Sex and the Paris bicycle

My last post on Paris self-service bikes turned into mega-debate on everything except transport. So it is time to get back to the point of Mayor Delanoe's wildly successful scheme: romance.

Since its launch on July 15, the grey Vélib' bikes have taken over from cafes and art galleries as the best place in Paris for flirting with strangers.  It should have been obvious from the start that the bicyclettes would be a good plan de drague -- pick-up wheeze.  They created an instant club of mainly young people who share complicity in a new venture.

The emergence of this generally clean-cut urban tribe, classic bobos (bourgeois-bohème) in French parlance, has inevitably caused a backlash. More on that below. 

A name has been invented for members of this new dating circle: vélibataires -- a play on célibataire, or single. The internet has been brought in on the act with Vélib' forums, blogs and over three dozen Vélib' groups on Facebook . 

You can join outings, find mates and leave lonely heart messages.

"About a week ago, we chatted about the different Vélib' season cards," writes Jean-Jean on a forum called "Coup de Foudre à Vélib' Hill" (A play on the French title for the Hugh Grant vehicle Notting Hill). "You were magnificent in that dress, your long hair shining in the light... I drew breath again watching you disappear in the bustle of the boulevards..."

One big matter of discussion is how to identify a bike-rider on the prowl. Stickers have begun appearing on rear mudguards saying, in English "Love begins here".

You can observe the game best at weekends. Young men hang around the bike ranks to explain to helpless women how to extract a machine, adjust the seat or understand the gears. Then there is the shared adversity. Every morning at the over-loaded ranks around my office, gaggles of commuting riders wait for a space or swap tips on alternative parking spots. They share their annoyance with a system that cannot cope with the traffic (When it was my turn last Friday, I gallantly offered the last spot to a young lady late for work).

On the road, you can be much friendlier between bikes than cars. "You exchange little smiles at the red light or encourage one-another on the hills," said one two-wheeled séducteur.

Then there are the Vélib' haters. It seems that some people cannot stand all those smug young professional types and tourists cluttering up the streets with thousands of clunky bikes. 

Vélib' enemies have their own forums and Facebook community J'ai écrasé un Vélilb' (I ran over a Vélib'), in which over 400 4x4 (SUV) drivers and others members boast of their anti-bike exploits. "The other day, I drove over the foot of a guy on a bike," wrote Camilles Sastre on September 18. "It did me a world of good. He crossed on a red light without looking, pulling out from in front of a bus. He was asking for it, wasn't he?"

Another group has come up with a rival scheme called Piélib, in which you serve yourself to shoes.

Inauguration de Piélib' (AFPTV)

The Vélib' scheme has also got up the noses of the anti-capitalist crowd. An association that stages guerrilla attacks on advertising sites has today proclaimed war on the Vélib' because of the "pollution" that they have brought. These are the hundreds of new electric billboard that festoon Paris as payment for the bike system. This was the deal in which the JC Decaux company supplies and runs the bicycles in return for new city-wide space for advertising posters. "We are witnessing a veritable explosion of advertising... a cortege of pollution," said the Déboulonneurs movement.

Away from the polemics, here's the Vélib' state of play. The 14,500 Vélib' have been taken out five million times since July 15. About 20 percent of borrowing is after 9pm, showing that the bikes are being used for getting home when Paris taxis vanish at night. About 200 have been stolen so far. Police have issued thousands of euros in on-the-spot fines in a campaign to enforce the highway code.

Although many riders are debutants and almost none wear helmets, there have been 29 accidents, none of them serious, according to the city hall. And a poll this week for MMA insurance found that 54 percent of Parisian bike riders do not feel safe. The figure is 61 percent for women.

It will be interesting to see if Vélib'-mania survives the onset of autumn weather.

Comments

[terry]

Charles, if you cannot see the obvious connection between whether nazism is socialism and the velib, I cannot explain it to you.

For the record, I would note that I did post a relevant link on romance and the bicycle. And no one said boo about it. I'll post the link again here becuase it is more applicable to this post. Turn the sound on so you can hear the music.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=howEAqstkzQ

An interesting post by the way. I wonder when some people will start using velibs for crimes, ie robbery or drug running.

[John]

"The 14,500 Vélib' have been taken out five million times since July 15." says Charles Bremner. Just to put things into perspective, this means 69,444 rides per day (5 million / 72 days). For comparison, as of 2004 there were 9,953,279 rides per day in the Paris public transports (metros, RER, tramways and buses), up from 9,225,137 in 2000. In 2007 we are above 10 million rides per day. This just shows how much of a PR stunt that whole Vélib' scheme is.

