Paris Burning, Again

It looks like rioting is becoming something of a seasonal sport among France's immigrant population. Bottom line, two young, I hesitate to use the word, men, on a motorcycle collided with a police car, died, and the lower income suburbs think it was intentional, and or, that the police didn't do enough in the aftermath. What it looks like is a growing political class waiting for an excuse to riot. Some have been reported to be firing guns at police, with some 60 - 70 cops injured in what is now two nights of rioting. The police are mounting an internal investigation in what appears to be nothing more than bowing to the degenerates in an attempt to make peace. Yeah, that'll work. Why not just turn the government over to them, it's what they want and the direction France is heading anyway?

Pictures here - more here and here.

Comments

[Fred Beloit]

"The rioters used handguns, gasoline bombs and rocks against police, a BBC correspondent reported. Five of the injured officers were listed in critical condition, the report said."

Handguns???? In France???? How can this be? They have very severe handgun control laws. Well, what a shock. It seems the Jihadists don't give a crap about France's gun laws.

[seekeronos]

"--- Handguns???? In France???? How can this be? They have very severe handgun control laws. Well, what a shock. It seems the Jihadists don't give a crap about France's gun laws. ---"

Well fancy that.

Criminals who don't obey the gun laws.

As for Sarkozy, I wonder if he will turn the Gendarmes and the French Army (sic) loose to quell the Islamist rebels.

[David M]

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 11/27/2007 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...

http://thunderrun.blogspot.com/2007/11/web-reconnaissance-for-11272007.html

[rwilymz]

The Frog military that's worth a damn are all off doing in west Africa the same sort of foreign intrigue, interventioning and rude treatment of detainees as we're doing in the middle east. They're busy.

The ones left at home are either budding Clouseaus or uniformed fatalist-existentialists who have been convinced the world is on its death bed for 150 years, and this just proves it.

[Lala]

My favorite French blog is
http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/

He is linking back to pajamasmedia.com in reference to the riots.

Note: the French fire department handles accidents, drownings, etc., they usually, or always, have a doctor riding with them.

[dumbblonde]

A few point to emphasize:

-The motorcycle driven by the teens was stolen.
-The police were not in pursuit - the teens just happened to run into the police car.
-The rioters are Muslim - not simply an "ethnic minority" or "low income".
-France is full of no-go areas populated by Muslims where police and emergency personnel are "not allowed" and where these personnel are frequently called in for the express purpose of ambush.
-While the so-called "civil unrest" of October 2005 caught the world's attention, these "riots" happen throughout France on a weekly basis.
-These riots normally include the obligatory setting of cars on fire, stone throwing, destruction of property, etc. Not a week goes by without cars being set on fire throughout France.

Most importantly:

-What is especially noteworthy about this particular riot is the use of guns. We're not just talking about a few handguns in the paws of delinquent "youths". These are combat firearms in the hands of trained guerilla fighters.

France is in deep trouble.

[dumbblonde]

...and this should be confronted with military, not law enforcement.

[seekeronos]

"--- -These riots normally include the obligatory setting of cars on fire, stone throwing, destruction of property, etc. Not a week goes by without cars being set on fire throughout France. ---"

I bet that the cost of getting a car insured in Paris must make NYC or New Jersey seem like getting a car insured in Mayberry of the 1950's by comparison.

Not quite as bad as Iraq, but not too far behind either.

"--- France is full of no-go areas populated by Muslims where police and emergency personnel are "not allowed" and where these personnel are frequently called in for the express purpose of ambush. ---"

I think that those are better known as "rebel strongholds" or "insurgent enclaves".

"--- What is especially noteworthy about this particular riot is the use of guns... These are combat firearms in the hands of trained guerrilla fighters. ---"

Rebels, and traitors to their chosen nation indeed. They should be put to rout, tried in a military tribunal, and if found guilty, they should be hung or shot by firing squad. And if they are foreign nationals acting as "francs-tireurs"... well, they might not even need to participate in the tribunal.

"--- and this should be confronted with military, not law enforcement. ---"

Truth.

[rwilymz]

France had its Algerian Separatists tossing bombs up through the 70s -- despite Algeria being granted independence in, what? '62? They now have millions of west African immigres and their children [under French law, all citizens] attempting to remake, largely violently, France as a Muslim nation beholden to Sharia. What they couldn't do in the 8th century by Moorish invasion, they're doing in the 21st by subterfuge.

