some of you may have been through Noisy because it has a station on the RER train line that runs from Paris to Euro Disney.

Noisy is pleasant enough during the day. Not particularly nice, but not particularly horrible either. It has always had a slightly unsavoury reputation, and in the past I have been told not to visit after dark if at all possible. But in the day it is just like any other Parisian commuter town – well almost.

What sets Noisy apart from the other towns that encircle Paris are a group of ‘futuristic’ buildings that were constructed in the 1960’s, They are like something out of Gotham City. Two of the buildings look like large Swiss Rolls and the other two are more conventional in shape, but are very ornate and wonderfully unique.

From afar, and to be fair, close up too, the buildings look very spectacular and impressive. The building are set on a hill and subsequently are visible for miles. I can even see them from my office at Orly Airport. I believe that many of Noisy’s residents are quite proud of them in some ways. However, these are not the residents who have to live in them.

Despite their outward appearance, inside they are just tower blocks. All of the communal areas are covered in graffiti and are meeting places for semi lawless gangs. As previously mentioned, after dark they are pretty much no go areas. The lifts don’t work and the areas around them are strewn with garbage and wrecked shopping trolleys etc.

The above seems to outline the problem that France is now facing. The government built some nice shiny apartment buildings. Filled them up with North African immigrants and then promptly forgot about them.

The original immigrants were happy enough to just be living in France. They were prepared to put up with the isolation and discrimination. But now their children, who have been born and brought up in France, are growing up and they want to be part of France. They have found for reasons that include discrimination and poverty that they are not wanted.

Most people agree that the rioting is not a good thing for all concerned, but it can also be said that the situation in the Parisian suburbs has now grabbed the attention of those who can do something about it (even if they don’t want to).

Of course this is a terribly simplistic view of things, but I don't think it's too far from the truth.

Next week is Armistice Day and we have a holiday to remember the events of the past In order to plan my meetings etc, I was asking one of my customers, Bertrand, about the holidays we have in November (today is one too). While we were talking, Bertrand mentioned that the holiday next week was Victory Day. Presumably something got lost in the translation, and I think he may have been confused with VE Day, which is also a holiday in France. This is not surprising because most people get confused by the large number of holidays in France. Although, interestingly enough, no one gets so confused as to miss taking one.

Getting back to Bertrand, his comment about Victory day stuck me as odd.

‘Victory Day?’ I enquired. ‘To celebrate what victory?’
‘The famous French Victories of the past’ replied Bertrand puffing his chest out as he did so. I couldn’t let this go ‘Such as?’ I inquired.

There was a barely perceptible pause here and then he came out with ‘World War 2’.

‘No, don’t think you won that one old sport’
‘Oh, World War 1 then’ he replied after a slightly longer pause for thought.

I was beginning to sense his sudden discomfort.

‘No, think that one’s probably down to the Yanks with an assist from us’

After an even lengthier pause I decided it was time to help him out.

‘Maybe it was Agincourt?’ I suggested innocently. He gave me a dirty look.
‘Or maybe Trafalgar? Or what about Waterloo?’

Still nothing from Bertrand. So I pressed home my advantage.

‘What about that one that Tchaikovsky wrote some music about – you know the one with the canons? Oh, no, you lost that one too didn’t you’.

Just as I was congratulating myself on victory in this particular argument, Bertrand’ memory finally kicked into gear.

‘I know’ he exclaimed with a triumphant grin on his face ‘It’s to celebrate the Battle of Hastings’

Well, really, if he was going to bring up that ancient history what was the point of going on?

‘Or maybe it’s just the World Cup’ he suggested archly. So, to show there were no hard feelings, we retired to a Cafe to discuss more important matters such as football, and rugby over a crème.

Incidentally, the crème was in a place called Noisy-Le-Grand and was €1.80 – what a difference from Paris. It even came with a small chocolate. Marvellous!

As some of you in the UK may have seen by now on the news, there has been some rioting in the northeastern suburbs of Paris over the last few nights.

The affected areas (which seem to be getting larger every night) are only a few miles out from the city centre, but they are in effect a world away.

The city centre is the jewel in France’s crown and as such it gets all the attention and money it needs. This includes clean streets, efficient public services and a very visible police presence. But outside of the peripherique (the ring road that encircles the city) it’s a very different story.

Despite what many politicians say, many of these suburbs have been pretty lawless for sometime now. They are more or less no-go areas for the police after dark. The reason being that when the police do visit, it usually ends up in the sort of trouble seen over the weekend.

One of my customers, who I visit on a weekly basis, has their main office in such a suburb. By day it’s a safe, if not particularly nice, area with shops and cafés supporting a number of office blocks. But one of the first things my customer told me was that if I ever have to visit after dark, then I should make sure I park my car directly outside of the office door and not in the usual public car parks. He also stressed, that if possible I shouldn’t visit after it gets dark in the first place.

This story could be repeated in any of the poor deprived areas that ring the city. They are inhabited almost exclusively by immigrants (both legal and illegal) and in general the government ignores them. I was in Every (just south of the city) the other day and it was really depressing. Grey, featureless streets which just seemed completely barren. As I said at the start – only a 30 minute drive from the centre but a completely different world to the one I normally inhabit.

Of course this situation is not unique to Paris or France, but given the glittering, thriving, fun, and entertaining city that Paris is, it is all the more shocking to see what lurks on the outskirts.

The other thing that gets me is that according to the rioters it’s all the police’s fault. The police were chasing two teenagers. The two teens, in an attempt to hide, managed to find their way into an electrical substation and subsequently electrocuted themselves. As a result of this ‘unwarranted police aggression’, the locals have risen up and taken to burning and looting every night.

To be fair, the French Police often appear heavy handed in their approach to things. They do also have a fairly combative approach towards civil disorder; and there have been reports that a mosque was tear-gassed. However you look at that, it can not really be described as an attempt to defuse the situation.

But I feel the Police are damned what ever they do. If they leave well alone, they are accused of allowing the suburbs to become lawless, but if they do and go and try and do something about it, they end up being faced with rioting.