Why do journalists spend so much time talking about something that is so trivial among the larger picture of Paris public transport? Paris is becoming congested, the metropolis is currently recording a population increase of nearly 100,000 people per year (http://www.insee.fr/fr/insee_regions/idf/rfc/docs/bilan06_soc01.pdf), which hasn't happened since the early 1970s. That's like one Bristol added to Paris every 4 years. There is serious need for investment in heavy public transport links, creating new RER and metro lines, that can ensure million more rides everyday. This Vélib' scheme with its 69,444 rides per day is a sham.

It would be nice if journalists would ask Paris leaders the right question: why do you NOT invest in heavy underground public transport anymore when the metropolis' population is growing so fast? The Paris public transportation system is bursting at the seams, simply take line 13 of the Métro or line D of the RER on any given day. It is time to do something about it (Métrophérique? demerging the two branches of line 13? new tunnel between Châtelet and Gare du Nord?), and not just stick plasters like with this Vélib' scheme that diverts the public's attention and does nothing to solve the real and serious transport problems of the Paris metropolis.

[Chris D.]

Interesting to see how ugly these velibs look and how horribly they probably perform. My point is that the French don't really care how their cars or bikes look. They are more self-consciousness about their clothes and appearance than the average American. A French guy wouldn't second guess riding around on a hot pink women's bike with a basket and bell while wearing a stylish suite. Yes, I have seen this and it shocked the hell out of me. The idea that these guys feel totally comfortable hitting on girls while riding these bikes is way cooler than acting tough on a Harley or a monster truck. After spending five years in France this is one thing that sticks out as a major cultural difference.
Americans are the exact opposite in that they are far more concerned about what they are riding than what they are wearing. Driving around in $50,000 cars and wearing clothes from Wal-Mart doesn't make sense to me and it's what I loath about living here.
In the end it seems like the French have it figured out a lot more than the Yanks...I can't wait to get back to Paris!!

[John Gregory Flinn]

It's obviously a more intelligent method of reducing congestion in the Parisian streets, than aping Ken Livingstone's financial charging of motor vehicles in central London.
The spin-offs in terms of benefits seem abundant, from health and romance to business for bicycles and lower polution.

Mayor Delanoe's scheme seems to defy the suspicion that all politicians only pay lip service to the problems of environmental polution, and only see it as an opportunity to impose new taxes.
He can claim in this instance to be different.

Mind you, the weather will be a factor in its continued success through the winter.

[azloon]

the principal attraction for me in CB's determination to bring us this story is the inevitable photograph a comely young female rider in tight t-shirt or tanktop.

if you can convince attractive young women to remove cold weather gear, you are welcome to do these stories year-round. otherwise, why don't we just set an arbitrary cut-off date of sept 30?

[Mads]

I love reading all the comments on Charles' blog - it is so interesting. Reading about events in Paris is like reading about another country to us down here in the Auvergne. Nothing is ever relevant to us unless it concerns cows, cheese or the destruction of the countryside which would spoil the hunting.

I love living in France and I think that this story sums up one of the reasons why. There is something so very 'French' about the way a scheme like 'rent a bicycle' has become associated with sex and 'plan de drague'. When a similar scheme was tried in Cambridge (a city I know well) it just became a focal point for thieves and most of the bicycles had disappeared within a matter of days. It was so disastrous that the scheme was immediately withdrawn. The burgers of Cambs must be looking at Paris with envy.

I also like the way the French can make new words for things but not spoil their beautiful language. 'Velibataires'is a wonderful word which to me encapsulates the romance and possibilities available to all celibataires cyclists!!

However, I don't wear rose-tinted glasses and I agree with those posts which have suggested ways out of the economic and social disaster which is looming if something is not done soon. Here in the Auvergne unemployment is very high and as the old farmers die, the land is being inherited by city-dwelling relatives who have no interest whatever in keeping the land in the family. I often feel I am lucky to have caught the 'old' France just in time. For here in the countryside, everyone is polite and friendly and stops for a chat - even when passing on the road!

So 'blog on' everybody and thank you for such interesting and stimulating posts.

[Helen]

The bikes aren't hurting anyone, unlike, oh, I don't know, cars?? Gimme a break, naysayers.