The most recent Russian Empire disintegrated and gave away its foreign holdings. But 70 years of unitary rule [and forced population redistribution to avoid pockets of ethnic rabble rousing] has caused historic Russia to have islamics within their borders fomenting revolt.

The British have their own pockets they're too polite to stand up to; the Germans had a Turk invasion in the 80s looking for work [and rioting when they couldn't find any]; the Danes have slop and spill-over from elsewhere threatening newspaper publishers, and the whole EU [particularly "old" Europe, with its money] is crawling with panislamists and their medieval mindsets.

Europe used to know what these folks were about -- they got raided, invaded and plundered often enough, and for 1,300 years. But watching Europe's collective response to internal raiding by those beholden to external politics is like watching old people in a nursing home slowly dying and not having the energy to care.

[Lala]

We lived in Nice in 1995 and again in 1996/1997. We insured a car there and it was very cheap, much, much less than in New York although I don't recall riots going on then.

There is a neighborhood north of Nice called L'Arianne (I think) that we got lost in one night after coming off the Corniche from Italy. It looked just like the So. Bronx when it was a mess; burned out cars, garbage all over. Every apartment had a satellite dish though.

We became friends with one of the Gendarmes in Nice who told us that the police almost never went into that area. The Muslims had gotten what they wanted, a state of their own within someone else's state.

[dumbblonde]

"The Muslims had gotten what they wanted, a state of their own within someone else's state."

Not quite what they wanted. They don't just want a state within a state. They want France. All of it. Not to mention the rest of Europe. And Africa. And Asia. And......

[seekeronos]

"--- Not quite what they wanted. They don't just want a state within a state. They want France. All of it. Not to mention the rest of Europe. And Africa. And Asia. And...... ---"

Which brings to mind these famous words:

"Heute Deutschland, morgen die Welt!... Die Deutschen immer vor dem Ausländer und den Juden!

Ooops, let's re-work that into the now:

"Heute Frankreich, morgen die Europaische Verein, übermorgen die Welt! Die Islamisches Kalifat immer vor dem Christen, und den Juden, und der Tod ist für aller Ungläubiger!"

(Trans: "Today France, tomorrow the European Union, and the next day, the World! The Islamic Caliphate before the Christian and Jew, and death for all infidels!")

[Lala]

Yes, I should have said they got what they wanted, for the time being, a state within a state.

[dumbblonde]

Lala,

Have you been back to France since '97? Do you still communicate with people there? Just wondering.

I haven't been in France since mid-2000. The people I know seem to fall into one of two categories: either fully aware of the "youth" problem, or completely unaware of any problem whatsoever, and indignant at the suggestion that there is a problem.

[Lala]

DB
We went back in 2002. My daughter went to a boarding school for her junior and senior year of high school so we went over for her graduation. We sent her there as we didn't want her to lose her ability to speak French.
We did make some friends and we still keep in touch. Sometimes they visit us in New York.

My take on it all is that the French think the Algerians, the Moroccans, and the Turks are lazy. Plus, they don't adapt to the French way of life the way other immigrants do.

[Draegn]

Perhaps one day soon, if it's not too late, France and the rest of Europe will wake up and remember Charles Martell. Then with hope they will take appropriate actions.

[joeb]

Sarkozy was elected to take care of this problem. And he will. But if the truth be told I don't think the French like ANY foreigners. Just their money.
You can live in Paris a year and no Frenchman will invite you into their homes. If you are in Rome one week you will be invited into an Italian's home.
But I love both the French and the Italians. Like the Japanese they have truly homogenous cultures. Much different from what we have here in the USA. This summer I noticed there is no road rage in either France or Italy or Sicily. They may wave their arms and gesture but there is no fighting. They respect each other much more than we do here in the USA. Here everyone is in a hurry and screw everybody else. Over there it is just as crowded on the streets of Rome and Paris and Florence but there is no road rage. A cultural difference. Vive La France. Vive la difference!

[Lala]

The French are formal and polite. They are very family-oriented.Their children do not go out alone until they are teenagers. The teenagers are quiet, not rowdy. They can drink beer and wine at 16 in a bar but I never saw any of them drunk and disorderly.

A French person gets to know you by meeting you at a cafe for coffee before they invite you to their home. Stranger means danger is their motto. They live behind gates if in a private home and behind shutters if in an apartment house.

French people who are involved in the arts are more open than those who are not.

The French are penny-pinching. The light bulbs in the lamps are never more than 25 watts. They don't buy garbage bags, they use the grocery bags for their garbage.

Every apartment has a washing machine. I think it's the law.

A tax is levied on the use of televisions in the home.

Babies and young children are welcome everywhere. Dogs are brought everywhere including restaurants. If there is a sign saying "no dogs" then they just pick them up and carry them in. I never heard babies cry or dogs bark in all the time I lived there.

There are almost no "NO" signs. You can go just about anywhere you want to go and do anything you want to do and no one will say anything to you.

No one pays their parking tickets because every time there is an election there is also an amnesty.

People go into business for three years and then close up shop. They do that because they can get away with not paying tax for three years, so when it's finally time to pay up they just close up.

You must, by law, take a receipt when you buy something.

Policemen always patrol in threes. I think they think it cuts down on corruption.

When you enter an establishment they always say Bonjour and when you leave they always say Au Revoir. If you don't respond they think you are rude.

When the French thought we were English or German they were kind of cold to us. When they found out we were Americans they became friendly.

The French change their clothes on the beach, in the open. They come to the beach in business clothes.

The French are very, very skinny and they eat like horses. I've never seen people eat so much food.

All the McDonald's are always crowded.

There's a pharmicist on every corner and they all sell slim-fast. There's an eyeglass store on every block and no one wears eyeglasses. No one has grey hair.

In the supermarket you have to pack your own bags. The cashier sits. You can buy one stalk of celery if you like.

You may not make your own copies in the copy store(I don't think this has changed). I think they are afraid of counterfeiting.

Advil and other medicines are sold in 200 mgs. If you want it stronger you have to get a prescription.

Polio booster doses are purchased at the pharmacy and then taken at home.

Every child must have a TB vaccination.

Cigarettes are only sold in tobacco shops and they close at 7 PM. Their is a black market in cigarettes after that time and you sort of have to know the store owner who is selling them.

We were invited to many homes. I loved living in France, it was the most relaxing time of my life.

[Fred Beloit]

Thanks, Lala, for your thoughts on France. Interesting. I'm afraid I've never been there.

[seekeronos]

The thing about the French dislike of Germans is quite real, especially in the departments nearest to the German border. The amity preached and enforced by the politicians and other mucky-mucks in Brussels hardly compares to the ancient "Deutsch–Französische Erbfeindschaft" (German-French hereditary enmity), which mostly seems to be kept alive by the French.

I lived in the Rheinland-Pfalz region of SW Germany (about 30min from the French border) and most people in that area couldn't be bothered to speak many bad thoughts about their French neighbours, other than the casual observation about their (by German standards) late trains and dirty sidewalks. It might be noteworthy to mention here though, that many of these same Germans tended to vacation in Spain,Italy, Greece, Cyprus, or points in the relatively pacified Balkan coastal nations rather than the shorter drive to France Mediterranean coasts.

When I went on semi-frequent trips to Metz and Strasbourg with a few German friends, it was always interesting to see how we were treated by the locals: I with my _very_ poor command of heavily accented French interwoven with American English, vs. my German friends speaking with fluent, but lightly German-accented French - I was more often than not well received while the Germans were handled with a degree of rudeness that almost aspires to an art form.

This even to the point of getting offered freshly baked bread baked up at closing time (intended for consumption by the workers at the boulangerie) while my German friend was completely denied service.

C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas??

[joeb]

Thank you Lala for all your insight into the different culture of the French. I agree with every single thing you have posted and like the fact that you stick to what you know and dont just voice opinions. My wife and I have visited there often and I love the place. But just now it is becoming too expensive with the dollar euro exchange at 150 dollars to get 100 euros. And then everything is expensive just like in Italy. One big complaint is why don't they clean up after their dogs. There is an 85 euro fine for not doing so but it is not enfoced. They pay two million a year to have the dog doo cleaned up. You see dog poo all over the sidewalks of Paris in the morning and some time during the day they do come clean it up. But watch where you step early in the day in Paris on the sidewalks.
I like the French and their culture very much but they have some big problems. I think those problems are now coming to a head. And the rioters are ready to "test" Sarkozy.

[Lala]

Joeb,
I think the French purposely disobey laws that they don't like, like picking up after their dogs, it's Liberte to them. And no one tsks, tsks them.

I always walked with my eyes on the sidewalk as I once took a really bad skid on the poop.

In Nice, in the summer, they have a vacuum cleaner that is driven to clean it all up.

Also, the Mayor has all the homeless people taken to a park in the north of town in the summer where they are fed and given wine in order to keep them out of the way of the tourists.