[Tara Lane Bowman]

I'm with Mads; this sounds so terribly French. And by "terribly," I do mean "fantastically." Just romantic, I say. *Sigh*.

[Helen]

I haven't seen much of this "dragueur" business going....I'll keep my eyes open now! I crossed Place de la Concorde on Velib' the other day. It was terrifying...yet rather exhilarating!

[Dominique]

Mads is right! nothing like Paris for futile but indispensable endless discussion about sex and bicycles or wether women should or should not be allowed to wear bikinis naked breast on Paris Plage.

Seriousness is often so boring....

[elizabeth schumann]

The blasted véalibataires hog the bus lanes, making bus rides the slowest means of transport since snails.Meanwhile, the mad mayor has removed 85,000 parking spaces in Paris and is hounding the voituriers who are the last hope of car-borne restaurant patrons.Soon, Paris businesses will be bankrupt, along with the rest of France. Meanwhile, the mayor is planning high-rise social housing on green spaces in non-socialist voting arrondissements, but no extra schools, e.g. I, for one, shall be glad to move to Switzerland asap.

[Dominique]

Elizabeth Shuman,

Don't loose one more minute! Go now.

[Norbert]

Thank you for pointing out Paris current mayor flaws. Things are so much better in Switzerland. That is if you're a Swiss citizen or if you're rich.

[richard jones]

Elizabeth,

La Suisse poursuit les mêmes idées depuis trois ou quatre ans.
Méfiez-vous

[Norbert]

Thank you for pointing out Paris current mayor flaws. Things are so much better in Switzerland. That is if you're a Swiss citizen or if you're rich.

[PY]

I haven't yet seen a pretty girl on a Velib .The pretty ones are still taking the Metro ....

[christopher muir]

Interesting how the French can make even the mundane sexy. I suspect that an equivalent situation - flirting via public bicycles - in an Anglo-Saxon country would send tabloid editors into action: PEDALLING PREDATORS PROWL CITY.

SHOCK BIKE STALKING EPIDEMIC.

A raft of restrictive laws would immediately follow.The French still know how to enjoy life despite their economic woes.

[Rob Mc Hardy]

Its a brave start in the right direction.
As paris rediscovers the bike, getting home without taxis after the metro has closed, we will see more people enjoying this beautiful city.
As for the extra advertising , where will it be?
Paris is already full of it.
Paris should follow livingstones example with maybe a means tested card scheme and tax the arse off the big cars and allow smart cars and electric cars to circulate for free;

[DrK]

This is nothing new for Berliners, taking your date on a bike ride is the norm.

You can view Berliner's and their bikes at http://www.BikesThatFold.com

DrK

[rocket]

Could someone please tell me if you lose drivers licence points for traffic violations on the bike. I heard that, yes!

Anybody know?

[Actu75]

Py: You must have been away, or blind or not watching...
To get back to the topic, for reasons that do not need be precised, I find very few sexier views than a (pretty) girl on a bike (even a Velib).

[Bob Brown]

World-class is Easy - reading, writing, arithmetic, of course - also elocution and firm discipline...

plus enthusiastic teaching from knowledgeable, un-fettered teachers who are highly qualified in their subjects.

[Joelle]

re. the disappearance of 85,OOO parking places...ok, that'll deter car-drivers, but parking is still too cheap to be dissuasive: look, you can park in rue de passy for ONE euro an hour, making it cheaper to park for an hour's totally frivolous shopping(not too many offices there, let's face it) than pay for 2 metro tickets for the aller-retour...only to spend a couple of hundred on clothes. Pushing up the price of parking in expensive shopping areas and enforcing payment would be a good source of revenue for the city, after all we're paying the parking attendants in any case. I read somewhere that the average production of a French parking attendant was two parking tickets per day...those work out as pretty expensive tickets for the taxpayer, you have to wonder of it's worth bothering...

[rocket]

Joelle

"making it cheaper to park for an hour's totally frivolous shopping"

That's when those who are buying the several hundred dollars worth of clothes even bother to put money in the parking meter. It is often beneath them.

Chances are that if you park without paying for an hour or so you have about a 2% chance of getting an 11€ parking ticket. Definitely not the same in NYC and in Holland where if you overstay your parking by 7 mins your get ticketed.

And yes, I am bothered by the loss of street residential parking in Paris At 2,50€ a week it's the cheapest in the world.