The homeless cook their food out in the open on the sidewalks, they also leave their alms cup in their spot when they take a break. One guy always bought lottery tickets whenever he collected enough money. He disappeared for a while so we thought he had probably won.

BTW there is really no need to beg as the French have a fairly generous system for the homeless. They choose to beg rather than go to the bother, at least that's what one of my French friends told me.

[rwilymz]

"They choose to beg rather than go to the bother, at least that's what one of my French friends told me."

In a nutshell, the fallacy of the Liberal, "universal 'X' care" State.

You cannot provide "universal" anything. You either run out of resources to provide it [money to pay for the service, or components of the service itself], or you run out of tolerance/willingness of the service's recipients to collect the service.

In Parkinsonian Law terms, you run up against the Law of Diminishing Returns, or the Law of the Receding Margin. Or both.

It costs a fixed amount to provide a majority a given service; it costs exponentially more to provide each incremental portion of the minority that same service, for each new increment you add to the roles.

And some increments simply do not wish to receive the service, even if it is in their interest, and if it's free. Why? "Too much bother".

Folks who talk about "universal" benefit programs -- Universal Health Care, e.g. -- are selling snake oil. Or else they're idiots, willing to spends untold amounts of someone else's money. There are no polite terms to describe those who are willing to spend someone else's money.

[joeb]

Lala: Thanks again for your comments. I will show them to my wife. We were in Paris again this past summer and went from there to Avignon and then Nice. She likes Nice. We stayed at a nice hotel overlooking the little park right near the water. From the 5th floor at night I could see the airplanes taking off and landing from the Nice airport. Very beautiful place. She went into the old town. I did not. But I did enjoy all the restaurants nearby the Promenade Anglais. We had a fine time. No problems. They have torn up the main street in Nice to replace the old trolley system with a new trolley. She wants to go back again and also to Paris again for Christmas. We were there for Christmas with our grown children. My wife and I went to 2 masses on Christmas Day at Notre Dame. What a wonderful experience. I almost became a Catholic that day.
I will say that from watching France TV2 nightly news each night we can keep up with what is going on in France. We live near DC and there is a cable channel here that carries many overseas tv newscasts.
I think the French really do try to practice a more pure form of democracy than we do. That is they have more liberte equality and more fraternity. They practice what they preach more than we do.
Now here is one example. In Paris and in the Louvre and all of the museums we went to you can photograph and video as you please. Just no flash. And the only off limits for photographing was an exhibit of the French Crown Jewels in the Louvre. Now here in the USA at the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshorn Museum they say NO photos. They dont allow photos for shows. Why? But in Paris everyone can photograph the Mona Lisa(with their girl friends standing in front of the picture)or video it or anything else in the Louvre. Just no flash. But here it is NO photos at all. I agree Americans are in love with the word NO. French are in love with the word YES. And they tell you which grass you can sit on in the Luxembourg Gardens and which not to sit on.
I always feel freedom in Paris. More and more I feel it less and less in DC. And to all wiseacres dont tell me to move there. If I could afford it I would. I do love the USA but everyday it seems our freedoms are disappearing little by little.

[seekeronos]

"--- I think the French purposely disobey laws that they don't like, like picking up after their dogs, it's Liberte to them. And no one tsks, tsks them. ---"

Heh. No wonder there is ahistoric disconnect between the Germans and the French. That French sense of "Liberté" is like "antimatter" to the "matter" of that German sense of efficiency that borders on the anal-retentive. An un-scooped pile of doggy-doo would be enough to bring down quite the scolding (and almost certainly a fine) from the local Polizei.

"--- There are no polite terms to describe those who are willing to spend someone else's money. ---"

I think the word "thieves" might be a decent, if not altogether perfect fit.

[Lala]

The first time I went to Paris was 1972. Everyone said the French hate Americans, don't go, but my husband always wanted to so we went anyway. We reasoned that we'll just ignore them if they're mean. We had our 2 year old daughter with us and the French loved her. If we stopped people on the street to ask directions they always spoke English to us. Some went out of their way to show us where to go.

That's when I decided that the French hating Americans were a myth.

And I've been to France numerous times, even lived there twice, and I've never had a problem.

Joeb - there is a nice little hotel right near the Negresco Hotel, one block over on the Promenade and half way into the block but I forget the name. Don't be afraid to go to the two and three star hotels but always ask to look at the room before you commit. There are also apartment-hotels there which are very nice and not much more expensive, that way you can cook instead of eating out 3 times a day which gets tiring.

Nice doesn't have a lot of tourist attractions so I recommend renting a car and seeing the hill towns like Roquebrune and St. Paul de Vence, they are truly beautiful. Actually, if I moved there again I think I would live in Cannes instead of Nice, it's a lot cleaner. Or, maybe Antibes or Juan-les-Pins.

Just writing this makes me want to go back.

BTW we've seen almost all of France except the middle. We spent a month two years ago in Hossegor, a nice little town north of Biarritz on the Atlantic. We've been to Brest - leveled to the ground in WWII and rebuilt as one of the ugliest places in Europe - we've seen the parachutist on the church steeple at St Mere Eglise and the stained glass window that the US paratroopers donated to the church with little parachutes in the stained glass. We were warmly received in the whole north especially around the American cemeteries.

[joeb]

Lala: My wife and I went in August of 2004 for the 60th Liberation of Paris festivities. We were almost the only Americans there. But we had lots of fun. Marched in the parade. Lots of French actors portraying American soldier. Lots of tanks. Lots of WW2 music and dancing. We did meet some OLD French people who still LOVE Americans and remember the occupation by the Nazis. And they still love Americans for coming to save them from the Nazis.
I know some French like Americans. But they really dont like foreigners coming to stay. Just like the Japanese. You can never become "French" any more than you can become "Japanese. However,anybody can become an "American".
My wife wants to go back for Christmas. The lights are so beautiful in Paris. And I love the large department stores like Galerie Lafayette and their window displays. And large crazy crowds buying stuff in the store. And I love that department store anyway. Great restaurant cafeteria on the 6th floor.
I first went to Paris in the summer of 1964. I stayed near Rue de Seine and Rue du Buci. I go back there all the time.
Yes the French people are very polite and nice and they expect the same. The rude French waiters in Paris are just up holding that long tradition. Lala I enjoy your posts. Tell me some more about your time in France.
We went to Italy and Sicily as well as France this past summer. I am crazy in love with Sicily. And Rome and Florence also. I was there in 1964 also and it is now much much more expensive. And crowded in Rome and Florence and Venice. But not crowded at all in beautiful Sicily. All the Sicilians have left. They are over here now.

[Lala]

Joeb
Do you know that the French only have two sales per year, by government decree? They are in January and July, if memory serves me right.

In French schools there is a great emphasis on math. My daughter was 11 when she started school there. It was January 25th or so, 1995. We applied for the visas in August 1994 but they didn't come through until December.
She went into school not knowing one word of French. I knew a little, my husband none. No one in the school spoke English except the English teacher who is the sister of the New York City Fire Dept. chaplain. And my husband is a retired firefighter.

Anyway, my daughter was so surprised that she had to do math in her head, like 25 x 12. She couldn't do it at first as she had not learned the method, but she caught on. Also, the French are big on memorizing, they believe it expands the brain. She had to memorize a page of history and then stand up and recite it. They gave her a pass with only 1 page, the other kids had to memorize 5.

By April she could speak the language well enough that some people thought she was French. When I would ask her to translate for me in a shop she'd refuse and tell me that I should learn French like she did. (She's not a brat, she's just funny)

In 5th grade school is a full day except Wednesday there is no school and 3 Saturdays a month school is half-day.
We paid for lunch and it is an affair. Hot food served to the children on china with silverware. She loved the food.

Every morning she had to kiss everyone three times and then again when leaving. In 7th grade she came home for lunch so she had to kiss everyone 3 times four times a day.

Our friend got her into a music conservatory where she sang with other children. Later my friend got her into the Children's Chorus of the Opera of Nice. She did a performance of Carmen which remains her favorite opera.

The schools have lots of holidays so we used the time to travel to Spain, Germany, England, and Italy. We went to Verona, a truly lovely city, and to Juliet's house. My daughter thought it was the real thing and we went along with it. She was up in the balcony and her father was playing Romeo in the courtyard. It was a long time before I told her the truth.

In the 5th grade she also had to take Italian, so she was learning French and then being taught Italian in French. We used to drive over to Ventimiglia and San Remo for coffee and to do shopping and we were so surprised to hear her talking to the waiter in Italian.

The French were way ahead of us in 1995 in some technology. They had an EZpass system then, also all tolls could be paid by credit card. There phones didn't accept coins because they were always being vandalized so they had phone cards that slid into the public phone and the money was deducted from the phone as one talked. Our first apartment had a phone like that and I liked it because then there was no surprise as to the phone bill.