There is a car on the street next to my street which was booted in March and it is still on the street. I regret the lack of civic sense of the people but also the lack of initiative of the Prefecture to get these cars off the streets in a reasonable amount of time.

Imagine the consequences if these cars belong to terrorists like was the case in London a few months ago.

There, at least they towed an illegally parked car immediately and avoided a tragedy.

[Kevin]

One of the sexiest things on Earth is a good looking woman riding a bike - especially one of those with a basket on the front (bikes I mean not women). If they are wearing flip-flops or heels all the better. And no helmet or lycra bike riding gear - that spoils it. Nonchalentely smoking a ciggie while riding is good too. As you can probably tell I haven't given this much thought (whistles innocently and walks away from PC)

[Daniel Strohl]

The French use the verb "flirter", which unfortunately has almost supplanted the much more poetic expression common in former times : "conter fleurette", which one may translate literally by "tell small flowers".

Has one of our talented poets or poetess inspiration for a tender and nostalgic rhyme ?

[Daniel Strohl]

John,

"Paris is becoming congested, the metropolis is currently recording a population increase of nearly 100,000 people per year"

I am unable to understand why one continues to pile up methodically people in Paris and surroundings (Ile de France), with enormous and disproportionate infrastructure costs and insoluble transport problems, whereas there is plenty of space in many villages, small and medium sized cities all over France, interconnected with telecom and road infrastructures which are now excellent. Air connections are most of the time also available close by.

If I were a foreigner - for instance a Dutch or a Chinese living in Hong Kong - I would probably think : "Ils sont fous, ces Français" (These French are crazy – a paraphrase of a famous sentence in the Gallic cartoon Astérix).

[Tim Loker]

We had a similar scheme in Hemel Hempstead about 12 years ago. A free bike you could use around town and leave in the rack when you were finished. I seem to remember they were all stolen within a few hours of the scheme going live.

[eygh]

Daniel Strohl,

I believe the word "flirter" is the englishised version of the French word "fleureter : conter fleurette".

The back and forth exchange of words between french and english is really interesting.

[fjb white]

All those French people are getting good exercise while leaving only a very small carbon footprint. No wonder the French are probably much more fit than Americans who drive everywhere. Burning calories is a good thing.

[Daniel Strohl]

EYGH,

"I believe the word "flirter" is the englishised version of the French word "fleureter : conter fleurette".

Yes, you are surely right (j'y ai pensé, bien sûr seulement après avoir envoyé le message - mais il vaut mieux tard que jamais ...).

Did you notice that our wifes and girl friends ask their hair-dressers for a "brushing" instead of a simple "brossage" ? Of course, the hair-dressers feel thereforee entitled to charge more for a brushing than for a brossage ...

FJB WHITE,

"Burning calories is a good thing."

Yes, of course. But reducing their consumption is even better.

[John]

Daniel Strohl, the reason why Greater Paris is recording a population increase of nearly 100,000 people per year is not because "one continues to pile up methodically people in Paris and surroundings" as you mockingly write. First of all France is not the Soviet Union, there's freedom of movement in France, and people settle wherever they feel like.

Second, this nearly 100,000 people increase per year is not due to migration from the rest of France to Paris, so you couldn't be further from the truth. This big population increase is due mostly to a very high birth rate in Greater Paris (much higher than in the rest of France), and a very low death rate because retirees usually leave Greater Paris when they retire so they don't die in Greater Paris. As a consequence the natural increase in Greater Paris is extremely high.

This natural increase is siphoned off by people moving out of Greater Paris (since the 1970s, Paris migration flows are negative, i.e. there are more people leaving Greater Paris every year than people moving to Greater Paris), but even though this huge natural increase is in part siphoned off, that still leaves a net population increase of nearly 100,000 people per year. International migration to Greater Paris also plays a positive role, but less than the natural increase.

So unless you sterilize Parisian women by force, I don't see how you can avoid this big population increase that Paris is experiencing at the moment. So better face it and invest in housing as well as transport infrastructure rather than burying one's head in the sand or whining about it.

[azloon]

[but reducing their (calories) consumption is even better] Daniel

do you expect us to adopt you as our role model after reading the many alsatian lunch menus you have provided to us (in great detail, i might add)?

[Daniel Strohl]

John,

"one continues to pile up methodically people in Paris and surroundings" as you mockingly write".

It was not mockingly meant, it is "mon intime conviction" that it is an error to let the growth of Ile de France continue. I happened to live and work in Paris from 1966 to 1982 - so I had plenty of time to observe things and the waste of ressources (and the related pollution) this unnecessary concentration caused and probably still causes.