A lot of the banks around Nice had a chamber at the entrance that had to be entered in order to get into the bank. It checked for guns and explosives I think. You enter, the door behind you closes, it scans you or something, then the door to the bank opens.

I noticed that the French are passive. If they see something happen they stop and look but they don't act. One day we were having lunch in the harbor at Canes-Sur_mer and a small boat in the dock went on fire. My husband jumped up and put it out (being a fireman) but no one else made a move except to call the fire dept.

I have no hints for you for Paris. I've been there a few times, left the Louvre because it was too big, enjoyed Montmarte, etc. We were in Notre Dame with my step-daughter who is a noted book-restorer and she was appalled that they had a valuable book open and exposed to sunlight there.

I never did learn to speak French although I can read it fairly well. A French woman was trying to teach me but I found that they talk too fast and by the time I've translated what they said and then translated what I wanted to say, they switched to English.

There are no lifeguards on the beach in Nice, maybe the private places have them but not the public. If anyone is drowning the fire dept comes. I like it because I can bring a raft into the water which I can't do here where I live (at the beach).

All big shopping malls are permanently patrolled by firemen.

Once we went to Saturnia in Tuscany. We could see the sulfur springs from the road. We pulled over and changed our clothes in the car and spent a nice 3 hours in the hot water. This was in March. On our way back to Nice, two hours from Saturnia, we stopped to eat. The woman said in Italian that she knew we were in Saturnia. That's because we all stunk from sulfur.

Tuscany is just beautiful. Perugia and Assisi are gems. I'd like to rent an apartment there for a few months. Someday I'll get to Sicily. I'm always meaning to go.

[Lala]

After WWII the French took in 30000 Polish refugees who became citizens. I imagine that Hungarians were also taken in and that's how Sarkozy got there. In Nice, some people speak a dialect of Italian and French as Nice was once owned by Italy and a lot of the surnames are Italian.

We were up in Brest and the woman in the tourist office told us that there was a tour of a recently discovered German underground bunker that afternoon. We went to it but when they saw our passports they refused us entry. They said only EU members could go in. Some of the British who were waiting to go in got really angry that we weren't allowed. We went back to the tourist office and my husband told them that his father died in WWII (a lie) and the poor woman there was in tears. I felt sorry for her because she didn't know the rules apparently.

[joeb]

Lala: Great comments and information. My wife will love it and appreciate your insights.
We were in Paris last summer at the start of June and then again at the end of June. The big sale date you mention was around June 22. We went to it at the Galerie Lafayette and my wife bought some things. I just watched. I enjoyed watching the action. The females did not exactly run but they moved quickly if you know what I mean.
Your story on the school lunches and all the kissing in school coming and going are priceless. Now I wonder how could your daughter deal with coming back to the USA and the culture shock?
I always have trouble slowing down when I get to Paris. I have to not only get over the jet lag but get used to the cultural differences. Slowing down is hard for Americans. But after a day or so I am right in tune with the slower pace in France.
My mother was a high school French teacher and my wife has relatives in Belgium so that is our connection to the love of the French culture.
Here is a cute story. I met via YouTube a jazz trumpet player on line.
He lives in Paris makes wonderful jazz videos and puts them on YouTube. He is Danish(around 40 years old)and his wife is French. He is an artist also and she is a lawyer. I told him we were coming to Paris and they agreed to meet us in a cafe. He came and brought me a present of CDs of his music. I brought him a present of jazz books from the USA. She came after she got off work. We all sat in a cafe in Montparnasse from 5pm to 11pm talking and eating and drinking. That is 6 hours. Can you imagine anyone in American sitting in one cafe for 6 hours with the same people?
Many people are meeting via YouTube and then meeting for real. If they share the same interests. With Per and myself it is an interest in modern jazz music.
Do you know that rooms that cost $2.00 a night in 1964 are now around $200.00 a night. I am really glad I was there in 1964. It was required to speak French then. Now most everyone in Paris speaks and understands English. I speak a little French and so does my wife. And I can read it well enough. Italian was a little harder.
I went to Greece in the summer of 1964 and could not even read the street signs. It was so hot in August I took a train all the way through Yugoslavia to Munich. And then another train to Brussles and on to London and then up to Edinburgh where it was nice a cool in late August. I saw Marlene Detrich perform at the Edinburgh Festival that year. It sure was nice to be in Europe in the summer of 1964 young and in good health. Back here in the states the crazy 60s were getting underway.
I will show your posts to my wife. I know she will enjoy them. Thanks.