You explained very clearly and convincingly the present reasons of the population increase. Therefore, I can't and don't want to argue these points.

But nevertheless, it is also true that big errors have been made in the past, the consequences of which are rather expensive. In other words, l'aménagement du territoire a consisté en partie à continuer le centralisme jacobin.

"First of all France is not the Soviet Union, there's freedom of movement in France" - yes, of course, but the movement could have been oriented by financial carrots and sticks. I can't remember that this has been made with the necessary persuasion - but may be I am wrong.

"than burying one's head in the sand" - this is not my preferred manner to solve problems. Therefore, persuaded that movements are not necessarily in one direction only, I left Paris in 1984 and organized my living "en province" and created a (good) job which should have been normally situated in Paris due to its nature. It was not particularly easy, but it worked, without any subvention whatsoever. Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera.

Of course, this does not solve the present problems in Paris! It is clear that things have to be done .

PS : we have kept very good memories of Paris and it is with a great pleasure that we will pay a visit to it asap using the new TGV.

[Daniel Strohl]

Azloon,

Having a look of myself in a mirror, I can't possibly market the product as a model ...

May be there is an American equivalent of the French formulation "Faites ce que je dis, ne faites pas ce que je fais" - do what I say, don't do what I do.

[John]

Daniel Strohl, you should read a book called Paris, histoire d'une ville, by Bernard Marchand. It would remove a lot of the misconceptions you have about Paris and French centralization. These misconceptions are unfortunately quite widespread, so you're not really to blame in a way.

As Marchand explains quite clearly in his book, French elites have always been anti-city and anti-Paris, except during the Second Empire. That explains in a large measure why France remained such a backward rural country until WW2 compared to the UK and Germany. When the Third Republic was established in 1870 it was the rural elites who took control of France (les notables de province), and they saw Paris in a very bad light: Paris the bloody Revolutionary city, Paris the big Babylon corrupting the Christian mind of people from the campagnes (plural here). Back then, during the 3rd Republic, there were many books written about returning to the countryside, the superior lifestyle of the (morally conservative) countryside, the diseases spread by cities, etc.

You couldn't be further from the truth if you think French elites favored Paris and piled people there. It was exactly the opposite, except during the Second Empire (Napoléon III and Haussmann). The funny thing is that this rural mentality kept the French economy very backward (for example, Marchand shows how the 3rd Republic politicians set very high custom tariffs to protect French agriculture, which artificially maintained a very inefficient and backward family agriculture until WW2). The ironic result was that because the economy in the French provinces was so backward, lots of people moved to Paris, one of the few modern areas in the country, which was exactly what these politicians were trying to avoid in the first place.

In order to stop people from coming to Paris, 3rd Republic leaders froze the administrative limits of Paris and also froze construction in Paris, instead of merging the suburbs and the city and plan for the millions of people who were moving to Paris. The idea among these politicians was that if there was no housing available, people would stop moving to Paris. Well, the brilliant result of this policy was that people kept coming anyway, and there was a catastrophic housing situation which culminated in the 1930s. People lived in shacks ("taudis" in French), they started to build illegal slums in the so-called "zone" surrounding Paris proper, and mayors in the non-annexed suburbs (the so-called "banlieue"), abandoned as they were by the central State which refused to expand Paris, had to allow the haphazard construction of very low quality housing without the proper urban planning (no large avenues planned, no proper transport infrastructure, etc.). That's how the ugly banlieue appeared around the very well planned central city, because after Haussmann left the 3rd Republic elites refused to allow Paris to expand and plan a new city beyond the 1860 border of Paris.

It was only under de Gaulle in the 1960s that the French government eventually decided to do something for Paris, and as a result the Périphérique, the RER, CDG Airport, Rungis wholesale market, etc., were built.

Really, read the book, it will change you vision of things. It's like the French elites have tried to shoot a bullet in their foot by deliberately neglecting their largest and most modern city for more than a century. After de Gaulle the neglect came back (Mitterrand grand projects were completely useless in an urban planning perspective). Now Sarkozy says he has a grand project for the urban development of Greater Paris, he wants to finally integrate the suburbs with the city proper, which all the rural provincial politicians of France have consistently refused since Napoléon III, even de Gaulle didn't dare doing it, so we'll see if Sarkozy succeeds. It's just coming very late, it should have been done in the 1890s already when there were already plans to integrate the suburbs and plan for the development of the city. Again in 1919 there were plans to integrate the suburbs, and the rural deputies in the National Assembly refused. Same in the 1930s. So if it finally happens now in the 2000s, I guess it's a case of better late than never.

[azloon]

Daniel -- i find no inconsistency whatsoever in this line of reasoning. if forms the basis of most of my parentling.

i have a friend who often remarks about those he does not particularly care for:

"so-and-so's greatest contribution to the world may be to have served as a negative example."

ouch!

[richard jones]

John,

I posted something about centralisation and unitary power but purely in the sense of the institutions of government. To the best of my knowledge, representatives of government have never been housed dehors de Paris and the central bank has always been there.
I read Marchand a while ago and was a little confused that he picks a given period for his arguments but does not mention the rush of agricultural workers from La seine et Marne and districts around into Paris in the late 1770's and early eighties. This is interesting because if you check the military lists for that period many of these 'immigrants' who found nothing but squalor and unemployment went to the army, some the navy, and figured in the American War of Independence, from whence were imported vague ideas of human equality, human rights and government for the people.

[Pierre]

So, John & Jones, the lumières were actually imported from across the ocean. We've heard it all now.

Next installment: how Boudicca taught the gauls to lose with a smile on their face.

Incidentally, you ought to pick up on the fact that the Franks were german. Surely that would help explain the paradox of modern france? I mean you couldn't expect those garlic-eating hicks to invent something, could you?

Why not step back for a second and ask yourselves what's so great about the anglo-saxons? I challenge you to go beyond 'we built ourselves a massive empire that lasted about 50 years and helped provoke two world wars, inventing the concentration camp along the way, an empire the last remnants of which will vanish when Scotland says ciao'. Still, you'll always have Wales.

[Greg]

I'd have to say that this is also something that younger Americans have been doing the past few summers - bicycle dating, and meeting people on bikes. NYC, San Francisco, and DC is where I have seen it in action. The French have the language and well Paris is Paris so to me seems so much more graceful, but don't think this is a unique situation - other than the gathering rental locations...

[Robert Marchenoir]

John: thank you for this fascinating insight in the history of Paris. I have never read anything like this on a French blog.

[Daniel Strohl]

John,

I learned a lot of things reading your interesting and perfectly argumented post.

I had may be a somewhat limited and subjective vision of the matter, based on my experience of living and working in Paris from 1966 to 1982, then working in a far suburb (and still living in Paris) from 1982 to 1984. The minimum travel time (per car) was one hour in the morning and one and a half hour in the evening. Scores of "banlieusards" did the same, the other way round. Meanwhile, much money was invested in new roads and in broadening existing routes in Ile de France, and in other types of heavy infrastructures, in housing and in various « zones commerciales » and various « zones industrielles » which for some of the latter were more or less underoccupied or stayed so for years.

My conclusion was that much money was unnecessarily spent in lost time and in gazoline - of course, the state levies 70 to 80 percent taxes on gazoline, which is good for the budget, but which is an economic (oil importations) as well as an ecological nonsense, and that much valuable agrarian land (a French asset which one is right now rediscovering ...) was wasted in the process. The work done in Ile de France could have as well been done in other less congested regions, with a better life quality as a cost free additional benefit.

Another point which has been neglected – from a strategic point of view, it could have been imprudent to have concentrated almost twenty per cent (please correct me if I am wrong) of the French population in a relatively small region. Who knows what could happen in 10 or 20 years ?

I understand fully your argumentation based on history. However, I am not so sure as you that Paris intra muros has been so neglected, if one looks at the result. Of course, I am not especially giving high praise to the Pyramide du Louvre and similar ...

But now we have the problem in Paris and banlieues – it has to be solved – as the saying goes « lorsque le vin est tiré, il faut le boire » (when the wine has been siphoned out of the barrel, one has to drink it).

Let us conclude on a strange note: all of our « présidents de la République » since WW II « sont montés de la province », i.e were born in the province and then went « up » to Paris – with the notable exception of Sarkozy! But in my opinion, none of them was eager to relinquish even an ounce of their newly acquired (economic) power to « la province » ... However, as « un lot de consolation » and also in order to secure their electorate, they had a few roads built in their respective provinces wich BTW was not always a bad idea.

[Daniel Strohl]

Robert,

A French blog ? Has CB got the French nationality ?

PS : of course, I am kidding ...